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Esr Tester For Capacitor

The document describes a simple ESR meter project for testing capacitors, which measures the Equivalent Series Resistance to determine if a capacitor is functioning properly. It outlines the circuit design, components used, and the operational principles of the meter, including indications for good, faulty, or shorted capacitors. The project is based on an Italian magazine article and includes practical insights from the author's own construction and testing experience.

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36 views3 pages

Esr Tester For Capacitor

The document describes a simple ESR meter project for testing capacitors, which measures the Equivalent Series Resistance to determine if a capacitor is functioning properly. It outlines the circuit design, components used, and the operational principles of the meter, including indications for good, faulty, or shorted capacitors. The project is based on an Italian magazine article and includes practical insights from the author's own construction and testing experience.

Uploaded by

dhousenq
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Esr tester for capacitor

ESR METER: Equivalent


Serie Resistance
Tester for capacitors

The project came from an italian magazine (Nuova Elettronica N212);


it's very simple but interesting; I've built it and tested some capacitors, so I think it's very useful:
build it;
It measures the ESR (Equivalent Serie Resistance) of capacitor (electrolytic and not); pratically
you can see if a capacitor is good or not.
It's a bridge circuit that work at 100Khz;
there're the following possibilities::
1) The electrolytic capacitor is good: (low ESR) the bridge will stay balanced and the meter will
indicate the maximun current.
2) The electrolytic capacitor is not good:
(high ESR) the bridge will be unbalanced and that will cause the meter to indicate less current;
as less the meter will indicate as higher will be the ESR;
After few measure you'll be able to decide if a capacitor is good or not.

3) There is a short circuit in the electrolytic capacitor:


the meter will indicate the maximum current and the red LED will lamp; capacitor is not good.

4) The electrolytic capacitor is broken:


the meter will not move. Capacitor is not good.
I've closed the circuit in a small plastic box inside wich there is the battery, the meter and a
ON/OFFswitch;
the meter will be 500 microA F.S. but I've used a 1 milliA one adding a small NPN transistor as
amplifier;

You will notice some interesting thing about capacitpor using this meter; for example low value
capacitor (1-10 micrF) have oftem higher ESR than high value one.
Components:

R1=1K5
R2,R3,R4,R5=10K

R6=68K
R7=4K7
R8=12K
R9,R11=1K-1%
R10,R12=22-1%
R13,R14=1K
R15,R16,R17=47K
R18=15K
R19=680
R20=2K2
R21=20K TRIMMER
C1,C2=1 microF electrolytic
C3=1NF POLY
C4=100NF POLY
C5,C6=1microF POLY
DS1,DS2=1N4007
DS3=1N4148
DL1=LED
TR1,TR3=BC547
TR2=BC557
IC1=TL084
S1=SWITCH
73 de iz7ath, Talino Tribuzio

http://www.qsl.net/iz7ath/web/02_brew/15_lab/06_esr/index.htm[01/04/2018 12:15:15 a.m.]

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