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Design of a transistor curve tracer

rogerk8

Jul 28, 2011
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My KTT box is now primed (this word suddenly struck me as correct, right? :) ).

Two more boxes to go, after that I have four boxes which I am planning to paint screamig red.

The question here is how many layers and if I should "sand-paper" the layers.

Anyway, I am attaching how the project looks like right now.

Enjoy :)

Bets regards, Roger

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(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
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My KTT box is now primed (this word suddenly struck me as correct, right?

Yes.
  • A primer will prime (future tense).
  • A primer is priming (present tense).
  • A primer has primed (past tense).
That general rule applies to many verbs.

So, the box is primed because the application of the primer has completed its job.

Just to make it more interesting, English has 12 tenses, there being 4 each for present, future, and past. And then they can be broken down into first, second, and third person aaaagh.... However, in many cases the same word is used, the difference being some of the words surrounding it.

Fortunately though, getting the grammar wrong rarely changes the meaning. Unlike Chinese (for example) there are so many extra words that they act almost like error correction :)

English has plenty of exceptions (and I'm sure you're aware of some). In this particular case, some words don't follow the rules (there is no "runed" to indicate the past tense of run, the word is ran, likewise there is no "readed" for the past tense of read, the word is read -- and the pronunciation is different).

In general the mark of a person who has learnt English as a second language (for example, Americans) is that they often make certain styles of grammatical errors which are obvious to a native English speaker, and which can often reflect their native language.

(I was joking about Americans)

You have commented a few times that you are not a native English speaker, yet you make very few errors which suggest this. Either your native language has a structure similar to English, or you have managed to learn the grammatical rules of English extremely well.

I would point out that English speakers (if about to comment about a person not involved in the conversation having just completed an oral hygene regeme) would never consider that they need to use the third person past continuous tense, nor concern themselves with the lack of a singular form, they would just say "they brushed their teeth".

Having had a go at learning Mandarin, I know that following the rules and missing the exceptions can result in you calling your teacher a rat. Another thing is changing the emphasis on a word can change it from horse, to road, to mother, to the equivalent of a question mark.

Anyway, with my Mandarin vocabulary of about 5 words that I can't get straight, all I can do is compliment people who can write English as a second language and do so as competently as me.
 

rogerk8

Jul 28, 2011
179
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Hi Steve!

I thank you very much for your post, it moved me.

I especially liked this
You have commented a few times that you are not a native English speaker, yet you make very few errors which suggest this. Either your native language has a structure similar to English, or you have managed to learn the grammatical rules of English extremely well.
Actually english is not so very different from swedish when it comes to gramatics, sometimes the order of the words is somewhat different though (thinking of how Yoda talks :) ) but otherwise the languages do not differ so much except for all the synonyms (is this the right word?) you have that we don't have which I actually feel limits the use of the swedish language, to have many words that almost means the same but has that special nuance (google translated) to it which means they are not exactly the same but means something very similar, to have many such words enriches the language, I think.

Best regards, Roger
PS
For a while there I thought that primed may not have been the right word because I thought that the symbol you put above a variable indicating drevation, made the variable "primed". In sweden we actually say that for instance x'=[dx/dt normally]=means "x primmad" as in "x is primed".
 

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
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In English there are at least 4 meanings of "prime"
  1. To make ready (like a paint primer, or to prime a pump)
  2. The first in order, quality, etc (the Prime Minister, or prime beef)
  3. A number divisible only by 1 and itself (a prime number)
  4. An accent mark used to indicate a derivative function (f'(x) as the first derivative of f(x))
f'(x) as in number 4 is read in English as "f prime at x". x' is read as "x prime".

So it sounds very similar.

Having just taken the time to look up the word "prime", some definitions give many, many meanings. Other than an ecclesiastical meaning that I was unaware of, I believe most of the rest tend to boil down to one of these major categories.

See http://www.dictionary.com/browse/prime
 

rogerk8

Jul 28, 2011
179
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I just want to show you what my "screaming red" looks like :)

I still don't know if it is the right nuance and I am a bit disappointed in the coverage but I think a second layer will solve this (maybe I will even paint three layers).

The box in this picture is not the dedicated box, it is only a test on a box which I above already have called a "Kitchen-box" as in a training-box, it is thus only a nuance prototype.

I think it looks rather nice, what do you think? :)

Tomorrow I will flip the box upside down (actually on the right side if it is seen as a chassis) and continue painting from the top, after that I will flip it again and start painting a second layer.

Hope I don't bore you :)

Best regards, Roger

DSCN3993.JPG
 

rogerk8

Jul 28, 2011
179
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This layout plan is something that I like.

I am taking a paper copy of it to my bus trip tomorrow to contemplate what I perhaps have forgotten.

But it feels kind of complete.

What do you think?

Will a manufacturer understand this drawing?

Best regard, Roger
PS
It may be that I will outsource this to my friend in China but right now I have tried someone in Sweden, the problem is that I sent my drawing to them yesterday and they have not replied. Kind of a disappointment but maybe they get lots of mail...

KTT_Layout_final_outsource_baraT&H_11.PNG
 

rogerk8

Jul 28, 2011
179
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179
I have now painted a second layer on the top side.

I do however think it does not look so good but maybe it will look better after I paint the third layer.

Actually I think I have been fooled with this kind of painting, I think it is for pure amateur painting only because the painting brush is clearly visible in the paint job.

Now I kind of regret priming my box projects also because now I can not revert to pure varnishing (google translated :) ).

Best regards, Roger
PS
I am now contemplating spray-coloring my box-projects instead, what do you think?

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rogerk8

Jul 28, 2011
179
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Jul 28, 2011
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179
I think I am finished with my KTT_Layout that is the layout of my transistor tester panels.

It has taken a lots of attempts but now I nactually think a manufacturer can interpret my drawing.

What do you think?

Best regards, Roger
 

Attachments

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rogerk8

Jul 28, 2011
179
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179
I have decided to not to paint it red, I am just about now painting it white instead, but that do not work as well as expected because water based paint seems to suck.

The reason for not painting it red is that the paint simply do not cover the white primer (except if you paint some 6 layers but who wants to do that?) further more it leaves lumps of paint in the painting and it dries very quickly so that you really can't correct a brushing that is some two minutes old.

There is however a couple of huge benefits with water based paint, if you like me have plastic mats (linoleum) for floor it is easy to wipe it up if you spill paint on the floor, this may be done in several ways but my horror scenario is tipping the brush can onto the floor, spilling on your pants is also not such a big problem, the other benifit is that the tools are easily cleaned under running water, I even tried a roller for the first time in my life and it was easily cleaned under running water.

Imagine then a roller and oil-based paint, how is it even possible to clean the roller then? The only way I can see is that the roller will have to reside in thinner all the time (when you are not painting), in other words a roller used with oil-based paint can really not ever be cleaned. And spilled on a plastic floor...

Another benifit with water-based paint is the environmental issue with is nice as long as it doesn't affect performance (which it does and that is why I'm really not so keened on water based paint).

This evening I have drilled most of the holes in my Transistor Tester panel.

I have two issues left, how to drill 13mm (my largest drill is 10mm but I also have a conical drill which can drill some 30mm), the other issue is that I will have to saw out two slots for the TO220/TO92 slots, I do however not think this is so hard because they are only two 3mm holes at the ends of the slots, but maybe my saw blades would have to be a bit of lower hight.

Best regards, Roger
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rogerk8

Jul 28, 2011
179
Joined
Jul 28, 2011
Messages
179
I just want to inform you of my progress.

Right now my KTT is almost finished, the only thing lacking is the assembly of the transformer in the lid, however my KTT has dual supplies that is either +/-18V from transformer or +/-9V from 6LR61 batteries so I will stick to those batteries while "fault-searching" this unit and only in the end I will assembly the transformer.

I will try to upload some pictures of my progress.

Best regards; Roger
PS
I am sorry for not giving you an update earlier but there are two reasons, I am not so keen on writing "double" that is first in my swedish forum and then here, the other reason is, and I will probably regret saying this, that I do not like your user interface so much BUT I seem to have finally learned how to handle attachments/pictures :)
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