In article ,
"Dave Plowman (News)" writes:
In article ,
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.

Not much use with tantalum which can fail short circuit. ;-)

Checking a suspect cap with an ESR meter is so much quicker than by
substitution, etc. I'd say it's one of those things you may not miss if
you've never had one.

I didn't say by substitution - I usually just touch the leads of a new
one against the existing one's leads. If it's a mains circuit, I might
temporarily solder it to the existing cap's solder pads on the underside
of the circuit board so I'm not holding it.

My Bob Parker kit one was pretty expensive, but still paid for itself.
They're a lot cheaper now with even cheaper alternatives.

--
Andrew Gabriel
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