ESR meter

[hermitcrab]

I have the anatek blue that was in kit form ...Honestly , don't know how I got along without one ... if you work on equipment with lots of caps ... this is a big time saver than soldering and desoldering to check them...only ones you need to unsolder are caps in parallel to each other...

[electra225]

An ESR meter is a piece of equipment that I have no experience with. Would you be good enough to explain to those of us not familiar with one, how they work, and why the equipment has been beneficial to you?

[William]

Please do Elton, I have no idea what one is?

Bill

[TC Chris]

I don't see reply so I'll comment. Its Equivalent Series Resistance and basically measures the leakage of the capacitor.

Chris Campbell

[electra225]

Thank you Chris. I still don't understand why I'd need one. My thinking on caps is that they need replaced if they are paper and are 60+ years old. Why would I care why or how much they leaked? ShangoO66 uses one in his videos, but he is fixing those sets, troubleshooting to the component level, not restoring them. It seems to me that repair and restoration are two different disciplines.

[hermitcrab]

I guess if your not into solid state so much you would not need one ... but those units from the 70's and 80's I.E. marantz , pioneer , etc ... are also getting on in years... and with the amount of caps they have in them .... no one would completely re-cap a solid state unit, thus the ESR meter whittles down which ones you need to concentrate on...

[electra225]

Have you ever watched a video by ShangoO66? He uses a contraption made up of an amplifier. Somehow, he uses the capacitor under test as a crossover or coupling cap for the amplifier. If the audio is missing or sounds strangled, the cap is leaky or open. If the audio sounds normal, the cap is okay and he moves on. He swears this never fails. He has never explained how this is connected so I understand it, at least. I'm guessing one side of the feed to the amp is connected in series with the cap under test, but I don't know that for sure.

[hermitcrab]

Yep, I have seen his videos, and his way of checking is pretty clever. I have even tried it myself...

[electra225]

Did this method work for you? How did you connect the amplifier? Can you give us a little more information. I have a little amp that I could use for this if it works and if I can figure out how to do it.

[hermitcrab]

I used a old pocket radio tuned to a local station ... just cut one wire going to one side of the speaker and used them as my test leads for the caps... polarity makes no difference ..make sure any HV caps are shorted before you test them or you could pop a speaker with a stored charge... just connect the cap in series with the leads and you can hear if it is good or bad... of course testing low uF caps they will normally sound tinney...

[electra225]

Thanks for the explanation. I may try that sometime. Seems like a good "down and dirty" way to check caps.