--- title: Tech note: making your own V-I plots at home | daily.dev description: A detailed technical walkthrough on capturing real voltage-current (V-I) characteristic curves for semiconductor devices at home. The author, motivated by a... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/tech-note-making-your-own-v-i-plots-at-home-kvsallgwu twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Tech note: making your own V-I plots at home | daily.dev og:description: A detailed technical walkthrough on capturing real voltage-current (V-I) characteristic curves for semiconductor devices at home. The author, motivated by a... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/tech-note-making-your-own-v-i-plots-at-home-kvsallgwu og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/kVSalLgWU.png og:image:alt: Tech note: making your own V-I plots at home og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Tech note: making your own V-I plots at home **[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 7 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A detailed technical walkthrough on capturing real voltage-current (V-I) characteristic curves for semiconductor devices at home. The author, motivated by a desire for accurate diagrams in their electronics book, describes a methodology using a source measure unit (SMU), pulsed power, and SCPI-based automation to measure diode and MOSFET behavior across a wide current range. Key challenges covered include thermal drift, microamp-level measurement, binary data corruption over USB vs. Ethernet, and extending voltage range beyond the SMU's 20 V limit using a series power supply. Real measured plots reveal nuances absent from idealized textbook diagrams, such as resistive effects in diodes above 10 mA and gradual MOSFET breakdown behavior well before the rated 60 V. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Show HN: I made some transistor animations](https://daily.dev/posts/show-hn-i-made-some-transistor-animations-zj2ozx3c8) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Battery Tester Outperforms Cheaper Options](https://daily.dev/posts/battery-tester-outperforms-cheaper-options-mzaz7x3ys) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Quantum-Tunnelling Field-Effect Transistor Designed to Overcome Integrated-Circuit Chip Development Barriers](https://daily.dev/posts/quantum-tunnelling-field-effect-transistor-designed-to-overcome-integrated-circuit-chip-development--1sphzuoo9) · The Quantum Insider · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Winner, Name that Ware July 2026 « bunnie's blog](https://daily.dev/posts/winner-name-that-ware-july-2026-bunnie-s-blog-gbvyrnx8n) · bunnie's blog · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [A new way to watch heat move through electronics](https://daily.dev/posts/a-new-way-to-watch-heat-move-through-electronics-clxbougks) · MIT News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#embedded](https://daily.dev/tags/embedded) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/tech-note-making-your-own-v-i-plots-at-home-kvsallgwu) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Tech note: making your own V-I plots at home","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/tech-note-making-your-own-v-i-plots-at-home-kvsallgwu","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/tech-note-making-your-own-v-i-plots-at-home-kvsallgwu"},"datePublished":"2026-07-19T01:15:07.278Z","dateModified":"2026-07-19T01:15:31.945Z","description":"A detailed technical walkthrough on capturing real voltage-current (V-I) characteristic curves for semiconductor devices at home. 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