ESR meters

Nurbit

Hi guys

I'm looking at buying an Atlas ESR70

I do / try to do quite a bit of repair work on various electronic items and have found that the most common thing to fail are the capacitors.
Sometimes it's easy to spot the problem cap but other times there are no visible clues.
I end up having to replace the caps and then re-test.

Does anyone have and ESR meter or have any of you used them?
Will it be the life changing diagnostic tool I'm hoping it is or is it just another useless toy?

Thanks

RobotWorkshop

A really good unit is the Sencore LC102 and LC103 meters. They aren't cheap but you can sometimes find a deal for one on ebay. I found my LC103 there. A link that cover over the specs is located here:

http://www.sencoreconnection.com/38540/Sencore_LC103.htm

I'm not familiar with the Atlas ESR70 but the Sencore LC103 has helped me identify bad caps that a regular meter would suggest was good based just upon the capacitance value. The Sencore can test ESR, Dielectric absorption, leakage, and value. One key difference is that it can test at the rated working voltage of the capacitor. This helped me find some tantalum caps that a plan meter showed ok for value but when operating closer to their rated voltage they started acting more like low ohm resistors. A couple of them even started to heat up during testing.

I don't use it a lot but it is a worthwhile tool and has really helped with certain repairs. If I worked on switching power supplies more then I'd probably use it all the time.

Robert

Circuitsoft

The DATS (Dayton Audio Testing System) is a computer-based meter that can be used to measure capacitors, inductors, resistors, and general reactive circuits. It takes an impedance plot of the connected device within audio ranges (DC-20KHz) and determines the value from that, while also showing you the impedance plot. From the shape of the plot, you can tell what the ESR of the capacitor/inductor is.