Bob Parker ESR Meter

[Andrew Tweddle]

My trusty meter is no longer trusty!
It's display values wonder all over the place, the 9V battery is okay
Any ideas? and also a circuit diagram on the web, mine has long since
been misplaced.

Andrew

 

[Arfa Daily]

My trusty meter is no longer trusty!
It's display values wonder all over the place, the 9V battery is okay
Any ideas? and also a circuit diagram on the web, mine has long since been
misplaced.

Andrew

Aaarrrgghhh !!!! That is a calamity ! Bob get on here and sort this man out
immediately !

Arfa

 

[Jim Yanik]

My trusty meter is no longer trusty!
It's display values wonder all over the place, the 9V battery is okay
Any ideas? and also a circuit diagram on the web, mine has long since
been misplaced.

Andrew

Bad leads or worn jacks/plugs? Loose nut on the jacks? Bad solder joint at
PCB or at jacks?

Maybe the ESR meter's caps have bad ESR? ;-)


(ironic humor,folks)

 

[Ken]

My trusty meter is no longer trusty!
It's display values wonder all over the place, the 9V battery is okay
Any ideas? and also a circuit diagram on the web, mine has long since
been misplaced.

Andrew

For what it is worth, I had a similar problem just a few days ago.
Look at the meter leads to make sure the connection to the probe and
banana jacks are solid. Since you are measuring very small resistance,
a poor connection will cause the meter to wander all over the place.

 

[Michael Black]

Bad leads or worn jacks/plugs? Loose nut on the jacks? Bad solder joint at
PCB or at jacks?

Maybe the ESR meter's caps have bad ESR? ;-)

I was given an old Tektronix scope about 1990, I guess the 545 (the one
from about 1959 with the plugins), and a few years later there was ripple
in the display. I actually figured out which one it was by putting the probe
on the various B+ lines until one of them caused the ripple to double in
amplitude.

I was surprised that when I got to the local "surplus" outlet, they actually
had electrolytics of enough voltage and enough capacitance, for virtually
nothing. My recollection of high voltage electrolytics was their relatively
small value, and these were comparatively high (not thousands, hundred, of
uF). Yet when I needed some higher capacitance high voltage electrolytics,
there they were, handy and cheap.

Michael

 

[Stan Blazejewski]

For what it is worth, I had a similar problem just a few days ago.
Look at the meter leads to make sure the connection to the probe and
banana jacks are solid. Since you are measuring very small resistance,
a poor connection will cause the meter to wander all over the place.

And don't forget the leads themselves! My meter has plenty of use & I've had to
cut back the leads a number of times, they tend to fracture internally at the
ends where they flex the most.

PS, I gave up on the banana jacks 'very' early in the piece & hard wired the
leads in ... you'd be amazed how much resistance they have even when they're
clean.

--

Australia isn't "down under", it's "off to one side"!

[email protected]
www.cobracat.com (home of the Australian Cobra Catamaran)
www.parkdaleyc.com (where most of them sail)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cobra-cat/

 

[Ken]

And don't forget the leads themselves! My meter has plenty of use & I've had to
cut back the leads a number of times, they tend to fracture internally at the
ends where they flex the most.

PS, I gave up on the banana jacks 'very' early in the piece & hard wired the
leads in ... you'd be amazed how much resistance they have even when they're
clean.

That is a good idea. I think I will do the same the next time.

 

[John Robertson]

My trusty meter is no longer trusty!
It's display values wonder all over the place, the 9V battery is okay
Any ideas? and also a circuit diagram on the web, mine has long since
been misplaced.

Andrew

If you bought the ESR meter kit from us (John's Jukes Ltd. aka
FLIPPERS.COM) and installed the MOV, please disconnect one lead of the
MOV. A problem has arisen that is outside of the design specs for using
this as input protection. I hope to have a cure soon, but this is NOT
Bob Parker's design problem, rather it was my attempt to protect the
ESR kits from overvoltage spikes/charged caps that is unfortunately
going wrong.

I am going to try to add a pair of back-to-back diodes in SERIES with
the MOV to see if that cures the error that the MOV introduces to the
meter. Just haven't had a chance to test that idea out fully...

Sorry about that!

I am going to send out a note to everyone that bought a kit from us so
they don't blame Bob!

John :-#(#
--
(Please post followups or tech enquires to the newsgroup) John's
Jukes Ltd. 2343 Main St., Vancouver, BC, Canada V5T 3C9 Call
(604)872-5757 or Fax 872-2010 (Pinballs, Jukes, Video Games)
www.flippers.com "Old pinballers never die, they
just flip out."

 

[Andrew Tweddle]

John Robertson wrote:

If you bought the ESR meter kit from us (John's Jukes Ltd. aka
FLIPPERS.COM)
John :-#(#

This one came from DSE.

Andrew

 

[Windows User]

My trusty meter is no longer trusty!
It's display values wonder all over the place, the 9V battery is okay
Any ideas? and also a circuit diagram on the web, mine has long since
been misplaced.

Andrew

 

[Windows User]

My trusty meter is no longer trusty!
It's display values wonder all over the place, the 9V battery is okay
Any ideas? and also a circuit diagram on the web, mine has long since
been misplaced.

Andrew

POTM

 

[John Bachman]

Hi John,

I would have emailed you directly but it appears that your email
address is a spam filter.

We developed a protection device for the Dick Smith ESR some years
ago. Since we terminated our relationship with Dick Smith, we no
longer offer Bob's fine design.

Perhaps you would be interested in our protector? It does not
interfere in operation of the ESR meter in any way, can handle up to
400 volts of charge and also discharges the capacitor slowly to avoid
damage to it. Back to back diodes do not control discharge currents
but our device does.

Bob Parker checked out our design and approves of it. By the way, the
design is patented.

If interested email me at john at anatek dot mv dot com

John Bachman
AnaTek Corporation

 

[John Robertson]

Hi John,

I would have emailed you directly but it appears that your email
address is a spam filter.

Actually the email address I use for posting to newsgroups IS valid.
Handy owning your own domain name, and think about how the spam
harvesting programs are likely to treat my email address...

John :-#)#

We developed a protection device for the Dick Smith ESR some years
ago. Since we terminated our relationship with Dick Smith, we no
longer offer Bob's fine design.
Perhaps you would be interested in our protector? It does not
interfere in operation of the ESR meter in any way, can handle up to
400 volts of charge and also discharges the capacitor slowly to avoid
damage to it. Back to back diodes do not control discharge currents
but our device does.

Bob Parker checked out our design and approves of it. By the way, the
design is patented.

If interested email me at john at anatek dot mv dot com

John Bachman
AnaTek Corporation

--
(Please post followups or tech enquires to the newsgroup) John's
Jukes Ltd. 2343 Main St., Vancouver, BC, Canada V5T 3C9 Call
(604)872-5757 or Fax 872-2010 (Pinballs, Jukes, Video Games)
www.flippers.com "Old pinballers never die, they
just flip out."

 

[Bob Parker]

Aaarrrgghhh !!!! That is a calamity ! Bob get on here and sort this man out
immediately !

Arfa

Howdy,
I unsubscribed from this newsgroup about a month ago, when I got
tired of it looking like the TV guide to the Saturday morning children's
cartoons. I only discovered this thread by doing a Google search for ESR
meters in case anyone was having a problem. It's a subject which is
almost never mentioned any more.
I think that all the likely causes of the readings becoming very
unstable have been covered by others in this thread. The most likely
problem would be something to do with the test leads, like fractured
wires from a lot of use, or the nuts on the test lead jacks working
loose over time, as has already been mentioned.
There's a page of fault-finding info on my website at
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~bobpar/esrprob.htm which *might* be of
some help...

Bob

 

[Radiosrfun]

where does one "purchase" one of your meters?

 

[Bob Parker]

where does one "purchase" one of your meters?

Thanks for asking.
If you're in North America, the only sensible place to get one from
would be John's Jukes in Vancouver, Canada. His website's at
http://www.flippers.com
If you're in Australia, you'd just walk into a Dick Smith
Electronics store.
Remember that this is a kit unless you buy one fully built from
John's Jukes.
The EVB ESR meter which is made in Portugal is almost exactly the
same thing, see http://clientes.netvisao.pt/greenpal/evb1.htm


Bob

 

[Radiosrfun]

Thanks! I'll have to check into one.

 

[Bob Parker]

Thanks! I'll have to check into one.

You're welcome. You better get a few user opinions first, because
some people don't like that design very much.

Bob

 

[Radiosrfun]

Well, since you've mentioned/suggested it - here I am - opening my ears or
is it "eyes" to any suggestions on ESR meters.

Thanks again to Bob and to all who may leave suggestions/comments.

Lou

 

[Bob Parker]

Well, since you've mentioned/suggested it - here I am - opening my ears or
is it "eyes" to any suggestions on ESR meters.

Thanks again to Bob and to all who may leave suggestions/comments.

Lou

You could start by looking at the comparison of various ESR meters on
the Anatek website at...

http://www.anatekcorp.com/testequipment/esrcompar.htm