Other than a soldering iron and meter, what should / could I buy?

[Fizzycapola]

What other equipment could I buy to help fix (improve or max out) my electronic devices?

Such as osciloscopes, esr meters, component testers, further reading ...etc

Thanks in advance.

[i4004]

Re: Other than a soldering iron and meter, what should / could I buy?

buy what you need when you need it.

buy esr meter anyway.

[gonzo0815]

Re: Other than a soldering iron and meter, what should / could I buy?

I think ESR meter is quite helpful, as it end the guess work regarding capacitors. An LCR meter would be useful for checking capacitance , as ESR is not in any case the sing for failure.
Oscope is not a trivial thing, it needs some knowledge too use it effectively. But then it is a very interesting tool. But it all depends, what you want to do. So i think i4004 is right, don`t just by something, you actually have no use for.

[i4004]

Re: Other than a soldering iron and meter, what should / could I buy?

cheap lcr meter
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showth...hlight=elektor
(just uploaded java app and pdf there so you don't have to register...as register process was not straight forward for me, first i was on non-uk site, then i needed to go to uk site..bloody mess...)

cheap scopes
http://www.picotech.com/oscilloscope...fications.html

but essentially scope is not something u'll use often to repair stuff(in that aspect standalone scopes are waay to expensive).
but it's fun as an exploration tool.

oh yeah, of all things mentioned "further reading" is probably most important.

[Junk Parts]

Re: Other than a soldering iron and meter, what should / could I buy?

All Junk Parts can say is that voltage leads or lags current when it comes to a scope. It depends on the load or something like that. Its been thirty years since I even touched a scope in school. These folks here know what you do need so listen to them, but not me.....LOL Lets have a coldie. Mate!

[Fizzycapola]

Re: Other than a soldering iron and meter, what should / could I buy?

Thanks for the replies.

Hmmm Picotech still three figure prices though.

Ideally I'd like a handheld scope in two figure price bracket really.

Theres alot of 2nd hand stuff around on ebay, I wonder if it's worth looking into.

[Fizzycapola]

Re: Other than a soldering iron and meter, what should / could I buy?

Went for Atlas meter and a multimeter on special offer by Caltech (with capacitance test in range pF - 20uF) (also has frequency test whatever that is???).

Didn't realise it at the time, but this should allow me to test all capacitors now, as I didn't realise the Atlas couldn't do less than 1uF. Also what big aligator clips it has, it's a laugh trying to press the test button with your nose whilst keeping the clips straight.

Tested it on my stocks, Oscons, Rubycon's and Panasonic still holding their stats perfectly the 1000uF caps all measured 1000uF or higher and all had good ESR's low enough to test the low limit of the meter of average ~0.02. Samwha VA that I bought for a laugh measured ~940uF, I'd been testing them in a socketed modem and from the shakiness of the connections already wrote them off compared with the known good brands.

Made test adaptor for the capacitance meter to measure surface mount caps, found out the cap I needed was 3.33nF, slightly disappointing because recently I starting hording mlcc's for my classic blind replacement of parts and the lowest value I bought was 100nF most are 1 - 10uF lol. Not that it mattered, I already replaced some 3.33nF parts with 100nF and seems to work so far.

Also went for a TEC glue gun and polymer electrical potting glue, to fix wobbly sockets , noisy coils and the like.

Been looking at professional test equipment also, what the hell are these things that measure ESR + Q??? talk about infinite complexity...

Anyways thanks again for your advice. Cheers.

[gonzo0815]

Re: Other than a soldering iron and meter, what should / could I buy?

I think the Altas ESR meter is a very good tool, as it measures capacitance and ESR at once.
Sure it is not cheap, but for a pro it is probably the most efficient way to check capacitors.

[starfury1]

Re: Other than a soldering iron and meter, what should / could I buy?

Hi Fizzy
well dont take this the wrong way mate
but Knowledge my friend
A good sound understanding of the basics of electronics can take you further then any Rolls Royce of Oscilloscopes

Knowing how to use them and what they are telling you

So get studying
plenty of sites out there to learn from and brains to pick here

On tools, me well a good meter(or 3) an ESR meter and of course a decent Soldering Station (desolder stuff too is great if you can afford it but does depend on how far you really want to take things I suppose)

A lot of meters do have extras like capacitance inductance frequency

Also with a bit of ingenuity you can make some add ons for other things with meters

Well just on cro's I dont think any of them are cheap and most now are storage digital things
you can get some older Tektronix's that were worth like $4000 for a few hundred these days.
you can also get those add on ones for computers but how useful they are I don't really know, say $300~$400 odd

I guess a scope is useful but maybe not a must have...ok maybe if you doing audio
or really need to look at waveforms
like I said I dont do much these days and I'll leave that question as to how useful one is for the likes of KC8, old hands here for computers, those that do on a daily basis

Sure, a handy device at times...really depends on what you doing I suppose

anyway just my mostly useless thoughts for you.

Cheers

[Fizzycapola]

Re: Other than a soldering iron and meter, what should / could I buy?

anyway just my mostly useless thoughts for you.

Never, I couldn't ask for more other than installing a knowledge chip in my brain, you're always unaffraid of being thorough and thoughtfull. I look forward to reading your posts particularly.