esr or cap tester

[bigbeark]

Originally Posted by Bob Parker

Just a quick note: It's ESR and not absolute capacitance value which is important. That's why there are lots of meters which measure ESR only. It's extremely rare to find an electrolytic cap with seriously low capacitance but acceptable ESR.

Also the capacitance tolerance on most electrolytic caps is -50% to +100%, which is a 2:1 ratio in each direction, showing how relatively unimportant the exact value is.

Bob, please clarify. I see new caps generally allow variance of + or - 20%.

I recapped 2 ASUS TUSL2-C boards, all Rubycon caps, would not load operating system.

I found all caps were appropriate ESR, definitely none above .06, but the 1000uf caps measured around 600uf capacitance.

Boards ran fine after recap, thought I had found the reason (low capacitance) for their failure.. I could certainly have overlooked something or inadvertently corrected a bad connection during the recapping.

[andycap]

Originally Posted by i4004

you have lytics with capacitance lower than 1uF?

Yes, my friend!

[i4004]

yes, i've found some in my stash of old caps too!
not 0.15, but 0.5 surely....

but you know what; measuring capacitance of those is not hard, even those multimeters that go up to 20uF can do it easilly.
(and those are easy to find)
as for ESR, i think one can draw some parallels to good 1uF caps etc.
here's that usefull post by bob again:
http://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthr...0097#post90097

these 0.5uF caps i have seem to have esr rather simillar to their 1uF cousins...

[Radio Fox]

Received my ESR-micro V4.0 today. It was despatched on 10th January, so took 10 days from Russia to UK.

It's a great little gadget. It comes with a pair of fixed probes for use on PCB's (or for caps with very short legs), and also a 16 pin DIL socket on the unit, into which you can plug in new caps to test. It makes a weird "chirp" every time it makes a measurement, unless the ESR is over 1 Ohm, then it will give 1 beep for every Ohm.

The probes can be calibrated by shorting them together at switch-on, although I found that the difference in readings between calibrated & not calibrated on my unit was so small that it wasn't really necessary. The left hand side of the 16 pin DIL socket on the front of the unit has a 1 Ohm, 10 Ohm & 100 Ohm resistor connected internally, which you can measure by touching the probes on the appropriate socket holes (presumably as a confidence test).

When used to measure resistors, the bottom half of the display, which would normally give capacitance reading, changes to display "R ONLY".

The unit takes 2 X CR 2032 batteries, which are not supplied (so buy some before your unit arrives so you can play with it straight away). The battery voltage is displayed each time the unit is turned on. The instructions say that the unit will work down to 4.0V, but there is no mention of any low battery warning built into the device.

The printed instructions were in Russian, but they are the same as the instructions on the website, so they can easily be translated. Mike also says that he is willing to answer any questions, in English, via email.

Excellent value for money.

[sam67]

Originally Posted by Radio Fox

Received my ESR-micro V4.0 today. It was despatched on 10th January, so took 10 days from Russia to UK.

It's a great little gadget. It comes with a pair of fixed probes for use on PCB's (or for caps with very short legs), and also a 16 pin DIL socket on the unit, into which you can plug in new caps to test. It makes a weird "chirp" every time it makes a measurement, unless the ESR is over 1 Ohm, then it will give 1 beep for every Ohm.

The probes can be calibrated by shorting them together at switch-on, although I found that the difference in readings between calibrated & not calibrated on my unit was so small that it wasn't really necessary. The left hand side of the 16 pin DIL socket on the front of the unit has a 1 Ohm, 10 Ohm & 100 Ohm resistor connected internally, which you can measure by touching the probes on the appropriate socket holes (presumably as a confidence test).

When used to measure resistors, the bottom half of the display, which would normally give capacitance reading, changes to display "R ONLY".

The unit takes 2 X CR 2032 batteries, which are not supplied (so buy some before your unit arrives so you can play with it straight away). The battery voltage is displayed each time the unit is turned on. The instructions say that the unit will work down to 4.0V, but there is no mention of any low battery warning built into the device.

The printed instructions were in Russian, but they are the same as the instructions on the website, so they can easily be translated. Mike also says that he is willing to answer any questions, in English, via email.

Excellent value for money.

Got my ESR meter also from Mike and it it very good value for the money..Well happy .

Thanks Mike

[RusMike]

BTW Guys, can someone help me with English manual correction. I hate to deal with some paper work, but it needs to be done somewhen...
File is in attch. Thanks in advance!!

[River]

Hope this helps some

[RusMike]

Originally Posted by River

Hope this helps some

THANKS! СПАСИБО! MUCHAS GRACIAS! MERCI!
It has already helped...

[hydrocap]

Hi everyone,
I am an amateur from Turkey and I am living in Ankara
I ordered my esr micro 4.0 to Rus Mike on Feb 4th 2010
and had it received only 9 days later (thanks to the Russian Post for
that fast delivery).
So far I ve tested a lot of electrolytic caps but most important of all were
the filter caps in my vintage gear (Pioneer A-80, Techics SU-V10X and
Tesla AZK-220 amplifiers to count) and I am very happy to see
that they are still in good condition allthough very old.
I d like to put a few good words for Rus Mike that he has built an excellent
little tester which is simple to use,versatile and far to precise for my requirements.
Its also very useful that it displays capacitance and esr figures instantly
and its battery consumption is almost nothing.

Thanking you again Mike with my wishes for further success

[metall]

Hi, I would like to say a few positive words about the products also, I just received my esr micro & fbtest from Mike at radiodevices, they are great little testers and excellent value for money, im sure i'll get plenty of use out of them.

The ordering process was a breeze, many thanks again Mike for a great service and excellent products.

M.

[sceva]

I am just beginning to learn about electronics and have a bunch of broken LCD monitors to try and repair. I was ready to buy the Anatek tester, but after reading this topic and comparing prices I ordered the Micro 4.0 a few moments ago. Even with DHL shipping the price is comparable to the Anatek Blue assembled, although I am anxious to start using it! It will be nice when someone in the US can warehouse and sell them. Thanks to everyone who posted.

[goodpsusearch]

I ordered 2 esr micro v4.0 testers on 16/02/2010. The second unit is for a friend.

The packet arrived at Wednesday and as soon I got it, I started testing capacitors!

That's a very useful and nice tool. I didn't have to wait too long and Mike (the Russian guy) was very helpful when asking him info about shipment and payment through paypal (I had no experience).

What I like most about esr mico v 4.0 is that it could not be more user friendly for a starter like me, being at the same time full of features.

[kenmras]

This is an awesome post and it's obvious RusMike's tools are favorites but can I get a "recap" of favorite esr testers? (sorry for the really bad pun :-) just couldn't help myself)

[100MH]

Looks like someone in the USA is selling the ESR-micro V4.0

Look at the last item on the page.
http://www.prc68.com/P/Prod.html

[kingofcoins]

My meter from Mike took about 15 days to PA. He was great on answering my questions on its use especially about accuracy and the batteries. The ESR-micro V4.0 meter from Mikhail is HIGHLY recommended !
I now have tested all the caps I removed from recent LCD repairs and found that about 70% were in fact bad, and ALL the ones that showed any bulging what so ever were BAD regardless of brands.
So, I now have a lot of about 30 good tested pulls from LCDs ...who wants them ..an offer? They are alum can radials, mostly from 2006 and younger units, 220uF to 1000uf mix of 10V to 35V common brands and sizes, but all tested well as I tossed about anything that didn't have a low or ultra low ESR...below 0.05 or so! Let me know also if you need any LCD parts...Thanks Mike !

[Rippa_MD]

Originally Posted by kingofcoins

My meter from Mike took about 15 days to PA. He was great on answering my questions on its use especially about accuracy and the batteries. The ESR-micro V4.0 meter from Mikhail is HIGHLY recommended !
I now have tested all the caps I removed from recent LCD repairs and found that about 70% were in fact bad, and ALL the ones that showed any bulging what so ever were BAD regardless of brands.
So, I now have a lot of about 30 good tested pulls from LCDs ...who wants them ..an offer? They are alum can radials, mostly from 2006 and younger units, 220uF to 1000uf mix of 10V to 35V common brands and sizes, but all tested well as I tossed about anything that didn't have a low or ultra low ESR...below 0.05 or so! Let me know also if you need any LCD parts...Thanks Mike !

so all the caps you pulled where on the power supply? how much shipped to MD? the lower the better

[medamotcha]

ive got one for yall. can we turn a reg multiymeter..in to a esr meter? and (lets say)i have the data sheet to the mutiymeter....could it be done?..

[medamotcha]

Originally Posted by andycap

Yes, my friend!

wow thay like to blow out from the bottom

[RusMike]

Originally Posted by 100MH

Looks like someone in the USA is selling the ESR-micro V4.0

Look at the last item on the page.
http://www.prc68.com/P/Prod.html

Yes you can use this link It is the simplest way for USA, Canada etc.

Also I want to say "THANKS!" to all who put some kind words about my "pets" Few days ago I have improved microcontroller's program and now resolution for low capacitance caps is 0.01uF (it was 0.1) (I think andycap would like it)

[Rippa_MD]

Originally Posted by RusMike

Yes you can use this link It is the simplest way for USA, Canada etc.

Also I want to say "THANKS!" to all who put some kind words about my "pets" Few days ago I have improved microcontroller's program and now resolution for low capacitance caps is 0.01uF (it was 0.1) (I think andycap would like it)

I received my ESR-Micro V4 today.

I'm new to this type of device.

I was testing a unsoldered 470uf 35V radial cap using the probes, how do I know if the cap is good? I heard a bird chirp and the E reading was .12 and C reading was 452 and according to the manual the cap is good. So this 470uf 35v cap is good right?

What does a bad cap sound like or read when using the Micro v4.0 meter?
I need to measure a 2200uf 16V radial cap but it's not listed in the
http://www.prc68.com/I/Capacitors.shtml

Or what does a good cap sound like or read when using the Micro v4.0 meter?