recommend ESR meter, Multimeter, hot air rework station

[sheen818]

For ESR meter and multimeter, I use them to fix TV or monitor boards. For hot air rework station, I use it to fix Xbox 3RRD or remove TV chips.

I buy some cheap multimeter and hot air rework station before. All of them made in china, just work, not good. Now I need better or more professional equipment and tools. However, I am a cheapskate, not crazy guy, don't want to spend a few hundreds for ESR meter or Multimeter, or a few thousands for hot air rework station. please recommend cheap and professional: brand and model.

Thanks.

[ipman]

It depends mostly on where you live.
About multimeters: Fluke second-hand are very good tools.
About ESR meter: Blue ESR meter or Peak ones are good, but quite expensive if you don't live (read: payd well) in wester Europe or USA.
As for hot air rework station, if you specify professional, be ready to pay a premium price. Weller, Ersa, Hakko are very good tools at a price.

[retiredcaps]

Originally Posted by ipman

About multimeters: Fluke second-hand are very good tools.

Agreed. If you live in the USA, you can go on ebay and get a very reasonably priced used Fluke for a good price.

See excavatoree's guide at

http://reviews.ebay.com/Fluke-Meters...00000007478323

excavatoree knows his Fluke stuff. He has hundreds of them in his famous staircase shot at (near bottom of page)

http://www.eevblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=492.0

I purchased an used Fluke 75 ($20) and Fluke 12 ($30) locally. The Fluke 75 is probably 20+ years old and been through a lot of abuse, but both meters read identically (accuracy) and both work fine for my use.

I also have 2 Amprobes (AM-60 and 15XP) and happy with them. I got the 15XP on ebay for 99 cents. I was the only bidder!!!

As for hot air rework station, if you specify professional, be ready to pay a premium price. Weller, Ersa, Hakko are very good tools at a price.

Dave Jones at the eevblog did a review of this hot air rework

http://www.eevblog.com/2011/04/25/ee...rework-review/

He also has a $50 and $99 multimeter shootout at

http://www.eevblog.com/2010/06/04/ee...eter-shootout/

http://www.eevblog.com/2010/07/11/ee...i-t-part-1of2/

http://www.eevblog.com/2010/07/11/ee...i-t-part-2of2/

[electro_pa]

Hi Sheen 818,
For ESR checking, I use the kit-based unit K2574, sold by Altronics. See:http://www.altronics.com.au/index.as...=item&id=K2574
Originally published in Silicon Chip April 2004.
Designer later offered the neat, "Blue" ESR meter, a more refined product but probably more costly to feed batteries!.

[MrVik]

The "Blue ESR Meter" by Bob Parker has a website, http://members.ozemail.com.au/~bobpar/esrhints.htm, with hints for reducing battery usage. Also, how to use an outside power supply to power the unit. Several other hints as well. This meter is well discussed in this forum.

[Agent24]

Bob's Blue ESR meter is probably as cheap as you're going to get while still retaining quality (In fact it's probably better value\quality than some that cost more)

It's also fun to build and since schematics\spares are available repairs are easy.


If you can't justify even that price, there are many schematics on the internet for even more basic (and not so basic) ESR meters you can make from scratch.

[jgmanza]

Very good meter, this ESR Meter. I recommend highly.

[Bob Parker]

Originally Posted by jgmanza

Very good meter, this ESR Meter. I recommend highly.

Thank you!

[KeriJane]

Another vote for Blue!

Even I managed to build it and quickly too.

Building it yourself is great because you're on an up close and personal relationship with it. If something goes wrong, you'll have a far better idea where to start.

Mine's been great since day 1.




Flukes are great meters. There's a lot of perfectly good also-rans though.

[indomitus]

Can you test 0.02uF caps with the Blue meter?

[Agent24]

Originally Posted by indomitus

Can you test 0.02uF caps with the Blue meter?

Note that the Blue meter does not measure capacitance, it measures ESR.

It shouldn't be an issue to test them but 0.02uF is pretty low, seems unlikely to be an electrolytic capacitor and if it's not an electrolytic capacitor I don't know if there's any reason to test the ESR.

[Bob Parker]

Originally Posted by indomitus

Can you test 0.02uF caps with the Blue meter?

No. The Blue meter was designed to test electrolytic capacitors of about 1uF and above. There aren't many with values below 1uF.

The whole reason for measuring ESR is because only electrolytic capacitors have a big problem with increasing ESR causing faults. They don't make electrolytic caps with values as low as 0.02uF.

I hope this has clarified things a teensy bit. Now I'll go back to packing for my big house move.

[indomitus]

Originally Posted by Agent24

Note that the Blue meter does not measure capacitance, it measures ESR.

It shouldn't be an issue to test them but 0.02uF is pretty low, seems unlikely to be an electrolytic capacitor and if it's not an electrolytic capacitor I don't know if there's any reason to test the ESR.

Yes i know The Blue dont measure capacitance, i use my DDM for that.

Originally Posted by Bob Parker

No. The Blue meter was designed to test electrolytic capacitors of about 1uF and above. There aren't many with values below 1uF.

The whole reason for measuring ESR is because only electrolytic capacitors have a big problem with increasing ESR causing faults. They don't make electrolytic caps with values as low as 0.02uF.

I hope this has clarified things a teensy bit. Now I'll go back to packing for my big house move.

Your spot on, its not a electrolytic i need to test, its PIO and Mylar cap.
I have alot of old PIO and Mylar caps. i want to test.

Happy packing Bob

Any recommendation for equipment to testing these old caps.

Thanks.

[Bob Parker]

Originally Posted by indomitus

Yes i know The Blue dont measure capacitance, i use my DDM for that.



Your spot on, its not a electrolytic i need to test, its PIO and Mylar cap.
I have alot of old PIO and Mylar caps. i want to test.

Happy packing Bob

Any recommendation for equipment to testing these old caps.

Thanks.

Sorting through everything in an old family home, finding new homes for stuff I don't need and packing up what I need to take with me has been an experience I wouldn't wish on anyone.

But getting back to electronics... non-electrolytic caps aren't known for regularly failing or needing to be tested. I've never heard of their characteristics changing while they're in storage. When they fail, often they go short-circuited and sometimes open circuit (I've seen SMD ceramic caps do that if they're mechanically stressed). But usually they just keep working unless they get hit with excessive voltage or are physically damaged.

If you really want to test them, measure their capacitance with a DMM etc. If you get a crazy reading, see if they're shorted.

[indomitus]

Originally Posted by Bob Parker

If you really want to test them, measure their capacitance with a DMM etc. If you get a crazy reading, see if they're shorted.

I use my DMM and i measure fine with most of the caps, and i just cant believe that all these caps. is good.
Another thing that make me think that these caps is way out of spec. is that i use a ESRmicro 4.0 and the ERS readings is way to high, but again the capacitance is within spec.
Another thing is, i think the ESRmicro 4.0 it is not precise enough to measure such low values.

If i measure a new 10uF and a 6.8 uF cap. the readings is:
ESRmicro 4.0 measure: 12uF - 0.61 ESR
Amprobe 37XR-A measure: 9.93uF - ? ESR

ESRmicro 4.0 measure: 7.36 uF - 0.93 ESR
Amprobe 37XR-A measure: 6.43 uF - ? ESR

[Bob Parker]

The last time I looked, the tolerance of normal electrolytic capacitors was -50% to +100%. They are made for bulk capacitance in a small volume where the exact value is not important (e.g. signal coupling, power supply filtering), not for precision (e.g. timing circuits).

Now I have to continue my packing.

[mariushm]

Originally Posted by indomitus

Another thing that make me think that these caps is way out of spec. is that i use a ESRmicro 4.0 and the ERS readings is way to high, but again the capacitance is within spec.
Another thing is, i think the ESRmicro 4.0 it is not precise enough to measure such low values.

If i measure a new 10uF and a 6.8 uF cap. the readings is:
ESRmicro 4.0 measure: 12uF - 0.61 ESR
Amprobe 37XR-A measure: 9.93uF - ? ESR

ESRmicro 4.0 measure: 7.36 uF - 0.93 ESR
Amprobe 37XR-A measure: 6.43 uF - ? ESR

Did you calibrate your ESR Micro before measuring?
If you use the leads and you previously used the socket, you need to recalibrate it.

Otherwise, I found out the ESR Micro does display a bit higher capacity values up to about 470uF. Over that, it gets pretty accurate when measuring capacity.
I mean, on a 330uF it shows 350uF while my multimeter says 337-340uF. Same with 10uF capacitors, it read 12-14 uF.. not a fault, it's how it measures the capacity imho.

But that's just with my Uni-T UT61E, which has a 5% margin of error in the first place.

[indomitus]

Yes the ESRmirco is calibratet before use.

[indomitus]

Originally Posted by mariushm

Otherwise, I found out the ESR Micro does display a bit higher capacity values up to about 470uF. Over that, it gets pretty accurate when measuring capacity.
I mean, on a 330uF it shows 350uF while my multimeter says 337-340uF. Same with 10uF capacitors, it read 12-14 uF.. not a fault, it's how it measures the capacity imho.

But that's just with my Uni-T UT61E, which has a 5% margin of error in the first place.

Im just thinking is the ESRmicro measure so much more with low value caps. maybe the ESRmicro also measure ESR to high with low value electrolytic caps???

[DDRAMbo]

Why would you spend $100 for a 'Blue' ESR meter which only displays a 99-digit estimate of the ESR of electrolytic caps, when you could spend $160 for a professional quality, 20,000 digit, dual display LCR meter that measures capacitance from 20pF to 20mF (within 2.5%) using 5 different frequency signals (100, 120, 1k, 10k and 100kHz) along with the D (dissipation factor)/Q (quality factor)/phase angle and ESR, in addition to L (20uH - 2000H) and R (20 Ohm - 2,000MOhm), the Aktakom AMM-3035 from www.tmatlantic.com, which includes $100 worth of meter leads?