In circuit capacitor testers?

It's all up to you. There are so many capacitor ESR meters out there to choose from. They all do a fairly reasonable job of spotting bad capacitors. The more expensive ones do a better job and are easier to use. Even a cheapie will help you find bad caps.
 
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Thanks again Ken.
I just saw the ESR-Micro 4.0 in action and want that one. I ordered one
From RusMike, but looks like they are on back ordered because of parts..
Hope it's not long!
 
Anyone care to give thoughts on these two ESR Meters?
The purple meter cost more, but has the built in auto discharge.

The other is from RusMike and he just said that he has a few in stock again
for the v4.0s (not sure what the 'S') means.
Is the auto discharge as important as it sounds?


Purple meter with auto discharge
http://www.anatekcorp.com/atlasesr70.htm

Or the ESR-Micro v4.0s
http://www.radiodevices.ru/
 
I have the ESR micro 4.0 without s and it's definitly one of the best investments in equipment I've done in this hobby. It has already paid itself back because the vast majority of caps I've tested are still good to,excellent. I am not wasting money and time on replacing these anymore.

The discharging is included now afaik. I don't have it and haven't missed it. You just need to remember not to power up the devices the caps are on you're going to test just before you test them. Big ones I always check with volt meter before test as they might still have some charge.

I prefer the Russion one over the purple one because:
- it is far cheaper (and has free shipping around the globe)
- it has a dip socket to test new caps so you don't have to use the pens/crocodiles all the time
- I can communicate with the maker directly by email

I guess you watched my video ?
 
I've been using my Blue ESR meter for a few months now, and I gotta say I love it.

Just used it again last night to diagnose a few blown caps on a PC power supply that had been marked 'bad.'

$.60 in caps and about 15 minutes on the soldering bench later, the power supply is back up and running. Another $25 saved.

Man I love fixing shit.
 
You still have to be careful though. If two caps are in parallel and only one is good, you could get a false reading.
 
I use to use a Huntron Tracker when I worked on Avionics in the Navy. They are too pricey for me to purchase. I find it cheaper to just pull out a HUGE shotgun and just replace all the old caps.
 
The old caps from Nichicon and Sprague are better quality then what you get today, especially if you replace them with cheap brands. I once was in the shotgun boat too....but I learned...
 
Have no idea how it performs, but it's just a capacitance meter, not an ESR (equivalent series resistance) meter. Many decent DMM's can measure capacitance as a built-in capability. ESR is a different animal.

Of course. My own meter does capacitance, but for some reason it does really /small/ values, but nothing big (nothing over 10 uf!).

I thought that there was another thread on ESR meters, but I couldn't find it.
 
Purple discharges before measuring doesn't it? Blue can measure a charged cap ( to a point )..

Blue is harder to read. Someone really needs to fix that.
 
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