This little guy is the greatest thing to happen to electrical projects since the invention of the hammer.  If you are like me, you have a million components on your bench or bins for electronic repairs, upgrades, and circuit design.  I stumbled across this tester on a forum and quickly ordered myself one from ebay.  You can find it by searching for LCR tester.  Why is it the best tool to add to your collection?  Well let me tell you….

    

First, it measures values of resistors and Capacitors (including ESR) with the push of a button.

 

It also does diodes…

   

But BEST OF ALL!  It tells you if  transistors, MOSfets, and the like are good.  But also tells you the values you need to work with these components in your projects.   This is why it’s the best thing since the hammer.  I have tons of components I’ve pulled from boards to use in projects, but finding data sheets etc is a pain.  This makes life easy, especially for breadboard proof of concept and educational circuit design experiments.

The LCR tester comes as a loose board, and is very cheap. I think mine was $15 shipped.  It runs on a 9V battery, and I printed a case on my 3D printer. I’ll find the model and share it here later.  This little device belongs on everyone’s electrical project bench (or toolbox).

 

PROJECT SNEAK PEAK:

 

Partially so I can find the driver board specs in the future, but I’ve been playing with Lasers for the last 6-9 months working on some different types of rapid prototyping machines.  More to follow but the sneak peak photos show some of my test parts as a tease.