I picked up this little component tester off eBay for $15. Its a quick way to test parts as I assemble boards.
I found a coaster for it on the web but it was a little tall so I thinned it out and changed it so the battery lies flat.
It seems pretty accurate as compared to my other L/C Testers.
It can do Transistors and Mosfets too
Even throwing a BiColor led in there shows the pinout and forward voltages at a glance. not bad at all.
It has these pads where you can hold down surface mount parts for testing.
Its based on a project that can be found here:
http://www.mikrocontroller.net/svnbrowser/transistortester/
This software supports many different displays, even character based 16X2 or 20X4 ones if you don’t need the fancy graphics.
It seems pretty active right now with commits just this week.
Of course now I have to breadboard one to play with the firmware…..