How To Easily Build Your Own FET

Tester
There is no doubt that nowadays we are seeing more
FETs being used in the electronic equipment. FETs
can be found in the power section, LCD inverter, UPS,
Amplifier, Monitor B+ and S-correction circuit, ATX
power supplies and etc. When this component fails,
one has to use a meter to test it to check if it is good,
shorted, open or leaky. The meters can be a normal
multimeter, specialize FET tester like the Peak Atlas
Tester, Sencore Cricket Tester, B & K transistor tester
and etc. The specialize testers are expensive and
most of it could helps you to automatically identify
the pins of the FET (gate, drain or source). If you use
a normal multimeter, you have to identify the pins
on your own. Assuming if you do not know the pin
out of the FET, you can always check from the data
book or even from the internet. If you want more
information about FETs, you can clickHERE to visit
Wikipedia website.
 Typical example of specialize transistor tester
Okay, this month newsletter is about building your
own FET tester and this article was contributed by
Mr Behzad.

FET Tester Schematic Diagram

This is a simple and easy to build FET tester. It can test N-

CHANNEL and P-CHANNEL FET . These are the following
components that you need:
1) 2 pcs of red color LED
2) 1pc of green color LED
3) 1pc of DPDT switch (DPD T stands for Double Pole,
Double Throw)
4) 1 pc of On/off switch
5) 1 potentiometer 10k ohms
6) 2pcs of resistor 470 ohms 1/4 watt
7) 1pc of resistor 470 K ohms 1/4 watt
8) 2 IC sockets- 8 pins dip
9) 1 small pc of project/circuit board
10) 1 pc of knob for the potentiometer
11) 1 Project box
12) 1 pc of 9 volt battery
13) 1 pc of 9 volt battery holder/connector
The IC sockets are good for holding the FET during testing
time. We use just three pins of each sock et for the Gate (G),
Drain (D) and Source (S). One sock et is for N-CHANNEL FET
and the other one for P-CHANNEL FET . The DPDT switch is
good for changing the mode of tester from testing N to P-
CHANNEL FET. Another advantage of this tester is that if
you have been using multimeter to test on FETs, you will
find that our hands is too big for the small FET pins (T O- 92
Case). Thus b y inserting the small FETs into the IC sock et,
you will eliminate the error of one finger touching on
another pin during testing time using the multimeter.

Test Result
If the FET is shorted one of the red LED will lit. In order to
confirm that the FET under test is good even if you
increase the potentiometer to maximum the red LED
should not lit otherwise the FET is bad or leaky . For a good
FET the green LED will light up.
Thank you
Behzad
==============
Conclusion- A ccording to Behzad, the meter was easy to
build and the cost was very cheap too. If you have the
time, try build one and see how useful this tester is. This
tester diagram was provided b y Zed Pato and Mr Behzad
from Iran who had assembled it. Zed Pato is from the
Philippines and he is a electronic repairer and you could
visit his blog b y clicking HERE.
Note: If you are a electronic repairer or hobbyist and wish
to publish your electronics article for the monthly repair
newsletter you are welcome to email me.