MK-168 Transistor Tester, ESR tester

[xtian]

I am digging this $30 Chinese multi-tester. Some caps shown in photo. Look at that low ESR on the Solen cap!

This unit is smart. Connect the leads to any legs of a transistor, and it reports which leg is which--you don't have to worry about connecting the leads in any special way.

[Stevem]

The accuracy of even a 30 buck ESR tester, no less a tester that does transistors also would not give me a good sure feeling without testing out side by side with a somewhat better unit!
My ESR tester that I built from a kit was near 90 bucks, I guess for 30 bucks it may be worth a shot?

[Structo]

I probably have the same as you Steve.

The Blue ESR meter by Bob Parker?

I bought mine built and it works great.

I don't think I have ever seen a cap with zero ESR!

I think they are basically a very high impedance ohmmeter capable
of measuring very low ohm values.

I did buy a Peak Atlas Semiconductor tester.

Good for measuring leakage and gain and other things.

Good info on old Germanium transistors.

[dorrisant]

Which Atlas did you get Tom? I got the DCA75 that tests more stuff than I'll ever use and does curve traces... expensive but NICE!

Xtian - Will your ESR meter test in-circuit devices?

Tony

[John_P_WI]

Xtian,

Over at the EEVblog forum there has been a loooong thread about similar meters. Towards the end they talk of firmware upgrades etc. Been awhile since I dropped in and checked it out:

http://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/$ ... r-project/

[eniam rognab]

i had one of those for around two or three months before it crapped out on me... may have had something to do with the taser i bought somewhere around that time

i keed i keed, broke in my backpack so be careful with it. i wants another strictly for home usage

hey, you're a smart guy! rip the code off of it and load it onto arduinos!!

[John_P_WI]

Isn't the code open source? Might be easier than we think, I just don't have time to read the EEVblog.

[eniam rognab]

Isn't the code open source? Might be easier than we think, I just don't have time to read the EEVblog.

YUP! there it is, ready for download, reply #11 of the site you linked, super cool, i got an arduino waiting for something cool like this.

but i'm playing around with my new SDR module, software defined radio. i'll make a post about it when i have figured it out more, lotta static at the moment...

[John_P_WI]

but i'm playing around with my new SDR module, software defined radio. i'll make a post about it when i have figured it out more, lotta static at the moment...

DUDE!!! Oh man don't even get me started on that one... I have been itching to get into that, all I need is another rabbit hole to go down. Keep us posted!

[xtian]

I asked the seller for a manual. They sent me this wonderful masterpiece of Chinglish.

To answer Tony's question:

Measurements in the road, without having to remove components that dramatically improves the detection efficiency. "In the measurement of the road" means the component is not removed from the board, detection of the component is not energized. Many people know that the common diodes, transistors, resistors and other discrete components can be detected with a multimeter on the road to find out the success rate of faulty components is also high. The capacitors are not, because of the need AC signal drivers, multimeter can not do anything. As electronic devices generally have to use electrolytic capacitors, the use of some devices even more than one hundred. Measuring the road brought convenience, making maintenance are able to calmly deal, greatly reducing the workload, and one important special significance.

[dorrisant]

Chinglish - Love it!!

So it does do in circuit testing... Cool!

Tony

[xtian]

This box also measures inductance. So it's another tool for measuring speakers. For example, I have an 8 ohm Celestion V Type. One DMM says 6.8R, one says 7.4R. The ESR meter says 6.9R and 0.37mH.

I didn't immediately find inductance ratings for speakers, but here's one that mentions 0.38mH for a WGS speaker.

Also interesting is that during the test you can hear the pattern of square waves via the speaker that the ESR meter uses to sense the component type and value.

[David Root]

Tom, I bought that blue ESR tester ready built, same as you, a few years ago. Seems to work fine, although I do reset it frequently by shorting the probes.

It shows that F&T caps are relatively high ESR, same as that Chinese tester shows, they are good for most of our builds. I only use the Solens in an onboard FX loop in a Dumble build. I am surprised that IC cap shows such low ESR though.

I've been using MIEC e-caps lately, they are faster than the F&Ts but not superfast, they generally read around 1 ohm IIRC.

[dorrisant]

I know it's been a while but I thought I would post an update...

I built one of these quite a while back and have been using it regularly ever since. I used a meter from eBay, it is an old Geiger counter meter... I paid like $10 and the seller was less than a mile from me.

I got the original layout and trace from another web page. I added the 7805 regulator so the power supply could be 9-20v without any trouble. I upped the input cap to a 650v Solen I had in the parts bin. The pilot is just a color changing led mounted to shine through the meter. Looks cool to me anyway.

Print the trace out actual size and it should work fine.

[xtian]

Looks very cool!