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IC tester recommendation

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2PAC Mafia

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Hi guys,

due to my job of repairing all kind of marine and industrial electronic boards I´m going to buy an IC tester. I´ve been checking some from China and I´m looking for a complete one (digital and analog devices) spending around 300€ as a maximum (that is my idea).

Do you have some good recommendation?

Regards.
 
I can't recommend one, but since any versatile tester will be software-controlled you may also need to budget for software upgrades to account for very recent and future IC types.
 
What do you hope to achieve with it?, will it test the IC's in circuit? (I doubt it), will it accurately check all the IC's you want it to (again I doubt it) - I've been repairing TV's and various domestic/professional electronics for decades and never seen any use in such a device?.

As I see it the only way to accurately test an IC is to replace it, or try the IC in an identical known working unit - and obviously normal fault finding usually narrows it down to a specific IC before you get to that point.
 
I share Nigel's doubts as to how useful it would be. There are so many IC types available that no single tester could hope to check more than a small fraction of them. And what sort of tests would be done? In the case of logic gates for example, obvious tests would include applying all possible combinations of logic states to inputs and checking for correct outputs. But would such things as propagation delay, temperature sensitivity, supply voltage sensitivity, maximum operating frequency, interference susceptibility, fan-out, circuit loading effects etc be tested? With analogue ICs there are so many variables which can affect performance that the number of combinations of values of those variables is huge, and it is difficult to see how conclusive tests could be devised for a wide selection of ICs.
 
Hi guys,

due to my job of repairing all kind of marine and industrial electronic boards I´m going to buy an IC tester. I´ve been checking some from China and I´m looking for a complete one (digital and analog devices) spending around 300€ as a maximum (that is my idea).

Do you have some good recommendation?

Regards.

Hi,

Yes i have a recommendation, dont buy one :)

Seriously, usually an IC tester will be for some specific IC, specific family of IC's, or an application specific IC that happens to be used in some company somewhere and they found that it would be advantageous to production to have one or more IC testers for the specific set of IC's they use in their products.

So when you say, "...all kinds of boards", you would really have to research this out and find what kinds of chips they use and then maybe you could find a set of testers that would do all of them. This depends so much on the nature of the boards and the IC's that they use that it is just impossible to recommend anything without knowing the full product line.

When i worked in the industry i designed two (or more) testers for a specific product line for use in fast production testing. The testers were only for a few different boards yet they had specific details about them that any run of the mill tester could NEVER predict what would be required for testing because of some of the intricate details of the individual boards.

The only possibility i can think of would be a programmable tester, that could be programmed to test for various criteria like rise time, delay time, etc., but i dont imagine that would be too cheap. There would also be some mechanical issues such as making contact with the correct test points, sockets, etc.

So you see it would be very expensive to design something that could test everything or at least most things, but if you narrow your product range then you can think about designing something yourself perhaps.

Another quick example would be that some test point may be required to exhibit a certain waveform for a given input stimulus. You'd need a scope in addition to a general test set.

Every manufacturer i ever worked for built their own 'jigs' for testing individual products quickly mostly because there's nothing except a human that can test everything, and only then with the right general test equipment and procedures :)
 
I agree with Nigel, Alec and MrAl.

JimB
 
I can certainly understand the desire for an "IC tester" in electronics repair. (former consumer electronics repair and now in Avionics)
As it has been said here, there is simply no practical"one size fits all" solution despite all the advertisement. Way too many devices/specifications/packages not counting Digital Vs Analog.
As far as in-circuit testing goes, unless you have specific applications, it is simply not worth the trouble or the expense.
There is one specific instrument(PinpointII made by Diagnosys) that we utilize at work on a daily basis and it does a very good job in finding defective components on very dense boards. These are boards costing in tens of thousands and the expense is well justified.
While it has it's advantages, it is way beyond the average budget and has a rather steep learning curve. It is a windows based instrument, using specific IC algorithms and techniques such as "guarding" and "back driving" to test active components in circuit. While it has a massive library, some still need to be programmed by the user.
On a much smaller scale, you can always go with a universal programmer which may also have a vector testing for standard Digital series (outside the circuit only) and is user editable. I use an older B&K 846 mainly for programming but it has vector test.
And last but not least, a typical VOM along with component's datasheet can be your best troubleshooting aid.
 
The most useful IC tester tool, I believe for you would be a Huntron tracker.
Training required.
 
Thanks for all your answers. May be I didn´t explain well, I know is it not possible to get a tester for all kind of IC, I´m only looking for a tester that can help me to test different IC families, digital and some analog as amplifiers, optos... testing the components out of board.
I work as an electronic repairer without any drawing help usually as the market is so extend, so many brands and modules or equipment types that there is no way to get schematics from manufacturers. I don´t mean consumer electronics, I don´t touch it usually.
I work alone trying to repair marine and industry equipment so ECU´s, displays, throttles, battery chargers, lift boards, inverters... I don´t know, whatever is not cheap or there is not support behind or obsolete, this is how I can earn money for me and my family, it´s hard but it´s working...
Sometimes I work on boards from a complete system which need to be on system connected to get power, communication, I/O but customer is only giving the damaged board, no info, sometimes you can connect power sometimes not, so the only way is to test by components.

I´ll enjoy to work with info from each board or equipment I get to be repaired or at least always same brand or same philosophy but that´s not the case.
I work by reverse engineering and datasheet from each component. This is my small company but at least I work on real electronics world, not only exchanging modules or boards as I did on the old company I worked for.

Last example, a control unit from a marine autopilot, they know the problem is in the control unit by using another one and the system worked perfectly. Control unit 3600€ and they have to wait 4 weeks to get a new one from the manufacturer (too much because they want to go to Monaco Grand prix with the yacht) so my way of trying to repair is by changing some communication components, supervisor IC, amplifiers... I would like to remove and test them before changing, sometimes you have luck and the problem is on an IC my universal programmer can test, it won´t be the first time it happen. If I repair I can cash 1400€ and everybody happy!!!
It´s only an example as I have it now in my workshop.
This a unit I found interesting:

**broken link removed**

I have LCR, scope, signal generator, universal programmer, soldering station, let´s say standard equipment to repair general electronics so as my universal programmer is cheap and tester part is not very powerful I would like to invest on a IC tester to have more probability of successfull on my repairs.

After this, if you have some better idea than can help me it would be great!!! I hope now you can understand my situation as I see you have experience and work for some big companies with info, trainings, collegues to share experience, this is not my case, I have only one guy who works similar as me on the island. Thanks and regards.
 
Why would you want to spend so much money on such a useless thing? It only does a handful of nowadays pretty much obsolete digital ICs, and a few others digital ICs I don´t even recognize. Also it can do optocouplers, but I doubt it can find ones which have degraded beynd their specs.
Also, do you realize you would need to desolder said IC and put it in the socket to test it? And that today everything is SMD and no chip anymore is packaged in a DIP package, so you can´t test those without some elaborate adapter?
 
OK, in example, I have a 2 Schindler lift boards, only:
ULN2003A x 4

14584B x 6

14081B x 4

14512B x 4

14071B x 1

14025B x 1

9428 220K x 3

9427 10K x 1

9412 4,7K x 2

9431 100K x 2

Do you know another way to test them? I know I have to desolder them and put in an adapter (I already have adapters SMD to DIP). My work depends on repairing as much as possible, if you refuse jobs or fail repairing you loose customers, I don´t know how you will do it, may be you can give me a better idea.
 
2PAC Mafia,

I suspect you know best what ICs you encounter in your repair activities. And I suspect that the PCBs (or systems) you encounter are not populated with exactly "state-of-the-art" components. I could be wrong, of course, but...

That said, I'll assume that the device you posted (YBD868-EN, available from alibaba) has the device library and functionality you need. It's not upgradeable (as were the ABI Electronics devices) but, again, it's your call. It is clearly stated what it will do (and by inference, what it won't do) so if it meets your criteria, and you can afford it, follow your business sense.

I admire that you're actually making a living doing this level of repairs; it says a lot about your technical expertise.

<EDIT> Just saw your last post about "Schindler lift boards". Anything "low rise" elevator (just a few floors) related will be designed very conservatively, further convincing me you'll encounter more common "tried and true" components, like those that might be tested with the device you listed above.
 
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Hi Cowboybob,

I can have almost all kind of electronic board designed for marine or industrial equipment were I have the option to earn money depending on the situation. Of course if I have to repair a board plenty of BGA processors, memories or special chips or very low SMD scale or a lot of layers I can´t go deeper on that, it has no sense, but there are plenty of boards, designs, 5 year, 10 year, 15 year boards from boats, factories, airports or whatever where you can try to repair because prices are not as cheap as consumer electronics because they are special designed for each system. Always depends on the equipment, situation about what you are trying to repair, sometimes you invest a week to repair a board and earn 150€ and sometimes you invest an hour to earn 2000€, depending on a lot of things.
As you said I can afford 250€ and it will be useful for me to increase my workshop repair possibilities, I´m more lazy about spending more, may be in the future.
About my knowledge, is not so much as you can think, I have only technician study but now around 20 years involved in electronics and always trying to learn and improve. I can assure you on this forum is plenty of people more clever than me, higher knowledge and experience but my company has almost 2 years and I can live confortable working for myself and enjoying electronics so I´m happy and proud about what I get. You can see some of my jobs at my web page www.restoretronic.com. Thanks for your comments.
 
Tony, Huntron tracker and similar equipment would be very useful but too expensive I guess. Thanks anyway.
 
You can see some of my jobs at my web page www.restoretronic.com. Thanks for your comments.

You're more than welcome, 2PAC Mafia.

Although I do speak nor read Spanish, I can still discern from your website that you have worked with an impressive array of equipment.

And the boats are definitely not "old school" (nor cheap), so I would expect them to have very sophisticated electronics.

Best of wishes for your business :cool:!
 
Tony, Huntron tracker and similar equipment would be very useful but too expensive I guess. Thanks anyway.

You can emulate a Huntron tracker almost free with a scope and Diode tester measuring current with a 50mV shunt R to x1 in vs V on XY mode then apply sine wave signal via a pot.

You also need a good vacuum desolder station.

The chinese tester is only worthwhile for socket IC's . You may risk damage otherwise if not ESD careful.

best test method is between your ears. use analog or digital datasheet for out vs input on each pin and walk around each pin to look for valid signals. Inject pulses. Dont even need schematics.

I havent found any electronics I cant fix after learning from my own design flaws in my early days. Unless its epoxy bonded chip and not worth the rework effort. My first test was a guitar synthesizer all 20 chips sanded on top, so no P.N. Circa '76.. Took me 2 hrs .. Bad design on level shifter from bipolar analog to Digital... analog control flanger changed R to Schmitt trigger, voila. If you get a Radar unit or big ticket item ... Send me a jingle.
 
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