The “Octopus” Curve Tracer

A simple DIY curve tracer that anyone can build to test and identify defective components in or out of a circuit.

[@M0UAW_IO83]

Those things are awesome, Hameg scopes had them built in, they made me a fortune as a repair tech, once you have a little understanding of what they show you and you're used to the shapes you see it's so fast and easy to sprint through analogue components in power supplies, amps, monitors, TVs, all sorts of stuff, you can spot leaky caps, failed diodes, transistors, FETs and all sorts of semiconductors almost instantly

[@stevencooper2464]

I used to perform electronics repairs 35 years ago; when a customer would bring in a stereo with one dead channel, my curve tracer was the fastest way to identify bad or weakend components in the dead channel, simply by comparing the traces of the two channels. A very handy tool.

[@Arseegoff]

Thanks Gary. Now that I have a scope maybe I’ll make me one.

[@BM-jy6cb]

I miss the old scopes. Even though the new digital scopes are far more capable, there's something about looking at a nice blue/green trace that's directly connected to the signal instead of what is effectively just another image on a pc screen. Oh, and you didn't have to listen to a constantly whining fan. Plus they've done away with the Z input.

[@wilhelmvonn9619]

Still got my old CRT scope, just in case.

[@anpier926]

great video, usefull and simple idea. Just a note: to have the same polarity on both channels use the low side of the transformer(0V) as common ground and the black probe/1k union as Y out.

[@garyramsey4275]

That certainly does make sense! I don’t really know why I didn’t do that from the beginning. There isn’t any need for the black probe to be at ground potential. Thanks for the tip!

[@KeritechElectronics]

Nicely built! I really like it. Got a curve tracer in my old Hameg 204 scope. I also gutted an old single-channel scope and repurposed it as a curve tracer among other things, using schematics from Paul Carlson.

[@zdzisiek1979]

Hameg zawsze miał taki tester elementów wbudowany.

[@gertbenade3082]

A great video, thanks Gary. Sometimes low-tech, old-school is still the best!

[@haraldlonn898]

A great simple tool. Thanks. I will build one.

[@andymouse]

Great tutorial !.....cheers.

[@SuburbanDon]

very interesting.

[@rahulbhaskar4179]

Sir, can use it with a digital Oscilloscope...??

[@garyramsey4275]

I don’t actually know. Try it, and let me know.

[@ssikhcnerf]

You can if your scope has XY mode... Mine does, it doesn't look as good as on analog scope though (owon sds1022)...

[@CraigPetersen12f36b]

Nice little useful project. I have an old EICO 688 that I have used on and off for many years. However, I was very fortunate to find a mint condition Tektronix 571 curve tracer that has been quite the bees knees. But I still use the EICO in some special use cases. Great instructional video.