ESR meter upgrades

[stj]

Re: ESR meter upgrades

223 is 22nF
you need 220nF (224)

[sauna]

Re: ESR meter upgrades

Thank you, stj.I've tried everything.at the last stage, he does not measure anything.
as if stuck tightly.

[sauna]

Re: ESR meter upgrades

I will explain the test.what it should be.


1. in the first stage, short circuit to 123
2. the second stage I have a 2 mf capacitor
3 .0.022 capacitor.this is 223j.this is 23nf
or am I wrong?

[eccerr0r]

Re: ESR meter upgrades

How much calibration do these need anyway, these devices vary so much that we need 0.1% capacitors to calibrate them? Uhoh.

2uF capacitor? (I've hated "mF" for uF even though they've done this in the past, grr. I don't like mmf for pf either. Make Money Fast!)

0.022uF = 22nF = 22000pF = 22 x 10³ pF = code 223; 223j = 0.022uF±5%

I don't think I have any accurate (i.e. not a ceramic) 0.22uF capacitor... needed for calibration?

[stj]

Re: ESR meter upgrades

a copy/paste from my old txt

after programming, you need to calibrate the unit. (preferably twice)
you need something to short all 3 inputs,
and an accurate capacitor between 100n and 1uf - i recommend a 220n polyester cap.
-
you also need a good stable capacitor between 10 and 30nF to calibrate the new small inductor mode.
if you dont have one, just ignore the cal message till it times-out

[redwire]

Re: ESR meter upgrades

If the crystal does not match the MCU fuse setting, as well as the F/W- there are problems. Fast F/W with low crystal will read smaller C values I think.
i.e. compiled F/W build is for 20MHz, crystal fuse 8MHz, C readings too low.

TransistorTester with AVR microcontroller and a little more
Version 1.13k Karl-Heinz Kubbeler

[eccerr0r]

Re: ESR meter upgrades

Ah so the actual value doesn't matter and you don't need to "enter" the value in...? interesting. I guess with accurate "T" and "R" you can still find accurate "C".

Will be interesting to compare this to the Sencore.

[stj]

Re: ESR meter upgrades

you need firmware that matches the crystal speed because there are time-constants in the software.

[eccerr0r]

Re: ESR meter upgrades

And how accurate is the crystal or is it using the on-chip oscillator, that thing really should be calibrated too...not sure if atmel^H^H^H^H^H^H microchip tunes those to 1ppm?

[stj]

Re: ESR meter upgrades

it's 100% crystal.
that's one of the reasons why you do the cal procedure.

[eccerr0r]

Re: ESR meter upgrades

How does one calibrate the crystal or is it dependent on the crystal being accurate? Can crystal errors be calibrated to some NIST traceable source?

[stj]

Re: ESR meter upgrades

it's assumed you have a decent crystal and a good pcb track layout.
most crystals are 20ppm or better now, and variance in smd caps is very low.

[eccerr0r]

Re: ESR meter upgrades

One would hope that they are, though for like microprocessors there's a reason most computers have a huge variance between them despite being the "same" frequency...

[clearchris]

Re: ESR meter upgrades

How essential is a rotary encoder to the software? I understood that it was pretty important to navigate the menus, and both meters with enough flash to support all the functions (hiland) and tc-1 have only a button.

[stj]

Re: ESR meter upgrades

if it's a large button and not a 5mm one then a rotary fits the pads.
i'v put a rotary on a tc1

essential - no, but it's nice to have for extra modes.
tc1 has issues btw, you want to pull the 8pin mcu and replace it with a discrete 2 transistor circuit.
it controls the power - but has a habit of drawing current instead of sleeping - 100mA of current!

[clearchris]

Re: ESR meter upgrades

if it's a large button and not a 5mm one then a rotary fits the pads.
i'v put a rotary on a tc1

essential - no, but it's nice to have for extra modes.
tc1 has issues btw, you want to pull the 8pin mcu and replace it with a discrete 2 transistor circuit.
it controls the power - but has a habit of drawing current instead of sleeping - 100mA of current!

Ha, how many different models do you have?

I looked through some of this thread and some of the 277 page thread on eev and it seems that there's no perfect lcr at any price. I'm starting to thing having two might be the best option, I already have an lcr-t4, so maybe if I get a tc1 that can round out the collection.

The other LCR that seems interesting is the Highland M644 which has some specfic hardware for frequency counting.

From what I have read, you can reprogram the MCU on the TC1 so you don't have to replace it with 2 transistors. It's unfortunate that it comes with a case, but I can print a new one...

[stj]

Re: ESR meter upgrades

you can reprogram the stc micro on a tc1 - it still crashes out of sleep mode though.

[clearchris]

Re: ESR meter upgrades

you can reprogram the stc micro on a tc1 - it still crashes out of sleep mode though.

Hmm, I saw a reference to using the two transistors or reprogramming the u4. Maybe it was with the assumption that the reader does the programming. I have however seen .bin files for the u4 mcu though in that thread, I wonder what they do...

[stj]

Re: ESR meter upgrades

the bin files arent a real fix.
this is:

[clearchris]

Re: ESR meter upgrades

Damn, that's a lot to fit on a small pad. Are people soldering in small boards? At a point, I think it would be better to splice in an on/off switch on the line to the battery.