FNIRSI LCR-P1 Component Tester Review/Teardown, Compared to the LCR-T4

00:00 Overview
01:15 Zener diodes testing
05:43 IR decoding
07:44 Measuring resistors
11:26 Measuring capacitors
17:20 Measuring inductors
17:54 Voltage measurement
19:26 Measuring diodes/LEDs
20:48 MOSFET/BJT/SCR testing
23:34 SMD components testing
25:28 Teardown, conclusions

[RobsonWilliam]

ATTENTION! For people that want to buy this little toy, or for the ones that already have it, I experienced a fault with this unit after a little more of a month. Yesterday I was testing some caps and after a few tests, it got stuck in short, showing the resistor symbol, with INDUCTANCE text, and values of 0.1~0.3 ohm and 0.0uH between terminals 1 and 2.
I opened the device, took some few measurements and rapidly noticed that the relay was not opening in one of the sides. Since I didnt have a replacment like that, a just give it some "percusion assistance" (I tapped hard one the top of the relay) and it came back to life. It is a easy fix if you encounter that situation. In the next days, I will replace that relay with a OMRON one.

I bought it after watching this channel and some others that I follow.

Hope this helps!

[galileo_rs]

Lookup the documentation for the original "transistor tester" project. If you do a few modifications and calibrate it, it becomes quite useful for measuring small capacitors and inductors (with a reference cap).

[johnwest]

I'd buy one of the $8 to $15 ones. (I already have a couple.) I'd say they do very nearly as much, and apparently quicker and more accurately than this one. Speed and convenience are what I see as the value in a cheap component tester. If I'm only looking at 1 or 2 devices, a minimal test bench can accurately, (within a percent or so, ) measure most anything. As for testing Zeners, any bench supply with both current and voltage adjustment can easily do that. For $30 for a component tester I'll wait for one that actually does more, quicker, and more accurately than my $10 one does. I'm not looking for a tester that may read things 20% (or more) off. For a cheap tester, 2% to 5% accuracy is fine and easily doable these days. But this one isn't even doing that. Plus, it appears slower than my cheap tester that cost 1/3 as much. I can tell you from experience that when you have a bag of 500 or 1000 surplus parts to sort out you want the tester to be as quick as possible. This one isn't at all quick. So think about it before you buy. You can buy a lot of parts for the $20 difference between testers. A $30 tester is getting up towards the price of a NanoVNA, which can do most of this, and MANY other things, and more accurately, although less conveniently. Just my own opinion of what I'd advise a noob in the hobby, but it has half a century of electronics experience behind it.

[davidv]

Thank you for the review and look inside. I bought one of these recently mainly for the zener test mode and the rechargeable battery. I believe the chip next to the battery charge controller may be a USB comm chip - these have firmware update capability and I hope Fnirsi corrects that start-up problem first! ESR readings are really dependent on test frequency, so I would not be too worried about variation between testers. Regards, David

[bhairavi-maa]

If you need precision when measuring inductors and capacitors I highly suggest the AADE L/C meter. It's pretty accurate down to the puff.

Great review. I haven't seen one packaged like that before. I got one of the cheap clones to replace my OG atmega one. I wouldn't trust it to do things like sort transistors by hfe. The IR decoding is gimmicky feature creep. It's nice for sorting bjt's by type and getting pinout for when you forget the order. Thanks for the video.

[barrybogart]

Just ordered one @ $35Cdn and free shipping, It doesn't look like a toy like my old one! Thanks.

[jimwolsiffer]

I grabbed one as price was so cheap! Waiting for it to arrive and add I to the bench.

[kharlosify]

My LCR-P1 freezes when trying to measure IGBTs. I am forced to open and remove the battery to get it back to normal. The IGBT I tried to measure is a K40EH5. I am disappointed. I updated to the latest version 1.0.6 and nothing changed.

[pault]

In theory, you only need to press test once: Put the part in first, then press test. For the FNIRSI display, not sure why they need to make the text so small. There is a lot of unused space on the screen. The numbers are hard to distiguish (5 from 6, 8 from 0, etc) I like the older tester display better. I always test my components twice when using these types of testers. Many times they get it wrong randomly, such as a diode instead of inductor, IGBT instead of transistor, etc. OK for general sorting/binning parts - but not OK for checking the quality of a component before use. Wow, that flex circuit inside the device looks heavily creased. I'm surprised it still works!

[wtmayhew]

I wonder how much of the code in the “transistor tester” project from a fe years ago is the basis of the LCR-P1? Some of the screen displays look very similar. The boost converter to allow testing higher voltage junctions is a nice addition. I just wish FNIRI would spend a little moe time up front debugging products. So many of their items are so close…. Their Geiger counter which is about $40 +/- is still one of my favorites. I use the Geiger counter for qualitative measurements so it is great for the price.

[derdoktor]

I own several generations of the original LCR-Testers and a good high end LCR meter as well and the Peak curve tracer. The newer LCR-testers come with DS1802 temperature decoding and other additional functions.
But I got the FNIRSI because of the high quality enclosure. That‘s what I like. The display has a lot of room for improvement, I don’t understand why the chinese products always use this kind of hard to read fonts!

[FordSeniorMaster]

Kerry,
Love your videos!
You are ALWAYS honest, very pleasant and have a great speaking voice.
Keep doing what you do best!👍🏻
Learn a LOT from watching you.

[johnfitzpatrick]

G, day From Sydney Australia. Good review, new components should be from the data sheet soldered into the PCB: Check first.
🌏🇦🇺

[StainleyLebron]

Hi Kerry, you should update your firmware, your version is 1.0.2 and the latest is 1.0.6.

20240726
1.0.2:
1. Improve some abnormalities in thyristor testing
2. Improve some abnormalities in transistor measurement
3. Modify the time difference between measurement and display devices

20240802
1.0.3
1. Improve small resistance test abnormality

20240820
1.0.4
1. Increase the measurable range of single thyristor

20240902
1.0.5
1. Modify the display disorder of double diodes
2. Modify the display disorder of small resistance

20241021
1.0.6
1. Modify the problem of inaccurate test accuracy of 20K to 50K resistor

[charlesdorval]

I agree on the IR part, it's a gimmick unless it can tell you what protocol it uses, etc ...
IR isn't nearly as simple as most people assume it is

[simontay]

Whats the point of it reading IR codes if you can't save them to program a learning remote with.

[andymouse]

I have the LCR-TC2 and I swear it's faster ! and works with IR and Zeners. However this unit seems fine too, I like the detachable test fixture and it would be no problem at to make your own fixtures. This made me think It would be dead easy to make an adapter for any of them ! just use the standard ZIF measurements. hit KICAD then JLCPCB and bingo ! Roberts your relative. Cheers Kerry.

[glenncummings]

.
Mine has an error confirmed by FNIRSI.
It misidentifies the pin number with the EBC.
.

[darmawanutomo]

Is it necessary to discharge big capacitor before measuring?

[brouwereric]

The LCR-P1 is a great addition to any workbench. Not the best, but far from the worst. Ideal l for any hobbyists not having the money for high-end test equipment.