Urgent Ebay Listing Question about ESR METER?

[ComputerGeek]

Hey, guy's I found this on eBay and was wondering if it is any Good? The listing ends soon.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Creative-Ele...#ht_500wt_1361

Do I also need a Meter to test Caps? My Meters are here https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showpo...8&postcount=38

I assume this does not do Esr?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Digital-capa...#ht_500wt_1361

I also was looking at these,

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NIPPON-AMERI...ht_4408wt_1000

http://www.ebay.com/itm/circuit-Capa...ht_1340wt_1486

Can this really do in-cuircut testing?

Any Help, And recommendations would be great!

---Edit Also What about these?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ESR-Meter-El...ht_2110wt_1344

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-ESR-and-...#ht_515wt_1344

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Esr-Meter-Te...ht_2152wt_1344

THanks!

[Toasty]

Re: Urgent Ebay Listing Question about ESR METER?

No analog meter can read low enough to accurately determine a bad, low ESR cap. You can "guesstimate" with them, but you can not distinguish a reading of 0.030Ω from a 0.010Ω.

I use and recommend the Bob Parker Blue ESR meter from AnaTek.
http://www.anatekcorp.com/esr.htm

Buy the kit form, save $30, and learn something about it.

AnaTek also offers the Atlas ESR Plus and there are a few other Digital ones out there that I've heard forum members speak of, but I have no opinion on those.

Toast

[smason]

Re: Urgent Ebay Listing Question about ESR METER?

Agreed. An analog ESR meter can find the odd bad cap with high ESR, but isn't accurate enough to really test low ESR caps.

I'd go with the Parker, or the Russian Mike ESR Micro unit, both get great reviews.

[multimeter]

Re: Urgent Ebay Listing Question about ESR METER?

i dont like analogue esr meters they tend to be a bit vague,for accurate results go with the digital esr meter,the one i use is a little gem its an peak atlas esr70,it will identify all litics at a bat of an eyelid,and with spot on results

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Urgent Ebay Listing Question about ESR METER?

What they said...

[Agent24]

Re: Urgent Ebay Listing Question about ESR METER?

I also built and use a Bob Parker Blue ESR meter and really like it.

If you could get an analogue ESR meter like that for $5 or something it might be worth it, but not for that auction price.

[bigbeark]

Re: Urgent Ebay Listing Question about ESR METER?

I use the last one you listed, from the Hungarian guy.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Esr-Meter-Te...ht_2152wt_1344

It uses an easy-to-find 9V battery and has worked well for me. I have had it for a couple of years now. The Blue Meter may be more accurate but it's also about $40 more. In addition it comes with alligator clips. I believe you will want the test probes which are another $10 or so.

Bear in mind that the ESR meter enables you to find bad caps in circuit.
Most of the caps that go bad will be in the VRM circuit and these may be harder to spot because they are wired in parallel and the bad cap may be
hidden by the good caps in the circuit.

That said, caps that have really high ESR are frequently bulged or domed.
Careful visual inspection is helpful.

What surprises me is how many caps that look OK and measure OK in circuit turn out to have drastically degraded capacitance when tested with
a capacitance meter when removed from the board.

I always test new caps before installation, with both the ESR and capacitance meters. This is where you catch the fake caps. Typically their capacitance is all over the map or way too low. Generally their ESR is also too high for their intended use.

[Peter9DO]

Re: Urgent Ebay Listing Question about ESR METER?

I have a Peak Atlas ESR+ (ESR70) that I just bought and am very happy I decided to spend the extra money on this tester! I was looking at just about every option you have there, checking out web site after web site, asking people their views on every model and the one that kept coming to the top was the Peak Atlas ESR70. I would consider spending the extra $50 if you can, you will be very pleased, without a doubt!

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Urgent Ebay Listing Question about ESR METER?

Finding bad caps in-circuit is mostly advertising hype.
It works -sometimes- and less often than not.
Especially true on motherboards.
.

[ratdude747]

Re: Urgent Ebay Listing Question about ESR METER?

Finding bad caps in-circuit is mostly advertising hype.
It works -sometimes- and less often than not.
Especially true on motherboards.
.

especially in the VRM, where the caps are in parallel... you always test out of circuit.

[tom66]

Re: Urgent Ebay Listing Question about ESR METER?

Finding bad caps in-circuit is mostly advertising hype.
It works -sometimes- and less often than not.
Especially true on motherboards.
.

This is so true. I was debugging an LG plasma TV power supply. About 9 of the caps had bulged and were causing problems for it. So I checked them and they measured okay ESR (<0.01 ohms for 5x in parallel.) When removed from the circuit, almost all of them measured 1 ohm ESR each.

[Bob Parker]

Re: Urgent Ebay Listing Question about ESR METER?

Finding bad caps in-circuit is mostly advertising hype.
It works -sometimes- and less often than not.
Especially true on motherboards.

100% agree. The Dick Smith/Blue meter was designed back in 1995 for fault-finding CRT TVs etc where it's unusual to find paralleled electrolytic caps. In that kind of circuitry you almost never see anything with a very low high-frequency impedance shunting electrolytic caps so you can usually test in circuit.

Motherboards and anything else with paralleled caps are a totally different story. You have no choice but to disconnect one lead of each cap and test it individually. And only then after it's cooled down from being desoldered because the heat makes the ESR drop and the cap appear to be better than it is.

[popeye]

Re: Urgent Ebay Listing Question about ESR METER?

Peak are very good most engineers I know use them analog meters are not up to the job

[QuantumCheese]

Re: Urgent Ebay Listing Question about ESR METER?

I've often wondered if i should get one of these, the little research i had done was leading me down the Peak route.
Saying that, i have quite a good fluke which is also good at in-circuit capacitance measurements, and if not whip em out & test. I've replaced a lot of caps in my time, mostly bulging but some not and they all had degraded or out-of-spec capacitance when measured. So do i really need a ESR meter i keep saying to myself??

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Urgent Ebay Listing Question about ESR METER?

I've often wondered if i should get one of these, the little research i had done was leading me down the Peak route.
Saying that, i have quite a good fluke which is also good at in-circuit capacitance measurements, and if not whip em out & test. I've replaced a lot of caps in my time, mostly bulging but some not and they all had degraded or out-of-spec capacitance when measured. So do i really need a ESR meter i keep saying to myself??

Capacitance is often fine even when the ESR is bad.
.
I personally don't do much that isn't Low ESR applications.
In that range ESR seems to go bad first.
Lacking an ESR meter I would miss a LOT of bad caps.
.
But, if you only do say a half dozen projects a year (or less) then just replacing all the 'usual suspects' by default might be a better plan.
It's usually best to do that anyway in mobos, SMPS and LCD screens.

If you're going to replace the cRaps regardless then checking ESR only serves as a confirmation.
It's also nice to catch new ones that are duds but that isn't very common.
.

[ComputerGeek]

Re: Urgent Ebay Listing Question about ESR METER?

Thanks for clearing all of this up guy's I am going to get a peak of something similar after I get a sale. Thanks!

[kc8adu]

Re: Urgent Ebay Listing Question about ESR METER?

another thing that will trip up ANY esr meter is caps in paralell with mlcc.
the 10@16 sm lytic can be open but the mlcc gives a good reading.

[Agent24]

Re: Urgent Ebay Listing Question about ESR METER?

And that would be 'Multi-Layer Ceramic Capacitor' ?