[Techtoolslist] Huntron Tracker 200

[Clay Cowgill]

> Not as far as I could ever tell. The only advantage was you 

> did not have to set up a kludge to the front of your 'scope.


Kinda depends on what you're doing with it... I have a Huntron Protrack 1
and it does have some handy capabilities depending on what kind of stuff
you're working with.  (ie, adjustable frequency, source resistance and
voltage drive to get more detailed images depending on what value components
are in the circuit-- plus a computer interface.)

I've never really used it much as a repair tool for a single unit, but it's
very handy when comparing a 'gold board' signature against multiple
production units without the need to power anything on.  With a computer
attached you can automate things as well.  (Better to find a backwards
tantalum cap before even powering it up, or even worse-- incorrect parts
loaded in an adjustable power supply that'll smoke a bunch of expensive
actives if powered. ;-)

I did use it to repair on a bunch of GO7 monitor chassis boards a couple
years back.  I took a 'NOS' board I had to make signatures and then just
tested all the 'unknown' boards against the "known good" to find shorted
transistors, bad caps, etc. without having to apply power to any of the
units under test.

One of the external Huntron boxes (I think the current model is the 210?)
can be used with something like a Tektronix DSO that has an onscreen
pass/fail mask capabilitiy.  (So you can make a mask that basically says
"any signal inside this boundary is a pass, anything outside is a fail" and
you can have less skilled technicians still pass/fail test a board with high
confidence and no PC required...)  I suppose you could do the same with a
paper cutout 'mask' for a less fancy o-scope too. ;-)

-Clay