I provide a different perspective to these questions as we are the US
distributor of the Atlas and other Peak products. See theAtlas ESR60
at www.anatekcorp.com/testequipment/atlasesr60.htm. The ESR60 also
measures the capacitance of the unit under test, other dedicated ESR
meters do not do that. And it is very portable, of course.

However, what do I use regularly on my bench? My trusty Sencore
LC-75. That unit measures much more than ESR and therefore occupies a
prime spot in the equipment rack and the leads are always at the
ready.

I believe the most or all of Sencore's discussion about ESR is
accurate. The technician has to understand the minutia of ESR to be
able to use these instruments competently.

I get calls all the time from guys wanting to know only one thing,
"Will the ESR60 tell me if the cap is good or bad?" My answer is
always the same, "The ESR60 will tell you ESR and value of the cap.
You have to combine that data with your knowledge about capacitors to
make the good/bad decision."

If it was easy everyone would do it.

John
AnaTek Corporation
The Electronic Repair Center at www.anatekcorp.com


On Sun, 12 Feb 2006 06:04:08 -0500, "Leonard Caillouet"
wrote:

I use the LC105 on the bench and have both the DSE and Atlas for portable
use. They all give slightly different readings but are close. The
advantages to the Sencoreare the capacitance, DA measurement, DC leakage
readings. I have found lots of caps with the DA test that were marginal or
bad causing some strange problems. You can measure cap value with a lot of
DMMs or the Atlas, so that is not a big deal to me. Can't comment on the
older Sencore stuff, other than it is likely built better than the new. We
have had nothing but problems with every Sencore unit in the lot that we got
in about 1999.

Leonard

"Ray L. Volts" wrote in message
news:CzDHf.11492$0H1.8356@trnddc04...
Out of curiosity, who among you own and/or use both a Sencore Z-meter
(pre-LC103) and one of the portable, dedicated ESR testers? How does the
latter stack up against your Z-meter in terms of measurement speed,
accuracy and ruggedness? Which do you use more often on your bench?

What's your take on Sencore's assertions below. That it's marketing hype
is a given, but do the following also happen to be true and troublesome in
your experience with the portable testers?

"Normal ESR limits vary between aluminum and tantalum types and their
values. Small value electrolytic capacitors; 0.1, 0.22, 0.33, and 0.47 µFd
are now common among electronic circuits. ESR on electrolytic capacitors
above 1000 µFd is less than 0.5 ohms requiring 0.01 ohms of resolution for
good/bad testing. Testers that only test ESR do not accurately test
capacitors below 1 µFd and do not provide the resolution to good/bad test
ESR on capacitors over 1000 µFd."

and

"In circuit capacitor and inductor testing accuracy is plagued with many
parallel components and circuit paths. In-circuit ESR only testers often
miss bad capacitors in-circuit when they are reduced in value, shorted or
leaky. This can add hours to a repair job."

Would one of the ESR-only meters be a recommended investment, given that I
already own an LC-75 and don't currently do field work? Or should I bite
the bullet and just use that cash toward an eventual purchase of the LC103
(which does the in-circuit tests)?

Thanks,
Ray