By far one of my favorite investments of all time. If I could have two pieces of equipment, it would be my Pinecil and this LCR meter. Its simple, you can design a 3D case for it, it just works, saving me time looking up resistor values and helps me replace unknown inductors.

Quality is poor. Just like another review, mine came with the screen held on to the board with masking tape. Without the tape the screen falls off. The chip is printed as the AT Mega 328P. The value is pretty low given the screen. The display is bright as long as the screen doesn’t fall off. Accuracy isn’t superb but gets you 80% there. Definitely isn’t worth the price I paid. It would be a deal at $6.99

Arrived with loose screen affixed by a tape. The moment I removed the tape, the glass plate came off hanging by its ribbon cable. I have to put in drops of crazy glue at the corners to make it firm & so that the glass plate wont come off. I have another one of the same but different brand so I know this one is made flimsy. It works well with transistors; diodes resisters and most capacitors but always displays a bit low value. Problem with some low value electrolytic capacitors. For e.g. a 4.7U capacitor is read as 1U. That is not acceptable unless the capacitor itself is defective.

Obviously I used it for testing components, which it is really good at (better than what I expected). It has no case, but don't let that stop you. Even as a naked little board with a 9v battery it's pretty handy. Look carefully at the version #, there are 3d print case files out there, mine was a v2, most of the files I found were older cases. Cool tester though.

Great for identifying parts

Mounted to my bench power supply using spacers and glue, then attached 3 test clips with leads and glued them down to tester. Works great and very convenient. Seems to be accurate enough for my restoration projects component testing. I bought 2 spares to have on hand as theses cheap testers tend to short out over time usually in the middle of a project. I've used many different ones over the years and these are as good as most....and cheap enough to buy back ups. Everyone I've ever has broken down at some point. Sometimes misreads a component and I have found testing a cap or resistor reboots it and it fixes the misreads.

This is an amazing piece of design. This particular transistor tester was demo'd on EEVblog (you can find it on Youtube by doing a search for the item) and was given a thumbs-up. For the price it certainly is useful.The unit I received was in a static-protected envelope, and that was placed into a small cardboard box.There are no instructions that come with the unit, at least mine had none.After unwrapping a fresh new 9V battery and connecting it to the tester I began some basic tests.Note: I have tested it using:resistors,capacitors,diodes,PNP and NPN transistorsI have not tested using inductors, or FET / MOSFETs, or power regulators which it can also test.In any case, here are my Pros vs Cons for this inexpensive semiconductor tester after using it for 20 minutes or so testing the above mentioned components:Pros:1 - Display is big and bright, very easy to read, with a very nice schematic of the device and it's pin assignments. Screen can be easily seen even in a bright environment.2 - Using NPN/PNP and diodes, I tried tricking the device's ability to detect the Collector and Emitter with transistors and it did detect the reversal (shows pin numbers reversed). Similar with diodes.3 - ZIF socket makes solid connection to pins of DUT (Device Under Test), but see under CONS below.4 - Uses an inexpensive 9v battery.5 - The component tester tests the battery on each start (but will it indicate a low battery?).6 - Tests more than transistors, such as resistors, diodes, fets, mosfets, inductors, regulators.7 - The test switch is also the turn-on switch.8 - Test results were accurate and revealing for the various components I tested.Cons:1 - No case! Working with it is like trying to pin down a mouse that won't stay still. A case would help.2 - The ZIF socket (Zero Insertion Force socket) certainly is one way to provide a "fixture" to plug the DUT (Device Under Test) into, but it's very kludgy IMO, and you can wind up spending more time than you should getting the pins of the DUT entered properly, especially if you've got thick fingers, and I don't). In addition, a ZIF socket is a bit of a costly part as compared to providing a simpler method such as 3 headers to attach leads to. 3 terminals, rather than a ZIF socket would make it easier to work with and perhaps lower it's price even more.3 - A bit tricky to get small device's pins into the ZIF because it uses just the first 3 pins, 1,2,and 3, of the ZIF socket, the rest of the ZIF socket's pins are unused and are wasted.4 - The screen is very bright, and though it looks great it no doubt uses lots of current. And even in a bright room it's very easy to see.5 - A screen dimmer would be nice to save battery power.6 - Tester automatically turns off a few seconds after a test is completed. (probably to save battery power)Overcoming the CONS:Obviously, some of these cons, such as adding a case, or adding additional parts, would raise the price. But it would be nice if it was available as an option.But you can, of course, modify or expand the basic board yourself if you feel inclined to do so, just be careful not to hit the unit with static charges or create any solder bridges.One challenge IMO would be creating a case. If you're good with mechanical CAD then designing a custom case using and creating it with a 3D printer would be the approach.Unknowns:1 - Will the tester indicate a too-low battery to use? I didn't try the tester with a lower-voltage 9v battery.2 - Will the test results be skewed by a low battery voltage? Again I didn't try using a low voltage 9v battery.3 - Battery consumption: I didn't measure the current being used.4 - How accurate the ESR measurements on capacitors is, and hFE on bipolar transistors.5 - I didn't compare the resistance and capacitance results with my reference HP-3478a 6.5 digit multimeter.Conclusion:Overall, if you don't want to spend a small fortune on a semiconductor/device tester and your budget is minimal, for less than $20 this little tester is remarkable for the price. It's great for sorting parts, identifying resistor values on hard-to-read resistors or capacitors, getting more accurate capacitor values than printed, as well as an getting an estimated ESR. Getting very basic info and identification of PNP/NPN transistors, especially for matching purposes is a really great feature as well.If you're looking for a semiconductor tester that's even more accurate and can plot device curves this is not the tester for you; But with the above cons to keep in mind, and for less than $20, this is a remarkable little tester and worthwhile investment that will help you if you're an electronics hobbyist or pro. Get one, you'll love it, really.

This tester is a little marvel! I am a hobbyist and so far it has accurately detected everything I've tested. I've seen online reviews that are favorable but have found that there are components that it doesn't understand. The value it returns won't be as accurate as a Fluke or Brymen meter, but it is generally fairly close to the value you expect. If you are doing very precise measuring you should be using an advanced, pricy meter.For the $12.50 price, it even returns an ESR value for electrolytic capacitors. How accurate? I'm not sure but when I need it, I measure for the best value. I close my eyes and believe that the ESR is determined the same way for every test and I find a relatively derived value.There are versions of this type of tester that allow for some calibration. I've not been able to find a way to calibrate this one. Not a show stopper at all for this easy to use, cheap, and handy little bench tool.

As described