Introduction: HOW TO TEST YOUR TRANSISTORS WITH YOUR MULTIMETERS

By
About: I like playing football,basketbal ,making circuits and doing science.

Hello everyone!!

In this instructable I will be telling you how to test your transistors with the help of your multimeters.

Now, forget those circuits used for testing transistors and now its time to get easy and practical.

Step 1: MOTIVATION

I had been working on an instructable (https://www.instructables.com/id/HOW-TO-MAKE-DANCING-LEDS/)
And it had been working well. But when I thought to upload its video , it didn't work!

I was really shocked what had happened to it. The resistors were fine and the capacitors too. So, I decided to check my transistor as either of them would not be working.
I got the malfuctioned one replaced and now it works!!!


So,I thought to share this thing with others and I ended  up making this instructable.

Step 2: REQUIRED THINGS

The things you require are very simple.

First, you need a multimeters and Secondly, of course transistors you  want to test.

Step 3: THE TRANSISTORS

Now, comes the part of testing the transistors.

Let me tell you about the NPN transistor, it has the collector and emmitter as negative and the base as positive, which is just opposite in PNP transistors.

First, set the multimeter on the transistor testing mode.

Now, take the leads of the multimeter and connect it to the leads of the transistors as shown in the picture. The negative lead to the negative terminal and positive lead to the positive terminal.
There will be a reading in the multimeter.

Now, connect the negative lead to the other negative terminal.Again the multimeter shows a reading.

The reading in both the cases is almost equal.

Step 4: DETECTING a BAD TRANSISTOR

Now, connect the leads to both the  negative terminals. If the multimeter shows 1 as a reading then the transistor is just fine.


 And if this is not the case then the multimeter produces a buzzing sound and shows 000 as a reading ,and the transistor is just too bad for use as shown in the video.

Step 5: A PNP TRANSISTORS

Well I did not have a PNP transistor so I am just giving the notes for testing it. Its a NPN transistor and I just used to instruct you how to test a PNP transistor.

All you have to do is to connect the leads to the oppsite terminals.

The PNP transistor will give a reading only when you connect the positive lead in the middle and the negative lead in the sides.

So, you can use the above tests to distinguish between a NPN and a PNP transistor.

SciStarter Citizen Science Contest

Participated in the
SciStarter Citizen Science Contest