Measuring any type of capacitor with ESR meter?

[sigmeyer]

Hi , so im sure someone has asked this before but i just cant find an answer online and im also not an electrical engineer. So i was thinking of using an ESR meter for measuring ESR of lets say tantulum capacitors, instead of always mentioned electrolitic caps. Will the reading be the same as in electrolitic caps? What about ceramic ones?

[stj]

Re: Measuring any type of capacitor with ESR meter?

you can meter any type of caps

[sigmeyer]

Re: Measuring any type of capacitor with ESR meter?

Also , i have this weird thing happening , on some capacitors that i suspect are faulty ... it gives me a reading when testing in diode mode .. it shows around 1200reading when going across them...what does this mean? some of them dont give me a reading at all , and they are exactly the same capacitors... Does it mean that the ones that give me the reading are faulty?

[sigmeyer]

Re: Measuring any type of capacitor with ESR meter?

also its not just a brief reading like when you test a charged capacitor ... instead its more like a steady decline reading , starting from around 1400 going downwards really slowly... also im testing them in diode mode in reverse polarity... Negative probe on positive side ETC...

[pecrie]

Re: Measuring any type of capacitor with ESR meter?

Hhmm ...
Are you using a real ESR meter ? I don't know any ESR meter with a diode mode to test capacitors.
If you are using a DMM you most likely are charging the cap - and putting the red and black lead in a different way may discharge the cap.

In another position you probably are charging the cap.

By the way , when testing ESR you should always discharge the cap first .

[sigmeyer]

Re: Measuring any type of capacitor with ESR meter?

No i was just using a multimeter , trying to test wheter or not some tantulum caps are good... And i tested over 20 caps most of them give me that number going down , when connected in reverse polarity. Only a few of them actually give me no reading at all. So im now starting to think that the ones that give off no reading are the faulty ones. Im talking about tantulum capacitors here BTW , so you dont get confused. Just a weird thing i observed

[stj]

Re: Measuring any type of capacitor with ESR meter?

you cant do that test with a multimeter - they are probably all good caps

[sigmeyer]

Re: Measuring any type of capacitor with ESR meter?

You might be correct actually... I was thinking they were faulty because i just could get this ps3 to boot ... i think i damaged the CPU somehow with the heat... It was sort of on its way out anyway... ran at 70C at IDLE ,so yeah i might have just pushed it to the edge with all this work around it...Good news is caps are probably all good , so i got plenty of spares to work on new ps3 , that can be brought to life

[pecrie]

Re: Measuring any type of capacitor with ESR meter?

Did you measure the caps in circuit or did you de-solder them off the board ??

To really know if the cap is good you should use a capacitance meter and a ESR meter.
There are meters that combine these 2 functions - and better to measure soldered off the board.

[COSMOS2k]

Re: Measuring any type of capacitor with ESR meter?

Hello:

Today to measure and evaluate capacitors you have to have a good ESR meter, if it measures more parameters even better.

Using a multimeter can sometimes disorient us, especially if low voltage tantalums are measured, when connecting them to the multimeter with reversed polarity the tantalums present a very low resistance, sometimes they are used in equipment for their protection against polarity changes or simply to create a very low resistance to AC voltages, they generate a short circuit that will blow the fuse.

Fluke 5XXX calibrators for example are designed in this way so that they are protected against electrical elements of the type that I have mentioned.
Personally, my ESR meters are manufactured and sometimes designed by me, because even professionals lack some measurements that are sometimes essential.

In the market and on the internet there are many options to buy or DIY, I have always opted for the latter since they learn how they work and many things are understood that go unnoticed in commercial meters.

I am currently building a m63 meter designed by miron63 (search YouTube). This uses a special feature to discern some states that in most commercials and other DIYs go unnoticed, I advise watching some of these videos they are very, very interesting.

Sorry for my bad English.

Regards.