I tried to keep this post short but failed miserably. I hope it is beneficial.

There are several versions of these Chinese testers that have been around EBay for a couple of years now. They appear to fall into three main groups but all are based on software developed and published as open source by two German guys, Markus Frejuk and Karl-Heinz Kübbeler.

This software was originally developed by Markus Frejuk. Karl-Heinz then ran with it making significant improvements and added functionality.  He published his versions as xxx k and is now up to 110k. His code can still be compiled to run on the original ATMega8 but some of the new features require the increased flash on Mega 48/168/ or Mega 328. In addition he has added support for some larger processors.

At some point, Markus Frejuk got re-involved and while using many of Karl-Heinz new features, he focused on the Mega 168p and the Mega328p processors. He offers an alternative version with some changes in the user interface as well as a different approach to some measurements. His versions are published as x.xxm and are currently at 1.15m.

Group 1 Chinese Clones

The first Chinese clones used a 1602 Character LCD. The socketed ATMega and through-hole components were based on the design of Markus Frejuk. These were followed by an SMD version using an ATMega168, also with a 1602 LCD Character display and used Karl-Heinz version of the software. There were no apparent modifications to the actual code, other than some compile options and minor hardware differences. My original SMD 1602 version came with version 102k. I am not sure of the version used in the current 1602.

Group 2 & 3 Chinese Clones

The second and third groups differ in that it they are using a 12864 Graphics display as well as later versions of the software. I have the Fish8840 version with the LCD on a daughter board and two momentary switches. I have also ordered the other version (MTester) with the LCD on the main PCB and only one switch.

While the 110k software does support some 12864 displays, I believe that the Chinese have developed their own 12864 LCD display code. This is based on the seeing a few minor errors in spelling and an error in the MOSFET graphic. At this point, I am not sure, but I believe the Fish8840 is using a modified version of  Karl-Heinz software.  The single switch model may well be using the Markus Frejuk version as in one photo, I see that they call it the MTester. I will try to figure this out once I receive mine.

I have uploaded two files - One is the version 110k documentation. The second is the Readme file for Markus Frejuk version 1.15m. The Readme file does contain a copyright notice so I hope that posting this is not a problem. These documents provide a good overview of the project and some useful information about using the testers.

Here, also, are some links to the German website where you can obtain the software and learn almost everything about these testers. The link to the forum thread does work, however, it is a very long thread and will take a minute or two to load. If you do not read German, I would recommend using a Chrome browser with automatic translation turned on. Google translate does a good enough job to be understandable most of the content. 

The start of the project:

http://www.mikrocontroller.net/topic/transistortester-mit-avr#new

The Project

http://www.mikrocontroller.net/articles/AVR-Transistortester:

The long thread with tons of information:

http://www.mikrocontroller.net/topic/248078#new

The Project SVN (Hardware info and software):

http://www.mikrocontroller.net/svnbrowser/transistortester/


Graham