Acknowledgments Introduction xiii xi 1 Electronic meters 1 1.1 Digital meters 2 1.2 Nondigital (analog) meters 6 1.3 Differential meters 14 1.4 Digital meter displays and ranges 16 1.5 Nondigital meter scales and ranges 28 1.6 Meter-protection circuits 32 1.7 Parallax problems 33 1.8 Movement-accuracy problems 33 1.9 Reading-error problems 34 1.10 Basic ohnuneter (resistance) measurements 1.11 Basic voltmeter (voltage) measurements 36 1.12 Basic ammeter (current) measurements 37 1.13 Basic decibel measurements 38 1.14 Testing and calibrating meters 38 1.15 Ohnuneter test and calibration 39 1.16 Voltmeter test and calibration 39 1.17 Ammeter test and calibration 42 1.18 Shop-meter test and calibration 44 1.19 Testing meter characteristics 45 1.20 Calculating multiplier and shunt values 47 1.21 Fabricating temporary shunts 50 1.22 Extending ohnuneter ranges 51 34
1.23 Extending voltmeter ranges 54 1.24 Extending ammeter ranges 54 1.25 Suppressed-zero voltag~ measurements 1.26 Measuring complex waves 55 1.27 Matching impedances 55 1.28 Checking individual components 57 1.29 Checking circuit functions 65,')"4 2 Oscilloscopes 75 2.1 The cathode-ray tube 75 2.2 Beam-deflection system 77 2.3 Basic frequency measurement 77 2.4 Basic voltage measurement 77 2.5 Basic oscilloscope circuits 78 2.6 Storage oscilloscope 8.1 2.7 SampliI\g oscilloscope 83 2.8 Basic oscilloscope operating controls 86. 2.9 Oscilloscope specifications and performance 95 2.10 Oscilloscope accessories 97 2.11 Basic operating procedures and recording methods 2.12 Measuring voltage and current [06 2.13 Measuring time, frequency and phase 116 2.14 Checking components and circuits 122 2.15 Using an oscilloscope in digital testing 130 99 3 Generators 139 3.1 Generator basics 139 3.2 FM-stereo generator 145 3.3 TVNCR-stereo generator 3.4 Color generators 163 3.5 Vectorscopes 176 151 4 Electronic counters and frequency standards 181 4.1 Heterodyne, or zero-beat, frequency meter 181 4.2 Electronic digital counter 181 4.3 Totalizing operation 185 4.4 Period operation 187 4.5 Time-interval operation 187 4.6 Ratio operation 188 4.7 Counter display problems 188 4.8 Counter accuracy 18..9 -
5 Probes and transducers 191 5.1 Basic probes 191 5.2 Low-capacitance probes 191 5.3 High-voltage probes 193 5.4 RF probes (supplied with meter or scope) 19~ 5.5 Demodulator probes 193.5.6 Solid-state signal-tracing probe 194 5.7 Probe compensation and calibration 194 5.8 Probe testing and troubleshooting techniques 19.5 5.9 An RF probe for test and troubleshooting 196 5.10 Transducers 197 6 Special-purpose test equipment 203 6.1 Basic time-domain reflectometer operation 203 6.2 Analyzing time-domain reflectometer displays 204 6.3 Locating rnismatches or discontinuities on lines 206 6.4 Wheatstone bridges 207 6.5 Altemating-current bridges 208 6.6 Universal bridges 209 6.7 Standard capacitance and inductance bridges 6.8 Digital bridges 212 211 6.9 Q meters 213 6.10 Rxmeters 214 6.11 Admittance meters 215 6.12 Vector-impedance meters 216./6.13 LC meters 217 7 Two-junction (bipolar) transistor tests 21~ 7.1 Basic two-junction transistor tests 219 7.2 Two-junction transistor leakage tests 220 7.3 Two-junction transistor breakdown tests 222 7.4 Two-junction transistor gain tests 224 7.5 Two-junction transistor-switc~ tests 228 7.6 Testing transistors in circuit 229 7.7 Two-junction transistor tests using a curve tracer 231 8 Field-eff~ct transistor (FET) tests 235 8.1 FET operating modes 235 8.2 Handling MOSFETs 236 8..3 MOSFET protection circuits 237 8.4 FET control-voltage tests 237.8.5 FET operating-voltage tests 239 8.6 FET operating-current tests 239 8.7 FET breakdown-vnjtjl.ilp tp~t~ 9;.!t{)
8.8 FET gate-leakage tests 241 8.9 Dual-gate FET tests 241 8.10 FET dynamic characteristics 242 &11 FET amplification factor 248 8.12 FETinput-capacitance tests 249 8.13 PET output-capacitance tests.250 8.14 FET reverse-transfer capacitance tests 8.15 FET element-capacitance tests 251 8.16 FET channel-resistance tests 252 8.17 FET switching tests 253 8.18 FET gain tests 254 8.19 FET noise-figure tests 256 8.20 FET cross-modulation tests 257 8.21 PET intermodulation tests 257 8.22 FETtests using a curve tracer 257 250 9 Unijunction and programmable UJT (PUT) tests 261 9.1 Basic UJT and PUT functions 261 9.2 UJT characteristics 263 9.3 PUT characteristics 269 9.4 Additional UJT test circuits 271 9.5 UJT tests using a curve tracer 274 10 Solid-state diode tests 279 10.1 Basic diode tests 279 10.2 Diode continuity tests 279 10.3 Diode reverse-leakage tests 281 10.4 Diode forward voltage drop tests 10.5 Diode dynamic tests 283 10.6 Diode switching tests 286 10.7 Zener diode tests 287 10.8 Tunnel diode tests 290 10.9 Diode tests using a curve tracer 282 293 11 Thyristor and control-rectifier (SCR) tests 295 11.1 Thyristor and control-rectifier basics 295 11.2 Control rectifier test parameters 298 11.3 Basic control-rectifier and thyristor tests 302 11.4 Blocking-voltage and leakage-current tests 307 11.5 Gate-trigger voltage and current tests 310 11.6 Latching and hol~current tests 312 11.7 Average forward voltage test 315
12 Audio and op-amp tests 317 12.1 Audio circuit tests 317 12.2 Wow and flutter meters 317 12.3 Audio voltmeters 321 12.4 Frequency response 322 12.5 Voltage gain 325 12.6 Power output and power gain 325 12.7 Input sensitivity 325 12.8 Power bandwidth 325 12.9 Load sensitivity 326 12.10 Dynamic output impedance 326 7 12.11 Dynamic input impedance 32 lz.12 Sine-wave analysis 327 12.13 Square-wave analysis 327 12.14 Harmonic distortion 329 12.15 Intermodulation distortion 33 12.16 Background noise 331 12.17 Op-amp tests 332 12.18 Feedback measurement 333 12.19 Input-bias current 334 12.20 Input-offset voltage and current 12.21 Common-mode rejection 336 12.22 Slew rate 337 12.23 Power-supply sensitivity 338 12.24 Phase shift 338 13 Power-supply tests 339 0 335 13.1 Transformer tests 339 13.2 Measuring transformer phase relationships 13.3 Checking transformer polarity markings 13.4 Checking transformer regulation 341 13.5 Checking transformer impedance ratio 342 13.6 Checking transformer-winding balance 342 13.7 Basic power-supply tests 343 13.8 Power-supply output tests 343 13.9 Power-supply regulation tests 344 13.10 Power-supply internal-resistance tests 345 13.11 Power-supply ripple tests 345 13.12 Advanced power-supply tests 346 13.13 Source effect or line regulation 349 13.14 Load effect or load regulation 349 13.15 Noise and ripple (or PARD) 349 13.16 Drift (stability) 349 13.17 Temperature coefficient 350.5'41 339
14 Radio-frequency tests 351 14.1 Basic RF,-voltage measurements 351 14.2 Resonant circuits 352 14.3 Basic resonant-frequency measurements 355 14.4 Basic coil inductance measurements 356 14.5 Basic coil self-resonance and distributed-capacitance measurements 14.6 Basic resonant-circuit Q measurements 358 14.7 Basic resonant-circuit impedance measurements 360 14.8 Basic transmitter RF-circuit testing 361 14.9 Basic receiver RF-circuit testing and adjustment 362 14.10 RF oscillator tests 366 357 15 Communications equipment tests 369 15.1 Communications-equipment test instruments 369 15.2 RF dunmly load for transmitters 369 15.3 RF wattmeter 372 15.4 Field-strength meter 372 15.5 Standing-wave-ratio measurement 372 15.6 Dip meter and adapter 374 15.7 Spectrum analyzers and FM-deviation meters 376 15.8 Miscellaneous communications test equipment 381 15.9 Modulation checks with a scope 382 15.10 Antenna and transmission-line checks with limited test means 385 Index 389 About the Author 398