In article , says...

On Sat, 11 Jul 2015 22:06:30 -0700, Phil Allison wrote:

Cursitor Doom wrote:


Be aware that the ESR meters intended for service work are only
good for electrolytic caps ( regular aluminium and tantalum ) and
interpreting the readings correctly requires significant operator
knowledge and/or a similar electro to compare with.

...Or a table of expected values vs. voltage rating vs. capacitance
-
which comes with the Peak meter.


** IME, such tables are far too vague and out of date for modern
electros.

The goal in servicing & refurbishing work is to find electro caps
that are *on the way out* as well as obviously dead ones.

If in doubt, comparison with a the closest new electro available is a
good move.

Well maybe. But it'll slow the process down massively as it's not just
the capacitance that causes ESR values to change. As you well know.


** See page 9 of the Peak ESR meter user's guide.

http://www.peakelec.co.uk/resources/...erguide_en.pdf

This bit makes no sense to me:

"To allow the self-protection mechanism to function, always ensure that
the Atlas ESR has completed any analysis before connecting the test
probes to a component." :-/

Why? At least it's providing some sort of internal protection.

Just wait for it to fully boot or put some unknown charged cap on
the leads before switching it on. At least you can help them
to stay in business.

Jamie