DIY transformer/inductor tester

[@miscojones35]

I learn more in one of your videos that I've ever learned studying electronics in school... Great video as always.

[@tiborbogi7457]

I see this comment almost under any DGW video. ;-) I enjoy these videos too, especially cats comments.

[@mohammedalshrief532]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/hKjYimqnl9hles2gine follower robot💝

[@user-et1vj1oz3f]

Idem i' m 16

[@velceaiulian6439]

@@user-et1vj1oz3f Many more and be healthy ! :)

[@user-et1vj1oz3f]

@@velceaiulian6439 thank you same for you!

[@iamdarkyoshi]

Definitely going to have to build one of these. I fix old TVs and related junk, finding shorted flybacks would be very useful.

[@jonciobanu4546]

Amazing demonstration of designing, making, and explaining how the tester works.

[@JoseSilveira-newhandleforYT]

Very interesting. This is a revamped version of the old school analog flyback testers used in TV repair. Good explanation too.

[@hullinstruments]

I wonder of its similarities or differences from the “blue“ flyback ring tester

[@tullgutten]

IMPRESSIVE performance! Never tought it would see one shorted turn

[@ZilogBob]

One shorted turn makes a huge difference to the number of "rings".

[@hullinstruments]

Mr. diode sir… I know you’re a busy man… But I would be so happy if you made some more general troubleshooting videos. About fixing power supplies and common stuff like that. They help me so much and they are very interesting to watch! You are one of the best teachers!

[@Speeder84XL]

Awesome work! I have never taught about that inductors and transformers can be tested for shorted turns that way

[@edgeeffect]

With projects like this, I like to download the C source code and re-write it in assembly language... but with your projects, you've already done all the good work. ;)

[@DiodeGoneWild]

I'm glad somebody else also appreciates assembly ;)

[@WKMasterGamer]

I've been watching your videos for long now, I like your voice and accent, it's so charming. Also, I want to be a engineer so watching your videos would definitely help me!

[@embeddedsystemsiotprojects2055]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/hKjYimqnl9hles0

[@embeddedsystemsiotprojects2055]

Pid line follower

[@mohammedalshrief532]

@@embeddedsystemsiotprojects2055 gooood job 👌

[@jamescollier3]

You once said you never went to school for electronics. This is even more impressive!!

[@mik310s]

Absolutely fantastic little circuit, I will be making one this weekend :)

[@jayvadgama7076]

Something DIY after long time.😀 Great video with great explaining.

[@jimmygaligao2994]

A great tool for testing shorted turns in transformer and inductor, worth to build one, thanks for sharing.

[@hullinstruments]

Wonder how this varies from the “blue2“ Bob Parker ring flyback tester? Always love it when Danyk talks about test equipment. Especially DIY test gear

[@sw6188]

I still have the original Bob Parker designed unit (released through Silicon Chip and Dick Smith Electronics) which is the shorted turns tester that he designed for testing flyback transformers. It works on a similar principle - a low frequency pulse generator that applies that to the coil or transformer under test and the number of 'rings' is counted and shown on a display. In the case of my unit it has a bargraph and uses transistors, an op-amp and a CMOS IC. The unit presented here uses a PIC microprocessor and presents the results on dual 7-segment displays.

[@vaclavtrpisovsky]

@@sw6188 This μcontroller's architecture is AVR, not PIC.

[@sw6188]

@@vaclavtrpisovsky Sorry, I wasn't aware of the AVR type of microcontroller. Technology leaves me behind some days!

[@mohammedalshrief532]

Line follower kzbin.info/www/bejne/hKjYimqnl9hles0

[@DiodeGoneWild]

I looked it up.... it seems similar, but a bit overcomplicated, and it probably counts the rings down to a lower threshold, resulting in more counts.

[@DerTabak]

Nice scope. And cool idea/principle for measuring.

[@Killerspieler0815]

Nice ! And this bodged circuit is far more useful than most ebay/amazon phone chargers.

[@velceaiulian6439]

Wow! I see you have a digital Tektronix ! Good for you ! This video (the project) seems amazing to me. Definitely in the near future I will start doing this tester, because it is absolutely necessary for a somewhat advanced electronics technician. I had problems at work with medium and large SMPS transformers, and the owner of the company did not make the slightest effort to equip us with absolutely no device in this regard. He didn't want to invest in anything. A stingy man you rarely meet. Almost all my attempts, with or without success, I did with my own control equipment and my components brought from home. In the majority. Now that I'm free and I got rid of him, now with no plausible future, last week with all the dust and smoke "outside", I had the crazy courage to order a RIGOL DS1054Z, to take revenge on all the unfinished projects and ideas, and to resurrect all my dead devices which have been gathering lately. My old oscilloscope is (was) a 10 MHz - C1-94 - analog russian that I have repaired twice in the high voltage inverter of the cathode ray tube, and yet somehow he came up with the idea of ​​"piercing" itself in the mains transformer, on its own, which disgusted me completely to fix it. However, even in perfect condition, it is still morally obsolete and no longer worth it. So, this is a must have. 10Q with the ideea in another clip about the ESR tester. I made it ! ;) And to be naughty : Is there a B-H coil saturation tester ? :D

[@zaprodk]

What a fantastic informative video. I have to build one of these - soo handy!

[@widyahong]

finally diode gone wild teaching on youtube using avr mcu 🔥

[@Basement-Science]

Really useful device! I might have to make one some time. Some of the Atmel MCUs (including Atmeg 328) also have an internal comparator which would be more versatile than a regular input pin. You could use it to make the threshold selectable in software (combined with a simple PWM DAC).

[@Ales.2000]

You could also use comparator like LM393 connected to 4026 counters and 7seg display. However, these counters don't have the latch mode. 4553 would be great, but they are expensive and hard to get.

[@Basement-Science]

@@Ales.2000 I'm sure you could do it that way without a MCU, but I think it is well worth using the MCU for a device like this. In many ways it is simpler that way in my opinion. You dont need a bunch of specific logic chips and a complex schematic.

[@jp040759]

Nice project. Liked the build process being shown. Nice project. I think I will just make a jig with 555 to pulse the coil and use my scope to count rings manually. Great idea. THANX.

[@curiousflight5923]

This is the most amazing video on your chanel. Using theory to make a useful device is great. I watch your video regularly and wait for your next video . Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge.

[@jkvdv4447]

Cant you calculate the inductance too by measuring the oscillation frequency? Then you can use the LC equation to determine the value of the inductance.

[@eDoc2020]

This is such a great idea. Previously I've tested coils by manually putting a charged capacitor across them and watching an oscilloscope. This would be so much easier, especially since I don't have a storage oscilloscope. Maybe I'll build a hybrid version which just pulses the MOSFET with a 555 to ring the coil and then hooks up to the oscilloscope.

[@DiodeGoneWild]

Yes, you can just put pulses from a 555 oscillator into the gate, and use no counter, just watch it on a scope. If it's an analog scope, it's better to use a higher frequency to make it better visible. Maybe 50Hz.

[@paulf1071]

@@DiodeGoneWild Was the MCU code difficult to write for this ringer-tester, in order to get the timing right?

[@netten2053]

@@DiodeGoneWild can u please make it with a 555 ? i have an analoge scope 🙏

[@Tirdad1981]

Brilliant! Thank you for sharing this and teaching us.

[@christophernetherton9389]

Excellent video. Thank you for all of the visuals!

[@wurgervomlichtenmoor5073]

Very good idea. Last I used inductance tester and change frequency wich cause large inductance drop on the defect transformer at higher frequencies. For transormers with airgap I use a charged capacitor and current sense resistor to measure saturation current at romm temperature. You can clearly see the ramp up and the point wehre current rise is faster.

[@anandakrishnan9462]

Will you please do video regarding to the conversion of TL 494 /KA 7500 powered half bridge SMPS to adjustable bench power supply with current control.

[@6p1p]

Nice device , also can use to find out the transformer self resonant frequency by connect to scope..

[@hidayathmydin4676]

Thanks for this simple & efficient circuit.. 👌😀

[@faridsafazadeh1137]

great educational clips just like always. Thank you soooo... much for sharing. You are amazing.

[@two_number_nines]

25:44 I think the first 2 pins that are the most spaced out from the rest and eachother are the primary.

[@DiodeGoneWild]

It's the case in most IHVT's, but not in this one. The second pin seems to be unused.

[@two_number_nines]

@@DiodeGoneWild can you somehow test how many primary turns generic crt flybacks have? I am experimenting with CFL driver resonant converters driving crt flybacks and induction heaters and so far all my attempts with custom transformers fail, meanwhile a CRT flyback is plug and play when I reuse the factory primary.

[@emanuilsirakov2079]

Is it possible to teach some assembler with Atmel AVR? You have quite a few projects on your website, comments in the program are in CZ. I think if you do some series on these projects explaining your thought process in programming of the microcontrollers, we can learn a lot. There seem to be no good videos anywhere on the net, connecting assembler with electronics projects.

[@robson6285]

Wow, that cat is always right! Indeed time for some insightgiving scopepictures! But what a great and superusefull idea, this circuit! And what supergreat to share your program with this circuit! Thank you só al lot, because it makes copying your superusefull device so much more faster and easier for me, for us! There is nothing to try to improve it because you showed us already all the things one could think of. Indeed ideal as it is, and this way i would be stupid to nót build it because i can use it just as good because i have to build my ideas with mostly "recovered" components! Wow i am still impressed by your generosity (if that's the right word (i'm dutch)) to let everyone make use of your knowledge!(i remember years ago i found the circuitdiagram from my broken pc-powersupply on your website, áll the circuitdiagrams to easy choose from which one must be the one i had Just opended. I was (and still am) só greatfull for that!).. And now you did think out this ideal and especially easy to build device that i can and thanks to you wíll use within a couple of days

[@andymouse]

Absolutely awesome tutorial......cheers.

[@fredflintstone1]

cheers ringing:-)

[@andymouse]

@@fredflintstone1 Squeak!

[@paulstubbs7678]

I like those red boxes, perfect for LED based projects

[@lauraiss1027]

16:43 "There is some power factor correction inductor from an active power factor correction". Excellent sentence to repeat few times before bedtime to keep boogeyman away.

[@embeddedsystemsiotprojects2055]

Pid line follower kzbin.info/www/bejne/hKjYimqnl9hles0

[@mohammedalshrief532]

@@embeddedsystemsiotprojects2055 gooooood man❤😎👌

[@ooNap0oo]

Nifty principle and well implemented

[@theshannonlimit1114]

Although slightly more dependent on special equipment. This can also be tested by making a wheatstone bridge where 2 legs are resistors and one is a known good inductor or capacitor in parallel with a potentiometer. The device under test is the final leg. after balancing the bridge (excited with an AC voltage or current) the ratio of resistance to reactance is shown by the potentiometer and capacitor/inductor. While this requires an ac source and detector, that could be as easy as a mains transformer and voltmeter if component values are large. All other parts can typically be found from scrap.

[@erikziak1249]

Top content. Thank you for sharing with us.

[@somewaresim]

Very interesting. Thanks!

[@pirelli77]

my respect for your knowledge dany 😯

[@thomasyu4574]

It was a very interesting Video ! Its a good Testdevice.

[@chasingcapsaicin]

so good, mind blown simple

[@jameshorn7830]

Nice project and good explanation...

[@michaelseitz8938]

Resonance is beautiful :-) Very interesting device! You should finish the build "Professional KZbin style" ... with HOT-GLUE!!! But I guess your cat would interfere and tell you to use proper screws ... :-)

[@melplishka5978]

That’s Sorin’s favourite way lol. Unless he lives in a hotter climate lol.

[@stevebollinger3463]

Traffic lights with car detection loops in the pavement work like this. The loop is an inductor and it rings many times when there is no car on the loop. A car or even a motorcycle effectively shorts the coil slightly and the ringing is damped. Like when Mr. Wild puts a shorted loop above the cooker coil.

[@afb9999]

Fixed radars works like this in Brazil and you can see where the pavement was cut in a coil like shape

[@melplishka5978]

I love your content. You explain it very well. Ty.

[@atdzsny]

11:38 Niiice red hot glowing resistor lead effect. :)

[@voitano73]

Super nápad. Jinak koukám, že jste vylepšíl vybavení od toho ruského S1-118.

[@CliveChamberlain946]

For cheap occasional use, I'd love to see this use just a PC and Arduino. PC's serial terminal can fast scroll the count.

[@scratchdog2216]

lol Watching a build for a change. Cool tester. Thanx.

[@e42_channel]

Great work and a nice and needful project. I searched my bins for parts.... I can use AT Tiny84 (24/44/84 are the same except memory) and a IRLZ34N with Vgs(th) 2.5V and above @ ~60mOhm. Breadboard Weekend 😃

[@DiodeGoneWild]

I think you can ;) the transistor has a higher on state resistance, it might reduce the number of rings a bit, but it would probably still work..

[@e42_channel]

@@DiodeGoneWild Thank you. Only have a very old green dual 7-segment LED (from 20years old PC "Speed Indicator") . I was concerned about the current consumption (23mA @2.3V per segment), but read in the datasheet of the attiny thatt each pin can drive up to 40mA. With multiplexing there is only one segment at a time - right ?

[@embeddedsystemsiotprojects2055]

@@DiodeGoneWild Pid line follower kzbin.info/www/bejne/hKjYimqnl9hles0

[@tuttocrafting]

I would love a video about mag amp post regulation on secondary rails of SMPS

[@ahurtadon]

Muy buena herramienta, interesante

[@omsingharjit]

but i do it lazily , just by connecting led to secondary winding , and pulsing dc to primary winding to see roughly if T/F is shorted or not

[@rhiantaylor3446]

These days, it can also be vital to know the operating frequency range of an inductor i.e. is it iron dust or ferrite. Would it be sufficient to measure inductance at a range of frequencies - any thoughts ?

[@x10iman]

Is it possible to change the code to regular Arduino compatible instead of assembly? Currently I don’t have the atimy chip. Thanks for the video.

[@thisone1697]

Nice. You need a list of typical ring numbers for different devices.

[@Alchemetica]

Great device and explanation. Thanks you for the video. 😼

[@belekasbelekaip]

Thanks for the project! I will try to build this, but I can't seem to find "LD-D036UR-C" display - any alternatives?

[@Debraj1978]

Can we use this LC oscillations on scope measurement to measure the inductance of a coil?

[@159357ahmed]

you are the best , thanks a lot

[@hubertz3049]

Great idea with this tester. Maybe next time you will make a power transistor tester, but one that will put a heavy load on them. :)

[@tanishqbhaiji103]

Please make a video about the inductance meter.

[@anonymoususer6448]

Inspiring video, as always. I wonder if this could be used to test windings of a motor. I have a few questionable ones and I'd like to to be able to prove they have a problem or they are OK. Any thoughts?

[@DiodeGoneWild]

It might work, but there are generally less rings in inductors with iron cores, motors would probably be similar. It might require a higher capacitance or counting the rings down to a lower threshold.

[@stephanc7192]

Excellent project!

[@PaulOvery001]

Steady on! Looks just like a bought one.

[@Tekwyzard]

Hahaha, yeah, it looks far too professional compared to for instance his battery capacity tester, which works so well, but looks absolutely terrible :-)

[@shortwaverPL]

piece of art!

[@omsingharjit]

23:35 new digi os sc

[@mrnmrn1]

I built the CD4015 + LM393 based ring tester designed by Bob Parker a few years earlier. It can count only to 8 (with an LED bar), but still very useful. I would build yours if I haven't built the other one previously. I am an absolute dummy in programmig, so I had to choose a software-free version.

[@Edmorbus]

Good work Thanks for sharing

[@beatrute2677]

Awesome man, thanks heaps!

[@idea-shack]

Perhaps you can make use of hysteresis analysis for testing iron core transformers?

[@Sloxx701]

Very nice. I want to build this to compare to my Sencore LC75 ring tester.

[@martinmartinmartin2996]

It is doubtful if this technique can detect a SHORT CIRCUIT between adjacent turns of a coils or a transformer IF all other turns are OK

[@rorymacleod8488]

Where did you get those BIG displays ? 13:30

[@DiodeGoneWild]

I ordered them from tme.eu several years ago, but they don't have them any more. Maybe some other shop. They are LD-S230UHR-C. Bright red, but they have 4 LEDs in series, sou it can't be powered using 5V logic. They drop almost 8V. I still plan to make a big clock of them :).

[@embeddedsystemsiotprojects2055]

@@DiodeGoneWild kzbin.info/www/bejne/hKjYimqnl9hles0😎👌💝

[@snipersquad100]

That's a very useful tool.

[@rfmerrill]

I would normally assume you'd want a fixed resistance higher than the esr of the transistor and capacitor to control the losses, but maybe any significant resistance is too much and causes it to be overdamped?

[@samanthagriffinv2.08]

Are you done with the Soviet TV set

[@anonhollmuller4032]

rhank you! interessting slang, but perfectly understandible ! and great video, my teacher since ...should be good as you! then i probatly would be better, than i am now in repairing things. best regards, long and healthy live ! Sorry for my poor english !

[@keithking1985]

really love this one!!😁

[@fredflintstone1]

Fantastic great informative video

[@power45118]

Please 🙏 make a video on the diy inductance meter.

[@RicoElectrico]

Fun fact: This type of circuit is used for inductive sensing in wireless water meter reading. Meters have a half-disk made of metal that spins as the water flows, and an inductor can sense it. E.g. TI devkit TIDM-3LC-METER-CONV and many more. However they use ceramic capacitors, which after a quick datasheet search on TME, have a shit dissipation factor, around 1% compared to 0,01% for PP capacitors. Kind of a bummer that PP caps come only in high voltage huge package versions.

[@yonisat1]

great channel

[@Maciej.R.]

Hi. Where can I find a schematic?

[@WolferAlpha]

I certain would use the big display, probably catch more attention from an uninterested person when I'll show, like this: I coming with the project and the guy "what are those". XD

[@thecriss88]

Great project. I wonder if you could use analog pin and count the spikes manually. Or perhaps use some ARM chip and do FFT or at least try to estimate the exponential decay factor rather than counting the number of pulses

[@Basement-Science]

Yeah you would need something much more powerful than an 8-bit MCU for that. The ADC in these is way too slow for anything like this. You could maybe measure the resonance frequency though, that would be somewhat useful too.

[@maxxiang8746]

@@Basement-Science I guess just adding a better ADC would allow that though, FFT is pretty complicated but it should not take more than a few seconds for any MCU to do

[@Basement-Science]

@@maxxiang8746 Sure you could do that if you want to do relatively simple analysis like FFT. But then you'd probably be better off just using an oscilloscope instead of investing in a fancy ADC. Storing all the ADC data on an 8-bit MCU for later processing, you'd also run out of memory pretty quickly.

[@JunPVlog]

Nice sharing sir watching here sending full support

[@imanshojaee5109]

Very interesting 👌

[@antibrevity]

Very cool. Thanks!

[@SidneyCritic]

If you made it more sensitive and count more rings, eg, 100, does it still drop to 1/0 when you add a shorted loop, ie, maybe it would be better with more counts. If it drops to 10 it probably wouldn't be worth it because it's the same ratio.

[@phillipchen7749]

genius! I love it!

[@shinsynchri2769]

I have a question though. Is the displayed number on the device shows the number of windings of the transformer or inductor?

[@maxcompress9732]

it shows count of pulses. Explaining at 02:42

[@shinsynchri2769]

@@maxcompress9732 thanks

[@stinmw4621]

Great video as always

[@ElectroRestore]

OK DGW, I am a little confused here. If you have an inductor with say, 50 turns. And one shorts out. Then you are left with an inductor that has 49 turns. What causes it to go down to one (or two or three, etc) on the meter? Would every inductor with 49 turns also be one without a shorted turn? It seems like the logic is incorrect here. Could it be that the loop you introduce is just interacting with the magnetic field and not really affecting the inductor's turns ratio?

[@westelaudio943]

The shorted turn acts like a secondary in an autotransformer, with the load being only it's own impedance, hence current flows which is relatively high, causing energy to be taken out of the system as heat losses, dampening the oscillation. Like putting a felt pad on a tuning fork, where energy is lost through friction. The turns ratio is barely affected as you see with the L meter. That's why this is more of a useful tool to find a lossy shorted coil than an L meter.

[@westelaudio943]

Also, it doesn't really matter if the shorted turn is part of the primary coil or introduced from the outside - the effect is the same. It's like regular transformer vs. autotransformer (where pri and sec are not separate but one coil).

[@Killeroz]

to musím mít :) Díky

[@t1d100]

Brilliant! Excellent application of utilizing the characteristics of the ringing to an advantages. I wonder how long it will take for your design to be swiped, manufactured and end up for sale on Ebay? I would like to see the circuit redesigned to just drive an oscilloscope, please and thank you.

[@cybermaus]

Wow. Interesting that one shorted winding has that effect on the ring. Small suggestion: use double dash for open? Just looks nicer I think. O r OL like multimeter.

[@DiodeGoneWild]

I also tried it, but one dash draws less current from the battery when it's not connected to any inductor :)

[@embeddedsystemsiotprojects2055]

@@DiodeGoneWild kzbin.info/www/bejne/hKjYimqnl9hles0