curious about capacitor checkers.

[BigTroll]

Ive been looking on ebay and found this one http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-M6013-Au...-/191042485217 I like how its auto range but it looks sorta cheap, which would be the best quality, it doesn't have to be super accurate but i would like a ballpark figuere.

[Agent24]

Re: curious about capacitor checkers.

Says on the website...

Accuracy:
0.01pF to 47.000nF 1%+2Digit
47.00nF to 47.000uF 1%+1Digit
47.00uF to 470.00mF 1 to 3%+1Digit (Larger capacitance will have larger error)

Not very useful I suppose... but I'd say it's fine for most use, especially with big electrolytics.

If you wanted to do some high accuracy check of pF size caps for RF work or something then I guess it wouldn't be good enough

[c_hegge]

Re: curious about capacitor checkers.

No ESR check function either it seems. I'd look elsewhere.

[budm]

Re: curious about capacitor checkers.

1% is pretty good, lytic cap has +/- 20 % Tolerance, most small polyester has 5% (J), or 10 % (K) Tolerance.

[AkumAone]

Re: curious about capacitor checkers.

$134 is too much; here it is for $27 including shipping:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/M6013-V2-Aut...item4d0d329c0e
But, it will only test capacitance, not ESR or anything else.
If ~$120 is within your price range, take a look at DER EE DE-5000.

[mariushm]

Re: curious about capacitor checkers.

If you want an all around good multimeter, you can't go wrong with this one:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/UNI-T-UT-61E...item2ec6ac75bd

The ebay seller is well known on eevblog (electronics forum) and you can trust that ebay store and guaranteed fast shipping and not dead on arrival (he checks every one before sending)

It measures up to 220mF (220.000 uF), it's 22000 count meter so you get a fine resolution when measuring voltages, it has data logging, fast continuity etc etc and it's only 53$.

It does not measure ESR ... for that you'll need an ESR meter.

To fix stuff, an ESR meter is more important than a simple capacitance meter because the esr meter tests the cap at high frequency... there are lots of cases when capacitors still measure a good capacitance (value +/- a few percent) with a multimeter (because multimeters measure at 100-120 Hz) but when running at high frequency in circuit, the capacitance drops and capacitor fails.

[SteveNielsen]

Re: curious about capacitor checkers.

I know these are kind of frowned upon by some but I bought one of these Chinese transistor/ESR/inductance DIY knock-offs and it works surprisingly well and accurate enough for what I do. I mainly bought it for testing ESR and capacitance after shopping around for quite a while and this one seemed to be the best for the price for testing ESR. I've also found the diode and transistor testing to be helpful.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D6BNDWM/..._26725410_item

I have another multimeter that measures capacitance but not ESR and is rated more accurate than the Chinese unit and so far all the caps measured agree between the two.

[vinceroger69]

Re: curious about capacitor checkers.

I know these are kind of frowned upon by some but I bought one of these Chinese transistor/ESR/inductance DIY knock-offs and it works surprisingly well and accurate enough for what I do. I mainly bought it for testing ESR and capacitance after shopping around for quite a while and this one seemed to be the best for the price for testing ESR. I've also found the diode and transistor testing to be helpful.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D6BNDWM/..._26725410_item

I have another multimeter that measures capacitance but not ESR and is rated more accurate than the Chinese unit and so far all the caps measured agree between the two.

i have one of these meters too and find it quite accurate too easy to use too well worth the money as i do this as a hobby its not worth me spending a lot on test equiptment just yet.

[SteveNielsen]

Re: curious about capacitor checkers.

Exactly. The other meter I mentioned is a Mastech MS8264 when I was looking for a good temperature meter with probe and is another case of shopping for a particular function for a hobbyist price. I'm very pleased with it as well. I mainly use it on the temp function when calibrating my soldering station when changing or just checking tips, another cheap thing that actually works very well.

[vinceroger69]

Re: curious about capacitor checkers.

yes just looked on ebay uk about £22.50 inc postage i dont have a temperature meter and probe so maybe worth getting one i guess its a handy meter to have.

[SteveNielsen]

Re: curious about capacitor checkers.

I got mine for $35.50 usd under a promotional free shipping from Amazon. That's close to the same price.