View Single Post
  #16   Report Post  
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
John Robertson
 
Posts: n/a
Default ESR meter.. Where to buy what to get.

On 2006-03-22 15:37:56 -0800, "Michael Kennedy"
said:

Whats your opinion on where to get the best deal on a ESR meter?

- Mike


"cough" We've been selling the Dick Smith ESR meter kit K-7214 MK II
(great design by Bob Parker!) for about six years now... great little
kit, and now we are including (at no extra cost) a MOV to put across
the input jacks. You see I think so highly of this kit that I just hate
to hear the odd story of someone blowing one up by putting it across
either a live circuit or a cap charged over 50V that I felt I had to do
something...

Bearing in mind that I still want to be able to check the ESR of
batteries (great way to tell if your lead acid or rechargable battery
is getting too old) and thus the two heavy diodes back to back would
stop that. So I hunted around for a suitable surge protection device
and found one in a Panasonic MOV 26V @ 250A.

I then took our shop DS ESR meter and after adding the MOV charged up
my old B&K HV current limited power supply to its maximum - 350VDC @
20MA. Then I nailed the ESR kit with this about ten times - drew a nice
spark a few times. The kit STILL works fine...

Oh, the MOV costs only $0.30 @ Digi-Key, hence my adding it for free.

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."