A company called ABI Electronics in the UK makes this Huntron style tester, sometimes called a signature analyzer or V/I tester called the Circuit Master 4000m.

Besides the V/I testing it has another feature called Firm/Flex where they take a current limited 5 volts DC and use that in live or powered circuit testing. For example sometimes when you find a node with 0 ohms one it and it can be a short to ground or an open circuit. Using the firm flex testing it applies the 5 volts and if the CM4000 senses that the 5 volts is getting pulled down it shows that on the screen, if it doesn't sense that and the 5 volts stays steady it shows that also. Which can help you determine a short or open.

My question is: Is this an old technique that has been around or is it something new? Are there other gear out there that do the same thing? At perhaps a cheaper price. How else can this method be used to help with troubleshooting. Any other problem it might be able to help solve.

I do understand that I can rig something like this up for cheap but I am curious to see if it has been used in test gear and fully utilized.

Thanks very much,
Russ

 

I have seen a Huntron tester in demonstration but have never used one myself.

I could never place any confidence in using such an instrument for trouble shooting or fault-finding. It appears to me to be a lot of guess work and hit-or-miss approach.

My approach would be a functional one where I would have to have a circuit schematic and I would look for functionality at each stage of the circuit.