| IC Tester HELP - Assembling section Assembling IC Tester device IC Tester is electronic device for testing ICs (integrated circuits) and may test some others electronic elements with appropriate addon. Device is connecting to parallel (printer) port at computer, currently you can connect it to PC and Amiga computers. On IC Tester device you can test ICs with up to 16 pins. Assembling costs is very low, parts for device costs about 20 dollars, for other elements, that depends how skilful you are, minimum 5 dollars. Here are instructions for assembling IC Tester device, to be precise IC Tester 2 device. If you build/have IC Tester device, you can use upgrade information to upgrade existing IC Tester to IC Tester 2. You can find in ICT upgrade assembling section all instructions for that upgrade. IC Tester 2, like upgrade, has only small changes and none of them are critical, so you can use any program version on new IC Tester device. All phases of construction and testing will be described in steps. Step 1: Getting parts what we need for build device, on table below are all listed:
Part No | Part Type | Amount required
IC1 | SN 74150 | 1
IC2-5 | CD 4094 | 4
IC6 | 7805 | 1
T1-34 | BC 547 (or similar) | 34
T35 | BC 558 (or similar) | 1
D1, D4 | 1N4148 | 2
D2-3 | 1N4002 | 2
LED1 | Green, 3 mm | 1
LED2, LED4-5 | Yellow, 3 mm | 3
LED3 | Red, 3 mm | 1
R1-3 | 1 kOhm | 3
R6-8 | 5,6 kOhm | 3
R10-41, R46-47 | 100 Ohm | 34
R42 | 75 kOhm | 1
R43 | 560 kOhm | 1
R44-45 | 470 kOhm | 2
C1 | 330 uF/10V (microF) | 1
C2-3 | 470 uF/25V (microF) | 2
C4-5 | 100 nF | 2
CONN1 | DB 15 female, right angle | 1
CONN2 | 3,5 mm stereo headphone jack | 1
CONN3 | 3 pin male single line connector | 1
SOC1 | DIL 16 pin socket (long pins) | 1
Other | DIL 16 pin socket | 4
Other | DIL 24 pin socket | 1
Parts for data cable
Other | DB 15 male connector | 1
Other | 12-15 wire regular cable | 1-2 meters
Other | DB 25 male connector | 1
Parts for power
Other | 3,5 mm stereo headphone connector | 1
Other | 3 wire regular cable | 1-2 meters
Optional | Transformer 2x6V/5VA | 1
Optional | 2-3 wire regular power cable | 1-2 meters
Optional | Fast fuse 500mA | 1
Optional | 9V power connector | 1
Information about printed board you can find in PDF document SOC1 is test socket and you can use standard DIL 16 pin (with long pins if available) or 16 pin TEXTOOL socket, but be aware that TEXTOOL socket cost equally as entire listed components. D2 and D3 are 1N4002 but you may use 1N4007 or similar diode. For C1 you may use any capacitor from 220 to 470 uF (micro Farad) of 10 Volts or higher voltage, but watch for size of it. Something about price, by my estimation all listed parts in table should cost about 25 dollars. In that price isn't included price of printed board and optional parts, in most cases you probably make this board by yourself. In that case you should spend about 5 dollars, otherwise you can spend up to 30 dollars. When you manually making board, in PDF document are printed board layouts, when printing check that Fit to page option isn't checked to get ratio 1:1. If you need change something on board, use PCB file with appropriate free software to modify it. See download section. Dimension of board is 100 by 93 millimeters, +/- 1 millimeter variation isn't catastrophic important is that holes for IC1 to IC6 match. On picture below is IC Tester 2 schematic (click on image to enlarge):
Step 2: After you get or create printed board, next is soldering elements on it... On picture below is silkscreen layer with position of elements on board.
Now here is suggested soldering guide: If you have copper film in holes you can skip this and next step. For easier soldering, put solder on copper at edge of all holes in top copper side of board, don't close hole. Solder with pieces of wire 5 holes which connect top and bottom side of board. Holes are marked with violet points on silkscreen layer. Now solder CONN1 connector to board, on top and bottom side. Yes I know it's not easy, use thin electric iron head. Solder sockets by this order: IC1 socket, SOC1, IC2 socket, IC3 socket, IC4 socket and IC5 socket. Solder next parts by this order: R1, R2, R3, T33, R43, R42, D1, T34, R44, T35, R45, R46, C1, CONN2, LED3, C5, D4, LED2, R7, IC6, C4, D2, D3, C2, C3, CONN3, R47, LED4, LED5 and R8.
Now solder transistors and resistors T1 to T32 and R10 to R41 as pairs in this order: T1, T3, R10 and R12 as first pair and R11, R13, T2 and T4 as second pair, etc. Finally solder LED1 and R6. Step 3: That's it for device, next we need to make data cable.
In picture above are exact wires positions on data cable. Soldering points in picture are set to match ones on DB connectors. If you use cable with more than 12 wires, extra wires solder to pins with black line on it (for DB 25 pins: 18-21; DB 15 pins: 2, 9-11).
Step 4: In the end, we need to create power supply for device. Basically you can power device from 9V battery, or from transformer. For that you need to create 3,5 mm stereo connector which is connected to 9V power connector or transformer, details are described under Assembling IC Tester upgrade in Step 6. Here on picture below is schematic for constructing power supply using transformer.
Power cable of 2-3 wires you can soldered on transformer and on fuse, another end of fuse solder to rest point of transformer. Transformer output of dual 6V or higher up to 12V (note higher voltage make IC6 to heat more) solder to 3 wire cable with 3,5 mm stereo headphone connector at appropriate places. O.K. we soldered all, now go to Test IC Tester device section and read how to test new created device and cable. (C) Copyright Silvio Klaic, you can write to me at sklaic@student.math.hr