Cap ESR meter
 

I'm in the need for a capacitor ESR meter similar to the Dick Smith ESR meter at a good price.Does anybody know where I can pick one up.

Thanks in advance.

http://shop.anatekcorp.com/products/.../blue-esr-kit/

I built the original kit back in 2000, and got it from Anatek. Good People - dedicated to repair folks like us...

The chinese are making an ESR tester/LRC meter/Transistor tester that one can get boards for in the 10$ range, and ones in enclosures in the 30$ range on ebay (I just got a board and made my own box for it).....I'm quite happy with mine....It has already saved a dying Dell desktop (high end capacitor plague era model), and brought back form the dead a favorite S-VHS-ET deck I'd given up on long ago.

Seconding this. These little doodads are to put it lightly, pretty impressive. I tested mine against a friends ESR meter that cost at least 10-15X the price and the results were basically identical. Plus it can identify all kinds of components, which is useful if you have a drawer of random mixed transistors in the same case packaging.

Yeah, I had forgotten about those - I need a good LCR portable meter - my LC102 aint leaving my bench.

Good feedback over on ARF for those little meters...

Thanks for the suggestions guys I'm check all of them out.This is a piece of equipment I should of have in my test gear collection like 20 plus years ago.

New here and just came across this post.

Is the Dick Smith the same as or similar to the CapOhm 1000?

Same principle, but the Dick Smith (rather Bob Parker) ESR meter used a Microcontroller to generate the test signal and display the results on an LED display.

The CapOhm 1000 uses a series of op amps to generate the test signal and to provide a buffer amp to drive the analog meter. We had both - the CapOhm 1000 was very temperature sensitive - come in to a cold shop, and try to use it, and it wouldn't zero - had to wait a bit to let it warm up. Still, a money maker - it found bad caps just a fast as the Bob Parker ESR meter, but used batteries twice as fast.

The CapOhm 1000 was a copy cat of the original ESR meter advertised in magazines in the 1970s/80s, for about 70 bucks back then.

We paralleled the test leads with a 1" x 1" piece of copper clad board glued to the top of the meter. There was a 1mm channel that divided it into two copper pads - this was handy for testing caps out of circuit - just hold the leads to the two pads and read the meter, rather than having to juggle test leads and the cap...

Brian, thanks for the additional info on this little tester, as there is not much out there. Someone - maybe you - over on ARF gave me the simple operating instructions, but that's all I have so far.

It seems to work and compares favorably to the Atmel-based one from China.

If I can figure out how to PM on this forum, I may contact the OP and see if he's still looking for something, as this is excess to my needs.

Thanks again in any case.

I'm bumping this topic up because I need an ESR meter like yesterday.I have every test gadget here except an ESR meter.
OK where can I get a good ESR cap tester from a trusted source.

Thanks in advance..

ebay cheapies work good.

A little more expensive, but you can get this bare board from Amazon next day if you desire. I have been using the heck out of mine for about 6 months.
I did not bother to enclose it, just stuck a 9 volt battery to the back of the raised portion with foam tape, and screwed 4 screws into the corner holes to serve as "feet". I made a couple of short clip leads that can be plugged into the zif socket, for on board testing.

https://www.amazon.com/Yosoo-Display...rds=esr+tesrer

not affiliated,
jr

Thanks guys .I'll look into it.