Thinking of building an ESR meter in the 5000uf range. Anyone has schematics??

[Koda]

So this is the deal...
Ordering an expensive ESR meter for a few odd recap jobs per year would be a bad investment for me and it wouldn't be as much fun as building one by myself. So does anyone here has schematics for one that can measure upto 5000uf and what parts are going to be needed?? Also pics of a homemade circuit board would be nice (will make drawing traces easier ).
Again great many thanks to the helpers.

[mariushm]

Re: Thinking of building an ESR meter in the 5000uf range. Anyone has schematics??

The parts for a single one would probably cost you 70-100% the price of an already made one , if not more.
If you make several, there's profit in buying parts in volume.

See these links:

http://www.anatekcorp.com/blueesr.htm

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~bobpar/esrmeter.htm

http://www.qsl.net/iz7ath/web/02_bre..._esr/index.htm
http://members.shaw.ca/swstuff/esrmeter.html
http://kakopa.com/ESR_meter/
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~bobpar/esrhints.htm
http://www.emil.matei.ro/links2.php
http://forum.audiofil.ro/index.php?topic=1160.0

[Evil Lurker]

Re: Thinking of building an ESR meter in the 5000uf range. Anyone has schematics??

Yup, my "blue" ESR meter set me back around $100 USD. But it has already paid for itself several times over, and I haven't even had it a year. The most expensive and hard to get component is the firmware the device uses for testing.

Its simply not worth the time and aggervation to build a product that does what it was meant to do and is already on the market at a cost of less than what you could build it for yourself.

[mariushm]

Re: Thinking of building an ESR meter in the 5000uf range. Anyone has schematics??

The blue esr is 79$ now in kit form... it's worth the money. See the first link in my post above (I just added it).

[Koda]

Re: Thinking of building an ESR meter in the 5000uf range. Anyone has schematics??

Thx for the replies guys. I guess I'll be getting the Blue Ring in kit form. At least I'll get some of the pleasure of making it myself

[ipman]

Re: Thinking of building an ESR meter in the 5000uf range. Anyone has schematics??

The blue ring tester is not an ESR meter.
You can get a nice romanian made ESR-meter around 30 euros instead, closer to you than US and cheaper as transport costs.

[Koda]

Re: Thinking of building an ESR meter in the 5000uf range. Anyone has schematics??

The blue ring tester is not an ESR meter.
You can get a nice romanian made ESR-meter around 30 euros instead, closer to you than US and cheaper as transport costs.

Sry my mistake, I meant The Blue ESR/Low Ohms Meter.

http://www.anatekcorp.com/blueesr.htm

can you give me a link to those romanian ESR testers??

[ipman]

Re: Thinking of building an ESR meter in the 5000uf range. Anyone has schematics??

Sure, here
I use it and it's just fine.
Or here is the schematic.

[Longbow]

Re: Thinking of building an ESR meter in the 5000uf range. Anyone has schematics??

An ESR meter does not read capacitance, so you are really in need of a schematic of a capacitance meter. The value of the part in mF will help you evaluate it, but the meter will give you a reading in ohms.

[NxB]

Re: Thinking of building an ESR meter in the 5000uf range. Anyone has schematics??

Most caps increase their ESR, if uf is low cap is probably bulged.

[Koda]

Re: Thinking of building an ESR meter in the 5000uf range. Anyone has schematics??

An ESR meter does not read capacitance, so you are really in need of a schematic of a capacitance meter. The value of the part in mF will help you evaluate it, but the meter will give you a reading in ohms.

I always thought ESR meters measure both capacitance and ESR how stupid of me I guess I need both capacitance meter and and ESR meter.

Sure, here
I use it and it's just fine.
Or here is the schematic.

Thanks for these ipman