Cheap ESR Meter

The Dick Smith meter is the one designed by Bob Parker, who pops up on here from time to time. I have had one in daily use now for several years, and I can recommend it without reservation. It has a very clear unambiguous readout, and is autoranging. It also has an automatic offset feature to zero out the probe and lead resistances. It has withstood everything that a busy workshop has thrown at it, without once failing on me. It paid for itself in the first couple of repairs that it was used for.

The kit does not contain any particularly small parts, and is well documented. If you can solder reasonably well, and your iron has a reasonably small tip, and you can carefully follow a set of instructions, I think that you would be able to manage it just about. I think that it is also available ready built for a very reasonable extra amount, if you really weren't confidant to build it.

Arfa

My worst experience with the Dick Smith one was that I screwed up and grabbed those leads instead of my VOM. Consequently I put 120VAC across it and severely let the smoke out - time for a new one. Now I have two red leads on it to make it more apparent that I don't have the VOM leads.

Other than that, it has worked well for me. Oh, the kit was also fine - just follow the directions and put on the smallest items first. That way it's easier to have the board be stable for soldering. I also decided that I would take one value of resistor, and install all of that value at one time. Kind of helped me make sure that I got the right ones in the right places. I knew that I had to find enough homes for them until I ran out.

WT

I'll second that, my experience with this meter is exactly that of Arfa's. It's paid for itself 50 times over. I would emphasize "solder well" tho' Richard

Looking at two budget meters, the Dick Smith, available from AU for $44

US + shipping and the MATelectronics MUL-3333 for $50 + shipping. Anyone have experience with either? Is the kit doable for a rank beginner? I do have a Weller station, will travel...

I just built the Dick Smith kit. Very nice kit, I thought. The parts seemed high quality, except for the battery holder arrangement, which I thought was pretty lame (two multiple AA cell holders "mechanically connected" by soldering a pin of one to the other). The instructions weren't bad, although the reference numbers for the figures were mismatched, which was a bit confusing at first.

The PCB layout matched the provided parts very well, and it ran perfectly the very first time I powered it up (which, I should probably add, does not happen to me very often.)

Cheers.

What!?! For shame! Total disregard for the *supposed* to be parts left over rule? :)

Ken

OK, sounds like the Dick Smith kit is the way to go. Now to decide whether to get it from Canada or our world cup bound friends at the end of the earth...

Please post the source ... at $44 for the kit you found a bargain.

I too built the kit and had no problems. Took about an hour or two as I recall and worked first time. My only complaint with the kit was the poor color coding on the resistors was hard to read and required constantly removing my glasses ... but then again my eyesight isn't what it used to be either.

Bob

Yes. I've recently built one and it's very good. But why supply standard test leads while the sockets are the same colour? Surely you could open the test lead packs and pair them up to the same colour - wouldn't matter if red or black.

The $44 US is $69 Australian dollars, the link is here:

I have an email in for shipping costs and whether they will ship to the US.

The other source is $82 shipped and is in Canada.

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@davenoise.co.uk:

Just put some colored heat-shrink tubing on the ESR meter's leads at the probe end;that IDs them.

Paint is not going to stick well to flexible plastic insulation.

"Mr. Land" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

What's this about AA batteries? Did the meter kit change?

Don't think it's just you. Those metal film ones with the blue body are near impossible to read. I just measured them - after eliminating the obvious ones which were more than one and still on their paper links . ;-)

Mine came with AAA holders. Something about there being a confusion about using a PP3 in the instructions. I don't like AAA unless size matters as in the UK they cost the same as AA. So I changed to AA since I had holders 'in stock' ;-)

Mine's a few years old now, but came with a standard 9v battery holder. Mind, I did have to complain to Bob about poor battery life. My first battery only lasted about 2 years ... !!

Arfa

Hi, are these meters available in UK.

I use some short leads with two small alligator clips.

greg

I don't know anyone who doesn't have difficulty reading those atrocious blue-bodied 1% resistors, me included/especially. That's why the Mark 2 meter's kit notes includes this little caution:

"Note that the kit for the Mk.2 version contains 1% resistors. It?s notoriously difficult to correctly identify the colour bands on these, so check each one?s value with an ohmmeter before soldering it to the board."

Bob

Apologies about that! :) I was replacing the batteries about once per 3 months with typical use, though some people complain that they hardly last any time at all. Maybe they always leave the meter on until it turns itself off? The 78L05 regulator can be replaced with a low dropout voltage one, which extends battery life a bit.

Cheers Bob

Think I heard they are, but I imported mine from Canada.

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Dave Plowman snipped-for-privacy@davenoise.co.uk London SW To e-mail, change noise into sound.