I originally got an ESR meter in order to test capacitors in-circuit. While that should be a good enough reason, it turns out that even out-of-circuit an ESR meter is essential to the diagnosis of capacitors.
The best way to remove these caps is to twist left and right and off they come. Been doing it for years..you will be happy you did so. Try it out on a scrap board and you will see. Good luck .....
Great tutorial. You can also test the resistance or microhenries of the inductors with the esr meter. The reactance formula is 2𝛑FL. That would be 2 x 3.14 x frequency of esr meter which is 100 kHz x 100 (uH) Just plug it in to get the reading. R=0.628 X L(uH) L(uH)=R(ohms)/0.628
As I am now 78 Now I have slight tremor I have made up really sharp probes insulated right to the points so no risk of slippage or short risks! Fraser.
Should you have say a 100 R resistor to short the capacitor because back EMF could damage sensitive components connected to the capacitor? Shorting large capacitors out of circuit apparently can damage large electrolyte types as well I have read?
I have one of these meters correct e if I am wrong but I am sure you can use the test leads anyway round. Thanks for your patience must be difficult try to form using them leads even the sockets are a bit loose on plugs.
I think you could improve your content if you would script your videos - at least in outline form - and perhaps rehearse at lest the ‘fiddly’ parts. This might help to improve the flow of information, and reduce the time involved. The information is solid.
Actually you can use longer leads to trace bad/suspicious caps. Once you suspect a cap being bad you can still take it out and check it. Been doing that for years, never had problems finding bad caps that way.
A multimeter feeds a small voltage through the resistor and uses the voltage drop to determine the resistance. A functioning capacitor is an open circuit and no voltage will flow after the initial charging phase.
Those ESR meters only send a small pulse while a normal multimeter will feed a constant voltage which will charge the capacitor and give "OL" as a result. When using a regular multimeter, once the cap is charged (happens very quick) there will be no more current flowing and as a result the meter will "see" an infinite resistance.
