Need some help on Blue ESR meter assembly

[SmallWalrus]

Hi all,

Sorry in advance for my extremely noob-cake questions

I got myself a Blue ESR meter lately, and got a bit stumped with the final bit of its assembly.

To make it easier for you guys to see what I mean, here is how it looks like now:


I managed to figure out where the two variable pots go as well as the 2 blue LED lights, however what got me are 3 little capacitors. The ones that are 22uF, 33nF and 0.47uF.

There are two 22uF capacitors on the schematic, and the bigger one I have soldered on, but the smaller one seems a bit too big for the big rectangle there. Have I gotten them mixed up? Also, which of the leads is for the positive terminal? (The positive sign is printed in the middle in between the two leads).

I also can't seem to figure out the remaining two capacitors. The little green blocky one has the code "K63 1817 F1103" which I can't seem to plug into any online calculator at all, while the other smaller brown one has "16L 3333" printed on it, which gave me the same problem.

Isn't it supposed to be a 3 letter code? How are these codes supposed to be interpreted?

[mariushm]

Re: Need some help on Blue ESR meter assembly

See this page: http://www.djlewis.us/files/electronics/blue/
The end result as shown on that page is this:




The blue leds go by the numeric digits. They'll light up showing the decimal point... ex first led lighs => value is .## , second led lights, value is #.# Two decimals after dot is enough.

You have printed on the board [33nF] by the place where test leads go.

The manual is here:

It also shows where each numbered part goes, with large picture of the board.

( looks like you have a revision of the pcb that doesn't need two capacitors at the bottom, your board is different than the one in the manual pictures)

[SmallWalrus]

Re: Need some help on Blue ESR meter assembly

See this page: http://www.djlewis.us/files/electronics/blue/
The end result as shown on that page is this:




The blue leds go by the numeric digits. They'll light up showing the decimal point... ex first led lighs => value is .## , second led lights, value is #.# Two decimals after dot is enough.

You have printed on the board [33nF] by the place where test leads go.

The manual is here:

It also shows where each numbered part goes, with large picture of the board.

( looks like you have a revision of the pcb that doesn't need two capacitors at the bottom, your board is different than the one in the manual pictures)

Which hole for C6 is for the positive leg? The "+" sign is printed right in the middle between two holes which isn't quite helpful

[mariushm]

Re: Need some help on Blue ESR meter assembly

C6 is supposed to be bi-polar capacitor, so polarity doesn't matter. The capacitor actually shouldn't even have a - sign on it.

The schematics is in the PDF, page 2, C6 is right at the bottom of the page, in parallel with C5.

[Agent24]

Re: Need some help on Blue ESR meter assembly

I think you have gotten the 22uF capacitors mixed up.

The one that lies on its side is the Bipolar capacitor, and will not typically have a positive or negative side marked, and will also be labelled BP or NP (for Bipolar or Non-polar)

Check the big one you have already soldered in, if it says BP on it then you need to swap it for the other one. Hopefully it will be short enough to fit inside the case because if you've installed it vertically the leads will be too short to install bent over in the correct position, and you will need to buy another capacitor.


Also, you seem to have gotten the DIP socket for the Microcontroller in backwards. This will not cause issues electrically, BUT if you accidentally put the notch of the IC along with the notch on the socket, it too will be in backwards.

The silkscreen on the PCB shows the correct notch location.


As for those other capacitor codes - that is a rather tricky one!

I would guess that the Small brown capacitor is the 33nF one and that the large green one is the 0.47uF one (because size and shape fits with the silkscreen, and the larger value capacitor should be physically larger) but the codes (especially for the green one) don't match up, or are from a code system I am not familiar with.


Also, I see a lot of flux on your board - you should probably clean this off, it could cause operation errors if it's conductive, or it may cause corrosion if it's powerful or an acid-based flux.

[Eliot Ness]

Re: Need some help on Blue ESR meter assembly

I'm a little late here, but I just finished that kit yesterday so I'm familiar with identifying those caps.

I agree with Agent24 that you have the 22uF caps switched. As noted the one you have already soldered needs to be removed because it is actually C6 (non-polar).

The large square green one is in fact C10 (470nF) and the brown one is C7 (33nF).

Watch the polarity of the blue LED's when you mount them; the shorter lead must go toward the 7-segment displays (to the right as you're looking down at the board). Good luck!

John

[Bob Parker]

Re: Need some help on Blue ESR meter assembly

Just to put everyone's minds at rest, he contacted me and after some confusion he got his Blue ESR meter working. Here's a picture he sent me....