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 M3 Semiconductor Analyzer Upgrade Information |
| Upgrades are free to the original purchaser. We maintain a database of our customers and the serial number of the PIC that they received in their kit. To obtain the latest revision, it is necessary to send the original PIC to M-Cubed Electronix to be reprogrammed, along with a padded, self addressed return envelope. We pay the postage to return the PIC to you! Turn around time should be within 24 hours of us receiving your PIC. If you are going to send your PIC in to be reprogrammed, please email us at mcubed2@hughes.net and let us know in advance. This way we will be expecting it and can notify you should it fail to be delivered to us. For those that prefer to retain their original PIC but still obtain the upgrade, or you are not the original purchaser, you may purchase a new programmed PIC with the latest Revision for $15.00 + $4.95 S&H. We do not accept Pay Pal for the purchase of an upgrade, so please, check or money order only. How do I know what Revision I have? Simply turn on the Semiconductor Analyzer and on the initialization screen, the Revision number will be displayed on the second line of the LCD. |
| What's NEW in Rev 3.2? Revision 3.2 adds the capability to identify depletion mode MOSFETs. It will identify the transistor and the pin-out but it provides no parameters. It also corrects a bug in parameter measurements of some high power bipolar transistors. This same bug could cause the earlier revision to identify a low voltage zener diode as an N or P-channel MOSFET. |
| What's NEW in Rev 3.3? Corrected a bug in measuring resistance for a short-circuit. The low limit for Hfe is now 2 and a 500mA range for JFET Idss measurement has been added. RDSon measurement is now as low as 1 ohm. Corrected a problem with some MOSFETs being recognized. Most MOSFETs have a diode voltage drop of 0.4 to 0.5V but there are some with a larger drop (0.8V for IRF9530/40 as an example). The threshold for the detection of the internal diode was too low (0.6V) so it has been increased. Detection of a new device has been added: The analyzer can recognize a diode network (dual diode). It indicates the common terminal with a square symbol, and A or K letter for the other two pins. |
| What's NEW in Rev 3.4? Thanks to the folks at MIT, an error was found in identifying a dual JFET transistor (2N3954). The Semiconductor Analyzer incorrectly idenified it as a bipolar NPN. The problem turned out to be the limit of Vds during measurement. Rev 3.3 had a limit of 4V but when the Idss is low, as is the case with this dual JFET, this value needed to be higher. We have changed the limit to 4.5V and that has corrected the error. |