Measuring Capacitance and ESR - Workbench Wednesdays

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[OsoPolarClone]

Great video. I really like your explanations and the delivery of the educational elements. GREAT JOB! This compliment applies to ALL of the videos I have seen you do.

[ian.lwilson]

Brilliant. My neighbor just gave me his one. He was a marine engineer looking after reefers on the sea. As an electrician/inspector for 40 years I’ve only just learnt what ESR means.

[phildodd]

Excellent tutorial as always ! I bet that James is a great person to buy secondhand kit from, as EVERYTHING on the board is likely to have been tested - at least once ! Yes, Peak are based in the UK, in Derbyshire which is in the middle of England, south-east of Manchester. The name "Peak" comes from the "Derbyshire Peak District", a favourite holiday destination in the UK. There's more to capacitance than you suspected !

[BrainSlugs]

Liked for recommending to users that they RTFM. Super tired of the idiots telling you to throw the manuals away and not read them. 👍

[SwapPartLLC]

I've had an ESR70 for about 4 years. It works great, but the leads are not very durable. The female banana jacks broke off of the alligator clip leads within first year. They're rather pricey to replace, like $40, but I'm cheap so I just hacked away some of the plastic and resoldered them. Some shrink wrap and they are better than new. Other than that, it is a good product and I do recommend it.

[MAYERMAKES]

I use 30year old LCR meter t otest my Caps, so I just check the cpacitance and hope the esr will be OK. Such an ESR meter would be a usefull upgrade! the one shwon in the video might be my next purchase for my workbench

[briantamburelli]

Thank you for the video. Very informative.😊 Oh by the way, I had a Commador Vic 20 when I was 13 back in 1983. I bought it from my Middle School math teacher.

[PapasDino]

Having the suite of Peak devices makes life much easier at the workbench...although there are many low-cost tools available you get what you pay for...buy nice, not twice!

[TheBizzyBScience]

great video, can an ESR meter pickup pf resistance?p, Mine mesr 100 reads OL on a 47pf cap, is this normal?

[tyuzgbv]

Are there any ESR meters that will measure smaller than 1uf with high resolution in ohms?

[tonyd]

Dear Element14, question(s), kindly, regarding the Peak ESR_+ meter, please. ¿Is it safe to 'power on' this meter on with the leads connected to a passive discharged capacitor, or a resistor, please? You do this with a discharged cap (~7:28), and seemingly without any issues. (The reason I ask is that the manual says: "To allow the self protection mechanism to function, always ensure that the Atlas ESR has completed any analysis before connecting the test probes to a component"). ¿Do they mean powering it up (turning it on) with leads attached to component under test? Just wondering. (I own one of these fine instruments and am very worried about damaging it [big deal for me just purchasing one]). Any comments most welcomed. Thank you for making and posting this teaching video.

[FullMoons-pbpz]

Hi

I need your help.

I have checked the capacitors on my digital piano and got the following results in ESR levels. I used the peak ATLAS ESR70 gold.

10000 uF 25V - ESR 0.01 ohm
2200 uF 25V - ESR 0.02 ohm
470 uF 10V - ESR 0.20 ohm
100 uF 25V - ESR 0.43 ohm
47 uF 16V - ESR 0.64 ohm
10 uF 16V - ESR 1.01 ohm
1 uF 50V - ESR 1.10 ohm

I am especially suspicious about ther results for 10 micro and 1 micro F. They should be around 8 and 5 respectively. Do these results mean that I need to change the 10 micro and 1 micro D capacitors?

Thanks for your replies.
Tan

[drulli]

Thanks for your evaluation video. What is missing in your review is a comparison of the measurement with a trusted high end test device. I have a peak ESR and an hp4261A LCR meter on my bench. They use different frequencies 100kHz vs 120H/1kHz and the calculated capacity of DUTs vary quite a bit, 15%.

[diyelectronics]

It could be measured battery esr like 18650?

[radioman]

any good in circuit esr meters for testing capacitors in the pF range i.e 20 to 100 pF?

[ThomasFranksomt]

ESR is not leakage, right? So the fact that the ESR is low doesn't necessarily mean that it's not potentially leaky?

[jameskrivitsky]

James,   do you have access to a BLUE ESR tester designed by Bob Parker ?   I would like to see a comparison and your thoughts on which is more accurate and useful.   Thanks    J K

[tandoganpolat]

I have Kawai CN31 piano. It gives no sound. I have checked the capacitors on sound amplifier of my digital piano and got the following results in ESR levels. I used the peak ATLAS ESR70 gold.

10000 uF 25V - ESR 0.01 ohm - uF reading 8811uF
2200 uF 25V - ESR 0.02 ohm- uF reading 2015uF
470 uF 10V - ESR 0.20 ohm- uF reading 479uF
100 uF 25V - ESR 0.43 ohm- uF reading 98uF
47 uF 16V - ESR 0.64 ohm- uF reading 50uF
10 uF 16V - ESR 1.01 ohm- uF reading 11uF
1 uF 50V - ESR 1.10 ohm- uF reading 0.98uF

I am especially suspicious about theIr results for 10 micro and 1 micro F. They should be around 8 and 5 respectively. Do these results mean that I need to change the 10 micro and 1 micro D capacitors?

Thanks for your replies.
Tan

[ramstopgun]

How to measure 36000uf capacitor esr ?

[Jnglfvr]

The reason it doesn't matter about polarity is because it is using a low voltage (500 mV) AC signal. The capacitor will be reversed polarized each half cycle no matter how you hook it up. The saving grace is that the voltage used is very small. Small even for sensitive tantalum capacitors. No different than how an LCR meter makes these measurements.