LCR-T4 component identifier tester review

[RODALCO]

That tube tester is a real beauty, great score there.

[donh]

I have one of them, I love it!
I'm color blind so picking new resistors is so easy now.

[dhpbear]

Wow. I've never seen a 'point-to-point' wired transistor radio, with SOCKETS, no less! Kudos for changing transistors in a hot circuit! I can't believe you haven't frapped one yet!

[billvanrassel]

Can't believe you have waited so long to get one of these testers. I remember that video where you had such a tough time identifying a 4.7uH inductor. Anyway, big fan of your video's.

[budandbean]

That’s a great price. I originally got one of these about five months ago just really to identify the gate, drain, and source of a N-Channel J-FET that I am using to develop a guitar internal preamp as opposed to an op-amp. These are also amazing at giving you the voltage of the gate-drain, drain-source, and source-gate junctions and checking to see if the components are within tolerance. Thanks for the informative video.

[Berre]

I have been using this tester for a couple of years now, it is the best little tester you can imagine. And dirt cheap. BTW it is more accurate than you think. It also identifies FET.

[RODALCO]

Very nice, very practical component test device. That Zenith radio with the plug in transistors is amazing.

[orange]

I got one in kit form off ebay for $15 and it's fantastic. It tests resistors, transistors, capacitors and a lot more and it's very accurate. The cap tester is great, it gives value, Vloss and esr.

[johnsampson]

Shango, this unit can be calibrated by shunting pins 1, 2, 3 together as a short and it will open up a self diagnostic mode that walks you through the process! Check it
John

[JerryEricsson]

I have had one of these for several years now. Last year I picked up a bulk pack of new parts and began sorting, so to speed things up, I split a aligator jumper and soldered the two halves and soldered to the underside inputs. Now it is easy to test components both in circuit and in bulk by simply clipping onto the legs. I could easily do another if I wanted 3 inputs but so far 2 have been plenty.

[Jayoldstuff]

awesome video I use a much older version of this tester bought about five years ago it does most things your review tester does except ESR inductance and FET's (build mine into a box with proper flying leads for testing components) like you say useful for identifying semi conductors. Ps love that mini valve tester, hope you do a video on it! would love to see it!

[iamdarkyoshi]

I own one of these, its an absolute godsend. I do modern TV repair at the age of 19 with nothing but youtube for education lol

Make yourself a little minigrabber set to put in the socket, it'll keep from killing the socket with thick leaded components

A QR code linking to this video might be a good idea too

[MrPGT]

The model I have has the three bottom left pins marked as KAA ( cathode, anode, anode) and is used for testing Zener diodes. It gives specs of 0.01v - 4.50v in the transistor test area and 0.01v - 30.0v in the Zener test area. It might be worth checking your tester out for a similar function. Mine will flash an LED during testing in the "normal" area, and keep it lit steady (connected positive to cathode) when in the Zener test area just to give you a quick idea of whether or not your tester works in a similar way. Daniu model TC-1 cased.

[BrassicGamer]

This video had absolutely no right being as interesting as it turned out to be. Thanks for the link, I'll be buying one this week :)

[DiaconescuAlexandru]

01:42 regarding the difficulty in identifying the pinout of transistors, a trick I know is to:
-Take a multimeter/ohmmeter, put it to 20kohms
-Measure the resistance between each pin of the transistor
-The BaseEmitter resistance under direct polarisation will be higher than the BaseCollector resistance under direct polarisation by a bit (usually 1kohm-2kohms)
Another trick to identify the BE and BC junctions is to remeber that the forward voltage of the BE junction is higher than that of the BC junction by a couple milivolts.
This trick works on every BJT, but for JFET's and MOSFET's you'll have to use the MTester or a catalogue.
You probably already knew these tricks but maybe others don't so now they do ! :)

[Enigma]

So you wouldn't use this to find a matching transistor pair?

[marcelfilms]

Amazing stuff for the price. Imagine what it would cost to have this kind of meter in the 90s or 80s

[dhpbear]

15:30 - Is it wise to insert transistors while the radio is powered on?

[breth]

Will never know now whether she's just going to be using the trailer in Texas ?

[JerryEricsson]

I have one of these, have had for years, and I don't know what I would do without it! To increase the usability, I added a couple of crock-clips by splitting a jumper wire in half and soldering the open ends to the bottom of the SMD reader. Works great and I needn't worry about damaging the socket by thick leads. I have considered adding a 3rd however I haven't run into a spot where I needed 3 as most transistors and FETs will fit the reader.