Finally built the Bob Parker "Blue" ESR Meter

[stj]

Re: Finally built the Bob Parker "Blue" ESR Meter

i built that ring tester on stripboard - couldnt have done without it fixing crt tv's/monitors!

[sam_sam_sam]

Re: Finally built the Bob Parker "Blue" ESR Meter

I have had mine for many years now and it still works very well in fact I just bought another one recently I going to take the first one and change it to run on 5 volts so when I check a lot of caps I do not have to keep turning it back on all the time

I also bought the ring tester as well and several times it saved my a** when trying to figure out why a switching power supply transformer end up being shorted and that why it was blowing the main fuse

[volkswagenvan]

Re: Finally built the Bob Parker "Blue" ESR Meter

They're already being called "vintage" by some people.

Lol, So am I !

[Bob Parker]

Re: Finally built the Bob Parker "Blue" ESR Meter

None of us ever expected it to become well known. It's been a surprising 26 year long "journey". 🙀

I`m sure it will be around another 26+ years to come!

That's if the Zilog microcontroller chips are still available. They're already being called "vintage" by some people.

[volkswagenvan]

Re: Finally built the Bob Parker "Blue" ESR Meter

None of us ever expected it to become well known. It's been a surprising 26 year long "journey". ��

I`m sure it will be around another 26+ years to come!

[Bob Parker]

Re: Finally built the Bob Parker "Blue" ESR Meter

Blowing tracks off the PCB Wow! You had the hindsight to use special fusible link tracks! That meter was over engineered .Lol

Cool story on the magazine construction project! I bet that editor understood a lot more about your project when your kit sales took off.

Glad you have a such a good guy as Andy making up the kits for you and I feel a lot better about the longevity of my blue after reading your posts!

Thank`s for all the information Bob and thank`s again for making the Blue!

You're the first person who's noticed the thinner "fusible" PCB track. 👍 Andy's doing his own thing with the Blue meters. My only involvement now is supporting people who build them and have a problem, and pop up on the Alltronics discussion forum.

The editor quickly found out what the ESR meter was designed for, and even did a little article about getting one of the Dick Smith meters and using it!

None of us ever expected it to become well known. It's been a surprising 26 year long "journey". 🙀

[Bob Parker]

Re: Finally built the Bob Parker "Blue" ESR Meter

I saw spikes of around 35mA but about 12mA idle and 25-28 with the leads shorted or while testing a capacitor.

Thanks for the measurements. I don't actually have a Blue meter with me, and I was quoting the figures for the original Dick Smith ESR meter. I kinda forgot that the blue LEDs with their higher voltage drop reduce the meter's current consumption.

[volkswagenvan]

Re: Finally built the Bob Parker "Blue" ESR Meter

So far I haven't heard of even one microcontroller failure due to connecting the Blue meter to charged high voltage capacitors. In fact the late John Bachman at Anatek who I collaborated with actually tried connecting one of the meters to bigger and more highly charged capacitors until it started blowing tracks off the PCB, but the microcontroller survived.

I only designed the ESR meter to help with my own repairs. I submitted it to a local magazine as a construction project, and the editor gave me a look like "Why would anyone want to measure a capacitor attribute which no one has ever heard of?". But kit sales just exploded and have stayed high for 1/4 of a century.

I'm sure that Andy at Alltronics who makes the kits now would help out if anyone needed a replacement microcontroller IC. He's that kinda guy.

Blowing tracks off the PCB Wow! You had the hindsight to use special fusible link tracks! That meter was over engineered .Lol

Cool story on the magazine construction project! I bet that editor understood a lot more about your project when your kit sales took off.

Glad you have a such a good guy as Andy making up the kits for you and I feel a lot better about the longevity of my blue after reading your posts!

Thank`s for all the information Bob and thank`s again for making the Blue!

[jayjr1105]

Re: Finally built the Bob Parker "Blue" ESR Meter

I saw spikes of around 35mA but about 12mA idle and 25-28 with the leads shorted or while testing a capacitor.

[stj]

Re: Finally built the Bob Parker "Blue" ESR Meter

so probably 15-18 hours of use on a full 500ma charge, not bad

[redwire]

Re: Finally built the Bob Parker "Blue" ESR Meter

I measure around 10mA idling, 25mA when testing, and under 0.1uA when off. It's a 5V device with LP2950 LDO (max. 30V in) and extra BJT power switch.
Most important is the test current can be a decent 50mA narrow pulse (low average though) so it's not easily fooled.

Here's some 4,700uF caps I tested with it and AN8008 readings for the laugh.

[Bob Parker]

Re: Finally built the Bob Parker "Blue" ESR Meter

how much current does the blue meter use?
just wondering because there is a cheap(free) source of very compact 500ma lion pouch cells

The current consumption jumps all over the place depending on how many segments of the displays are on. It's about 15mA at idle but can get up to maybe 40mA.

According to Energizer's data, the 522 alkaline 9V battery has a capacity of around 600mAH at that level of discharge, so a 500mAH Li-Ion battery could be expected to last a similar amount of time.

Hope this helps...

[jayjr1105]

Re: Finally built the Bob Parker "Blue" ESR Meter

how much current does the blue meter use?
just wondering because there is a cheap(free) source of very compact 500ma lion pouch cells

I can check in a little bit for you. I currently use a 9v lithium which is just two lithium cells making it about 8.4v fully charged. Seems to work fine.

[stj]

Re: Finally built the Bob Parker "Blue" ESR Meter

how much current does the blue meter use?
just wondering because there is a cheap(free) source of very compact 500ma lion pouch cells

[Bob Parker]

Re: Finally built the Bob Parker "Blue" ESR Meter

Interesting and Good call on keeping the same firmware.

I hope to never have to use the diagnostic function but my biggest fear is doing
something stupid someday and making my Blue meter a Blue brick!

Hopefully that will never happen. I can replace and repair everything but the Zilog!
Your Blue meter is so popular that I would find a replacement with no problem if needed.

You made yourself quite a good piece of test equipment! Thank`s for sharing your Meter with the world!

So far I haven't heard of even one microcontroller failure due to connecting the Blue meter to charged high voltage capacitors. In fact the late John Bachman at Anatek who I collaborated with actually tried connecting one of the meters to bigger and more highly charged capacitors until it started blowing tracks off the PCB, but the microcontroller survived.

I only designed the ESR meter to help with my own repairs. I submitted it to a local magazine as a construction project, and the editor gave me a look like "Why would anyone want to measure a capacitor attribute which no one has ever heard of?". But kit sales just exploded and have stayed high for 1/4 of a century.

I'm sure that Andy at Alltronics who makes the kits now would help out if anyone needed a replacement microcontroller IC. He's that kinda guy.

[volkswagenvan]

Re: Finally built the Bob Parker "Blue" ESR Meter

Interesting and Good call on keeping the same firmware.

I hope to never have to use the diagnostic function but my biggest fear is doing
something stupid someday and making my Blue meter a Blue brick!

Hopefully that will never happen. I can replace and repair everything but the Zilog!
Your Blue meter is so popular that I would find a replacement with no problem if needed.

You made yourself quite a good piece of test equipment! Thank`s for sharing your Meter with the world!

[Bob Parker]

Re: Finally built the Bob Parker "Blue" ESR Meter

In case anyone's wondering why it's necessary to power the Blue meter from an unusual voltage and short out R30 before invoking the diagnostic function, it's because the microcontroller's firmware was designed for the Dick Smith Mk2 ESR meter which has a different voltage regulator and there's no R30. I knew that if I changed the firmware to suit the Blue meter, there would be endless mix-ups between the different microcontroller versions.

[volkswagenvan]

Re: Finally built the Bob Parker "Blue" ESR Meter

Thank`s for the info Bob!

It's never too late to learn something. Example = "Kombi vans" Lol
Thank`s for the clarification!

[Bob Parker]

Re: Finally built the Bob Parker "Blue" ESR Meter

bcstedt,..

About your FA error code.
Lots of reading gives me this from Bob Parker. (Don't try out the self-diagnostic function unless you really need to. And don't use a 9V battery with the diagnostic function because it will report an 'F2' fault which probably doesn't exist. It must be powered by 5.5v to work properly.)

As far as errors and faults check here. http://www.bobparker.net.au/esr_meter/esrprob.htm

Lots of good Info on errors and problems with the Blue ESR Meter from Bob himself!

I know that this is one year late. Before using the diagnostic function in the Blue ESR meter, a few things have to be done first (which are in the instructions): "Before doing the self-test, it's very important to first set VR1 to the center of its adjustment range, short out R30, 100R and make sure that the meter's supply voltage is in the range of 6.2 – 6.8V. Do not use a 9V battery for this test because it will cause a false F2 warning!" If you don't short out R30, you will get a false "FA" fault code. I hope this clarifies things a bit.

[volkswagenvan]

Re: Finally built the Bob Parker "Blue" ESR Meter

Very interesting! No burnt fingers?

I found more reading material, The new blue ring tester is interesting as well!

Bob Parker's Electronic Stuff http://bobparker.net.au/index.html

Anatek Instruments https://muut.com/anatek-forum/#!/ana...ct-discussions