#346 

Thanks for the channel credit! No one has ever thanked me for handing over old, crusty, leaky capacitors! 😄

Another top tier video that will be used as a GREAT reference around the WORLD for as long as RU-vid exists ( ♾) Thank you! 🙏

Nice gadget. I bought an Eico 950B some time back for performing this particular job. I find that I don't use it all tha tmuch, though. For a while I was doing restoratoin on a fair amount of older equipment, and I'd start by replacing pretty much *all* of the electrolytics and any of those wax-coated paper caps without even testing them. They were a real problem in older radios when we're talking about plate-to-grid coupling caps for the audio power output stage. These days I've pretty much given up on that stuff, and am enjoying my retirement, though one of these days I should probably get to overhauling that 1946 RCA console radio I have sitting here. :-) The big problem with those old paper caps was two things. One was the fact that the cardboard tube and wax sealant wasn't perfect, and eventually moisture would get in there. The other was that the paper wasn't acid-free, so you'd invariably end up with problems. Changing the case to a plastic encapsulation as with those "bumblebee" caps helped with the moisture ingress but not with the acid paper part of things. At one point I recall that there was a capacitor out there with both paper and a plastic film, but those aren't a whole lot better. Electrolytics are a whole 'nother story. If they're 50 or 60 years old, they're gonna be dry, and at the very least lose most of their capacitance. I see where some people have a go at re-forming them, sometimes going to the trouble of building a special gadget to do that job, but personally I've never felt that it was worth the bother.

Alan, this is yet another excellent video! Interesting how electronics hobbyists rarely think of leakage during repair. I did a few videos on my channel about this but in my case I ended up using a power supply and, for higher voltage, an insulator tester. By the way, nice capacitors! I just changed a few on my grandparents' radio and the leakage on an 80yo wax was incredibly small for the age - replaced anyways, but still... Thank you

Thanks for the great video Alan. Ordered mine yesterday. Can't wait to get started on it.

YOU CANT IMAGINE THE JOY OF HEARING YOU ON 40m late at night here in Amman Country of JY 73's

Thankyou for teaching about Capacitor Leakage.

Another fantastic video Alan keep them coming!

The tester is a very beautiful construction. 👍

Happy new year Alan - as always your video and information is right on target. So now I will build one of these units. 73 de GI8WFA.

Alan, I know this is kind of an off-topic question, but would you _consider_ making a detailed tutorial on the proper use of the DE-5000 LCR meter? I can't find a _good_ technical tutorial on its use and I have to admit that I don't really understand its _proper_ use (as a newbie). I was given one as a Christmas gift a few years ago, but reading through the manual doesn't turn "the little light-bulb on" for me, at least not yet. I don't want to damage it or misuse it and miss finding a bad cap (as far as it can find, which I just learned in this video!) I think I'll order one of the AWA PCBs and build it both as a learning project _and_ to add to my arsenal of test equipment. Thank you for sharing this very educational & informative video and links!

what transformer is used? just a 115v to 230v step up? I like the low profile.

I like the enclosure you used do you have a part number for it? Love your videos! Very informative. Thank you

Very clean build 👍.

I love this leak explanations

Thank you so much

Thx so much for sharing. I have never worked at such high voltages so even at my age there is still plenty to learn. BTW did not see green wire connected to chasis im sure i missed it, but just in case...

Excellent video, I have a ready table that I got years ago on the TRX lab channel, with capacitances from 1uF to 5600uF, I tried to post it here but youtube deletes it.

Hi Alan, I appreciated your elegant wiring method. Can you possibly give us some guidance on the mechanics of building an enclosure?, Thank you, 73 Neil, K7WK

Great Job!

Loves these videos. Thanks brother. Keep them coming. 73 de W6MGV

I do not see how your device even works as the transformer is in backwards (rotated 180 degrees) according to placement picture from Antique wireless ass website.

When a capacitors charge time and discharge time are equal, what happens or what is this called? Amplifiers use coupling capacitors per each amplifier stage but when the coupling capacitors charge time and discharge time are equal the coupling capacitor causes what type of problems?

Here is dumb question: what is CV?

The lack of protection around the DUT, especially at 600V, is a concern regardless of who is using it. I'd be thinking about enclosing the DUT in some way.

🙏👍🙏

Man O day!!! Most factory assembled electronics aren't even that neat on the inside!!!

For new comers to the hobby you may wonder why we test these capacitors at high voltage and look for leakage and it's because of where they are used in older vacuum tube equipment. Many of these paper and wax capacitors are used to couple a signal from the plate of one stage to the grid of the next stage. And if the capacitor has leakage it will allow some of the plate voltage to "leak" into the grid of the next stage. This potentially results in damage to the tube receiving this leaked voltage. Alan, thanks for the video and the info on the tester.

Being an Aussie I remember a different AWA 🙂 (Amalgamated Wieless Australasia) but sadly no more

W2AEW : A tech guru with a lasting legacy! Thanks for ALL you do!

Comparing to all videos in you tube I watched , this is definitely the best video for capacitor testing for leakage . The best explanation , the best and clear demonstration, the info how to build the test device ! I am impressed! Thank you very much sir for the free education and good video !

Perhaps Add an LED above the discharge switch or by the DUT which visually alerts you to some DUT voltage above a threshold.

Good stuff Alan! I need to get one of the AWA testers for my bench. It should be noted that not only ancient caps die. My SEC 1340M power supply died an untimely death due to modern electrolytic caps that were part of the "Capacitor Plague" (2007 to 1999). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague. These bad caps mostly impacted computer equipment of that era, but also made their way into a lot of other gear. The AWA tester would be great for the caps in the high voltage side of switch mode power supplies.

are there scary voltages on the POT, any concerns?

You are SUCH a great instructor... thank you again (and again). Been working with electronics for over 60 years, but I always learn something new from your great vids; you explain mysteries I have "glossed over"..i.e. made the thing work, but wasn't always sure why.....

Old wax capacitors are gone! I wouldn't even bother to test them!

nice video... plan to get this PCB. thanks for sharing!

xraytonyb just build the very same tester! Both videos are great!

I work on a lot of vintage radios and own an Eico 950B. Is it feasible to add a meter in series with the DUT to determine actual leakage as well as the pass/fail of the eye tube?

For measuring leakage I connect my capacitors to my PSU with the multimeter connected in series(in voltage measuring mode). If the input resistor of the multimeter is in the range of 10M ohm thus every Volt will represent 1uA. Works well for low leakage capacitors, maybe something to make a follow up video of? Thanks for all your good videos.

PERFACT AWEESOME

Exceptional !

Sir, How leakage is related to frequency ? While measuring Cp -Rp it is found that Rp decreases with frequency. Please tell me why Rp changes with frequency . I meassure DC resistance and it gives few Giga Ohm, but, while measuring Cp - Rp , it is found that Rp comes down to 500 ohm only at 300 kHz. Please explain . 🙏🙏🙏 N Das from INDIA

Nice video! One note, though: I'd've mentioned (for electronics newbies) that if they connect an electrolytic backwards at high voltage that there's a risk of explosion. So they ought to wear eye protection or have a shield (like a book) between them and the capacitor.

Looks a lot like the "Little Leakage Checker" - a Popular Electronics 1980s project, with a substitution of a pot instead of a stepped/switched resistor chain and possibly made more sensitive with substitution of a different series resistor (100 ohms in the Little Leakage Checker, for 1ma scaling).... Popular Electronics Electronic Experimenters Handbook 1987 has the project. Available at World Radio History AND The Internet Archive..... I built one ( used a 1 meg pot in lieu of the stepped resistor chain) , but gave it away when I got my Sencore LC102.

Thanks for the demonstration I prefer the vintage testers myself as I’m a sucker for anything with a magic eye tube. I recently did a simple restoration on a Lafayette capacitor analyser. It was an easy repair. I’m not sure how much I will use it as I don’t trust old wax or electrolytics and just change them out. The reforming function may be useful. I keep old capacitors just for the purpose of testing and demonstrating the various failures. Have a look if you get a minute it’s a nice tester. Probably came out the Trio / Kenwood factory in Japan back in the day. I will check out the restoration channel you mentioned

I like radio wild too!

Informative video. Just finished populating the AWA circuit board. Love the retro volt gauge. Where did you get it?

The restored pcb design on video. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-mIm4d0jy-kY.html See the READMORE section.

When you get a chance, ask "Bob" for a cap that is good for Value & ESR, but bad for leakage. TU

thank you. I'm so glad you exist. Greets from germany

Super info as always Alan. I echo R. Davis about your instruction; that was my trade for 38 years and I always admire your videos. Perhaps sometime you might consider a comparison between your (now unobtanium) AADE and DE5000 LCR meters. I bought the latter since I couldn't find an AADE. Specifically how do they fare for low C and L measurements such as pF caps and small toroids? Tnx es 73 Peter

Very informative! And what about low voltage devices that draw 10uA current and have some radio data sent like 15ms and let say 20mA amplitude? Then that 3uA leakage is not the case. After stabilising current I don’t see almost any leakage on electrolytic 1000uF caps, like 200-400nA. Also used ones don’t have that leakage current of few us. So depending on application that leakage current is only a value after 2 or 5 minutes but then never more observed. Or I’m missing something?

Pilot Frixion pens! If only they didn't dry out so quickly when I forget them somewhere

Thanks for the great video Alan

.... Well done Mate, articulate, informative, entertaining, broadcast quality. I was thinking of a shielded compartment on the RH side, negating the need for eye protection.

Thank you again, Alan , very much ! Simple and nice explanation ! Best Regards

I have ordered the PCB, but then came ordering the parts...the LR8N3 is 'unobtanium' at the moment -lead times are August 2023 or later here in the UK. Mouser CPC, FArnel, RS are all are all in the same place.. So my kit is standing 99% built - waiting for one part!!

Excellent content, I need something like this. At the moment I only have a multimeter and one of those German transistor testers that test ESR at 1.1kHz. Thank you for the video!

You stated the old capacitor (location 11:46) tested was 20 micro-amps and thus failed. Then you state toward the end of the video (location 14.28) new electrolytic 450V was passing at 100 micro-amps. How can the new one pass at 100 micro amps and the old one fail at 20 micro amps?

Very good information; thanks for sharing your knowledge.

Doesnt anyone make a capacitor tester that tests all aspects of the cap ?...

Nice job.

Are BNC's rated for couple hundred volts?

Top notch video, very well presented and easy to follow and understand.

How would this work for checking coax for breakdown. I guess I should wait to see what the voltage is.. We need a reasonable HI-Pot tester..

Nice video Allen. Thank you.

Just find an old cap tester with a magic eye.

Nice demonstration. Nice tester too. Thanks.

Excellent... Subbed! SMJ

Thanks Alan. Great information.

Ah, a worthy -opponent- addition to my Sprague TO-5. :D

can we add a 1-15 VDC or 1-150 VDC range.. pretty easily?

What's your opinion of Mr Carlsons low voltage tester?

7:48 for the schematic. Also check the description for a link to the kit.

Hello, Where did you buy your unique project box/enclosure?

Nice job with the tick marks for the voltage adjust knob for each 100 volts.

grate information w2aew

Hi...where did you find that old, analog voltage meter?

I love it AAA+++ work :)

Brilliant

Love the old meter! Nice touch.

nice content thanks

Seems pointless, just buy new capacitors!

You should check out Mr Carlsons Lab. He often restores very old devices. He built a capacitor leakage tester and shares schematics. The tester tests caps with a low voltage so no hazard stuff and it's very sensitive up to Giga Ohms if I recall correctly. Think you should check him out.

Perfect video for me, thanks for your share

Are you happy with your DER EE DE-5000? The gear is cool overall, but I am annoyed by low contrast LCD (it depends on the angle of view, but the maximum of the contrast is observed at inappropriate angle of view) and by its slowness (how much time it takes to update the readings, to choose right mode in auto-mode, to switch to the correct range of measurement).

seems like EL-caps are the 1st thing to keep in mind of a problem in old and new equipment, even some laptops have recalls on caps 🥺thanks for the great trouble-shooting info 🥳🥠☕

Useful, thanks! Your presentation is clear and unhurried which really works for me.

Get one of the older Sencor capacitance and inductance testers. They go up to 1k and read out in microamps.

How accurate or reliable is it for me to test electrolytic caps with 10V input, an ammeter inline with the circuit to measure microamps, a 1K resistor in series with the cap, and a volt meter across the resistor? If I was doing my experiment correctly, most of the caps I tested had only 1 or 2 microamps of current going through them whether by the ammeter or the volt meter (I=V/R). And is 1 or 2 microamps acceptable? All my work is with low voltage stuff, not high voltage.

Excellent instruction, as always, thank you.

You tutorials are very helpful..can you do tutorial on timing analysis of i2c and spi communication lines

The bakelite covering shrinks over the decades for the bumblebee caps. This squeezes the paper to together and shorts out the caps. I just replace them. I like the aircraft volt meter used in your tester.

Can you make a video that is related local oscillator leakage to RF path?

Be aware of the BNC part might not hold up to more than 500 V.

A great project and build. Thank you for sharing. I do have a question about safety. I would think that, if you were testing a faulty e-cap at high voltages, you could end up with a tremendous explosion/bang; correct? If so, maybe a container for the DUT would be needed?

Would the DMM external connection posts also be at the high test voltage? Thanks Greg

Is the components list available online anywhere or do you get it with the PCB? Was going to order, but would like to order the components I need at the same time. The only ones I probably don't have are the transformers. I think everything else is basic caps and resistors. Thanks!

Can a hipot tester that is AC/DC/IR (IR=insulation resistance) that can be adjusted from 0.1 to 6k v be used for tests?. I'm just asking because I got lucky with the one off of eBay for cheap and now I got to find a use for it