M328 Transistor Tester Review & Teardown!

Transistor Tester based on the cheap M328 innards doesn't live up to it's colorful exterior.
No in circuit testing here...A lonely 1.5 Stars!

[Omega_Mark]

About the wobbly ZIF socket on this tester. Notice at 1:19 the bottom of the socket. It has 7 pads that stick out. 6 on the sides and 1 in the center (between pins). The ZIF socket tips over the center pad, as side pads hang off the socket of the tester. Gently scrape off the center pad (just this one) off the socket to make that surface smooth. The plastic is pretty soft, so it's easy to do. Just make sure you don't bend the pins. Now, put the socket in. Make sure the lever is up (unlocked) and pull out the socket. Now the socket pins are the longest sticking out. Put the lever down (locked) and now the pins are locked in place. Insert the socket as is into the tester. Now the socket should not wobble and the pins should be inserted the farthest into the tester. If you want to make the connection more permanent, use a dab of glue from a glue gun on both sides of the ZIF socket. It is better to use the ZIF socket, as you can easily replace it. You are asking for trouble, If you use the plug in the tester, as you will have more trouble replacing it.
It took me longer to type this out than to fix the ZIF socket ;).

[Marine]

I got a similar kit off Ebay but it is the GM328 model which has a few extra features like a rotary encoder for easier navigation and a simple square wave generator. I think it was only like $16 usd shipped but it is a DIY kit and I think the assembled ones are a bit more like $21-23.

The nice thing about it being a DIY kit is that you have a lot of room for customization. For example I just completely omitted the standard blue clamping mechanism and instead just soldered in some banana jacks and it works great. With some slight modification to the included acrylic case it basically looks like it came that way.

[leohobbleohobb]

Use 1 and 3 when testing capasitors on the Bside, think you will see more parameters/data show up on the display

[rinqucosta]

Very nice review.. Yes we need on board testing capabilities with ESR value

[Omega_Mark]

My tester shows around 7.3 Volts (like yours) for the 9V battery (brand new ... reads as 9.3V in my other tester). I have the same color tester as in this video. The black one in other videos shows 9V correctly. Is there something screwy with this particular color tester (different firmware or some other fault)? If this simple reading is off by 2 Volts, what else could be wrong? Hmm...

[ArthurZacchia]

I got one for 12 dollars, for the price well worthit. I had to super glue the zif socket in place. Other then that it's perfect for the money.

[MrCacciLLo]

Does anyone know at which Frequency is Inductance tested with this unit? thank you so much

[unlokia]

These are £10.58 *delivered* on Amazon UK. I can't agree with you that they're bad value for that price, and yes - mines equally as sloppy regards internal build quality, but it works well, and I'd rather have a _replaceable_ ZIF socket that I can pull out and throw away, than need to solder in a new one.

[algreen]

Any suggestion about M328 v.2.4 selftest? Cannot find instruction pdf...

[derektodd]

Totally agree with you Darren, it won't be going on my list.

[dmcbohol]

any way to reflash this with a new or current firmware?

[crazyksp]

There is much better units out there.
I think this thing doesn't worth the money.

[shawbros]

The background music is irritating and does not improve the video,