On Fri, 29 Mar 2013 22:11:06 +0000, Andrew Gabriel wrote:

In article ,
Jules Richardson writes:

I seem to be accumulating a pile of things with faults that are most
likely down to dodgy capacitors, but my homebrew ESR meter's one of
those things that is still in deep storage back in the UK. So...

I repair lots of things, but I haven't yet needed an ESR meter.
To test, I simply parallel up a new capacitor, and see if that fixes the
issue.

Hmm, OK if there's the physical space to do so, or you have suitable
spares (and know that they're good!), and the item doesn't use too many,
and that the item can easily be tested without lots of reassembly etc.

I've got by without a meter for a few years now because all the cap
faults I've had in things have been obvious ones (leaks, bulging cases,
circuit [mis]behaviour pointing to a particular one etc.) - but just
lately I seem to have accumulated things where a meter would make life a
lot easier.

It's certainly not something that I'd use particularly often (and so
naturally don't want to spend a fortune on, either!) - but it'd be useful
to have one around.

cheers

Jules