In article ,
says...



While you are looking around on ebay look for a component tester. It is
a circuit board with a lcd display. It will have 3 leads and a 9 volt
battery terminal. They are usually less than $ 20 and will test about
anything you hook to it that will work at 9 volts or less. Best spent
money for testing I have ever seen.

While I'm interested in this, I have to ask what makes this any better
than a common VOM?


To explain that you just have to look at the item on Ebay. You get a
lcd display and PC board that you have 3 leads comming out of it. Take
most any component and hook any of the leads to the component, 2 leads
if a capacitor, resistor, inductor, 3 if it is a transisitor. Push a
button and in about 2 seconds the display will tell you what kind of
device it is, the value of it, and if a diode or transistor which lead
is which of the component.

There is a company that makes a similar device in a nice case called
Peak. They sell for about $ 100 but you need two as one is for
simiconductors and the other is for the passive components.

Here is an example from Ebay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mega328-Tran...-Diode-Triode-
Capacitance-LCD-ESR-Meter-LCR-MOS-PNP-NPN-/271611840945?
hash=item3f3d53c9b1:g:XOIAAOSwd4tUHHFp

It is also Ebay item number:271611840945

The one I have is accurate enough to tell if the component should work
in most circits.

Sometimes it may get fooled as when testing the very old Germanium
transistors. Swapping the leads around oftenclears up this problem.