Quote:
Originally Posted by WoodchuckTN
New here and just came across this post.
Is the Dick Smith the same as or similar to the CapOhm 1000?
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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...