ESR Meters

[JEWilson]

I've seen a number of ESR kits available as designed by Bob Parker.

These appear to come in two flavours;

1. K-7204
2. K-7214 Mark II

First, what would forum members recommend?
Second, what is the difference between both of these designs?

Any help, insight and advice appreciated

[Kaine]

Originally Posted by JEWilson

I've seen a number of ESR kits available as designed by Bob Parker.

These appear to come in two flavours;

1. K-7204
2. K-7214 Mark II

First, what would forum members recommend?
Second, what is the difference between both of these designs?

Any help, insight and advice appreciated

I'm trying to source a back issue of Silicon Chip with an article on the Mark 2 atm. hopefully i can get my hands on it soon. Bob Parker is a registered member here and was posting in this thread a while back. Maybe try dropping him a PM?

[JEWilson]

Hi

I did try to send a private message - no response yet

I did acquire a K-7204 kit, this is built and is serving me well so far!

Thanks

[starfury1]

not sure if its Mark 1 or II and I think there is little difference, construction wise
(I could be wrong)

EA version was MKI

but the manual is at hie web site in PDF

Just checked its the MK2 manual

Here

Scroll down a bit

Thaks Bob

You can also buy a Pre build EVB version

Cheers

[Bob Parker]

Originally Posted by JEWilson

Hi

I did try to send a private message - no response yet

I did acquire a K-7204 kit, this is built and is serving me well so far!

Thanks

Hi from Australia,
I don't know how the PM system works, but so far I haven't received anything. I just happened to look here and saw this little discussion.
There isn't a lot of difference between the Mk1 and Mk2 versions of the ESR meter. They use exactly the same circuitry and board layout.
In the Mk2, we tried to get the chart on the front a bit more accurate for current-generation capacitors. The Mk2 is powered by 6 AAA cells not a 9V battery and its automatic switch-off time is 3 minutes not 2 minutes. The Mk2 has a smaller push button and also the circuit board is marked with the component locations, plus it has solder masking to try and cut down on the number of problems with people making solder whiskers.
Probably the biggest difference is that the Mk2 meter's microcontroller is capable of doing a simple self-test of the circuitry to help identify problems in construction. Once a meter's properly built and working, that function is never used.
As you can see, most of the differences are related to construction. Your Mk1 meter performs almost exactly the same as a Mk2.
Hope this answers your questions.

Bob

[JEWilson]

Thanks

What are recommended to replace the probes as supplied with
the kit?

So far as those supplied are simple banana plugs, would
a decent set of replacement leads require a new set
of sockets also for the meter?

I did rub the supplied set with steel wool but consider a
better set of leads may be the route to go.

Please advise

[Per Hansson]

Nah, the sockets are ok
I bought a set of Fluke probes, used for their DMM's

Cost about as much as the ESR meter itself but does a good job =)

[starfury1]

probs supplied with the kits arn't the greatest and sometimes may give problems just clean then ( and perhaps retention them (bend-em out a bit) if they feel a bit lose.)

In a thread here somewhere a theres a discussion on it.

Or spent up big like Per did

Just a point to watch out for, as I mentioned ..if your aware of it you wont get caught by it thats all.

From memory and I could have it wrong (Bob correct me here, if I am)

When you "zero it" it will actually "correct" for the "contact resistance"

The key of course is so long as it remains the same.
Moving the leads around might change this,
so thats why give them a clean, if the reading seem a bit strange.

Have a play with it and measure a few different types (GP low ESR etc)
and values of caps
to get a feel for it and how it might behave for you.

The scale on it, is more like worse case so you should mostly get lower readings

If you got some popped cap measure them also

Get to know the instrument

[Per Hansson]

For me it did not help when zeroing the probes, the values still moved around like crazy when measuring a resistor with a known value for example...

Bending the contacts out so it made better contact didn't help either...

[Bob Parker]

Originally Posted by JEWilson

Thanks

What are recommended to replace the probes as supplied with
the kit?

So far as those supplied are simple banana plugs, would
a decent set of replacement leads require a new set
of sockets also for the meter?

I did rub the supplied set with steel wool but consider a
better set of leads may be the route to go.

Please advise

The early ESR meter kits had a very cheap set of probes included. Their plugs were of the 'straight' kind. These were causing problems of excess contact resistance, so Dick Smith Electronics changed to considerably better probes which have '90 degree' plugs.
I've got those on my second ESR meter, and I haven't had any problems with them.
You have to expect some variations in the readings on the bottom range (.00 - .99 ohms) because you're measuring 1/100's of 1 ohm which is tiny. Variations in the amount of pressure on the probe tips and their position in their sockets will make the readings change a bit.
Personally when measuring big caps, I wiggle the plugs in their sockets then put lots of pressure on the probe tips when zeroing the meter and measuring the cap.
Like me mate Starfury said, you need to get used to how the meter behaves. Bad caps still stand out very clearly, because they will read much higher than what the chart says.

[Spacedye69]

I have the MKII meter and I tweaked the bannanas on the end of the leads to provide a tighter fit and cleaned both ends with emery cloth and brake parts cleaner(don't spray the plastic! Put some on a paper towel and wipe). That fixed all the problems I had.