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Roman Cisar and his "Universal Component Tester Project"

KAG-Roman-Cisar-Apprentice-Project

In school in the course of the 3rd year of apprenticeship, we were not only offered project-oriented lessons for the first time, but we were also given the opportunity to lead a cross-curricular project ourselves. We had the choice between a running light and a versatile component tester.

When we received the circuits, I was completely fascinated by what this component tester would test. This awakened the perfectionist in me, as I wanted to produce an equally great product from a great circuit. In the first semester, I started planning and collecting ideas, and I suspected that my project would be very time-consuming. Back at Kapsch Components, I told them about the great project we had started at school. Naturally, I asked our excellent prototyping team for electronic and mechanical help. I quickly realized that my ideas were good, but partially unfeasible, so it was back to the drawing board. This time, however, not on "my own", but with expert support from the KCO prototyping department and professional software. The idea was to replace the bent aluminum sheet housing I had originally planned with a milled aluminum block. This, of course, I welcomed very much, as I was able to learn drawing with AutoCAD software, CNC programming and some mechanical knowledge. After the case was made, I started designing the electronics, and since I didn't want to make life too easy for myself, I designed 2 boards. One with wired components (as required by the vocational school) and another with SMD components to prove my skills. This was of course very well received at the vocational school. Back at the vocational school after the practice in the KCO, the second block was about finishing the circuit board. With the finished board, the final assembly could begin, where I still had to make one or two small adjustments. When everything met my expectations, I was able to present a great final product with a good 75 pages of documentation, which of course impressed my teachers.

The Universal Component Tester project:

The Universal Component Tester is a versatile measurement device for component testing. It has a large 16x2 LCD display with blue backlight, through which it outputs the detected components. The evaluation is done by a programmed microcontroller (ATMEGA 8), which of course does all the measuring and sends the data to be output to the display. For the measurement optionally 2 x 3 pin adapter cables can be connected to the tester, which can be used as desired and according to the type of measurement. Once in a mini-hook and a fine measurement tip version. Usually the measurement takes about 2 seconds, for larger capacitors up to one minute is possible.

Automatic detection of:

  • NPN and PNP transistors
  • Diodes
  • Thyristors
  • Triacs
  • Resistors
  • Capacitors
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