ESR meter really showing only esr

[yoritomo]

Hello

My question is about efficiency of esr meters, as you know it has 2 types of esr meters, the bad one which is a simple AC ohmmeter simply displaying the total impédance of the capacitor. And most evoluate one able to display ESR only regardless of capacitance.

Then of course i would like to buy the second type of ESR meter, i would say a real one, i am not which ones are good or not in this way, can you please give me some advises about it ?

I was thinking to buy Atlas ESR70 which is handy for uncosy work places, testing capacitance and ESR.
Is it a good choice or not? It is not really cheap, does it exist good equivalents to it for lower price over Europe ?

Thanks for your help.

[stj]

Re: ESR meter really showing only esr

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/400771099161

[yoritomo]

Re: ESR meter really showing only esr

Thank you for the link, it look as a very smart tool for the price, look like one 0 is missing in the price.
AS ESR meter is an interesting one ?

[stj]

Re: ESR meter really showing only esr

there are many, go to ebay and search "esr meter"
some are even cheaper but the display is only test.
there are even kits.

[yoritomo]

Re: ESR meter really showing only esr

yes i know it has a lot of different ones available, but very few are true ESR meters, most of them mesure capacitive impedance + ESR , and that is not the purpose at all, they are cheap but not useful. I ever made such crappy ESR meter as well, and became almost useless for me, even if it enables me to find really bad caps a lot of them still let me doubts.

[Uniballer]

Re: ESR meter really showing only esr

There is a slight problem. Test voltage makes a big difference for in-circuit performance (you don't want to turn on diodes/transistors when you are just trying to test capacitors).

If you want an ESR tester to work (at least some of the time) in circuit for the purpose of finding bad capacitors then you want a meter made for that purpose. Like the Anatek Blue ESR meter, maybe. Or the Peak meter the OP mentioned. Or something else that you like.

If you are willing to give up in-circuit testing and want really good measurements then take a look at something like this handheld LCR meter. Not guaranteed to work in circuit, but awesome if you need to separate ESR from other aspects of impedance.

[stj]

Re: ESR meter really showing only esr

you cant trust in-circuit testing, that's just advertising bullshit.

[yoritomo]

Re: ESR meter really showing only esr

stj, i think so, it is sometime working but most of time tricky near semiconductors and multiple parallel capacitors.

Uniballer, it looks like a nice tool following the link.

I took a decision today and finally ordered an ESR70 i will receive it on beginning of the next month, i will post a feedback here when i will have used this tool .

Thank you all for your advices and tips.