Build This AMAZING $1 DIY ESR Meter Project!
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 มิ.ย. 2024
- This video is kindly sponsored by PCBway. Please give PCBWay a try for all your PCB needs. / pcbway
An ESR Meter is a very useful tool - but a proper one will cost you about $40-50. So let's see if we can build a simple ESR meter using a few components are that are easy to salvage from broken electronics. In this video I build the ESR meter from a circuit I found on the internet, then modify it to get it to work better and finally look at a few ways we could enhance it further while still keeping the cost to around $5
Let's build an ESR Meter!
Chapters
00:00:00 Intro
00:01:00 PCBWay Shared Projects
00:04:00 The Original Schematic
00:09:15 Selecting The Salvaged Components
00:20:55 Building The Project Prototype
00:47:08 Testing The Original Circuit
01:05:24 The LER Modification
01:08:36 Testing The LER Version
01:12:07 Analyzing The Results
01:12:46 Calibration
01:18:53 The $1 ESR Meter
01:20:54 The LER ESR Meter V2.0
If you use this link when creating a new PCBWay account and you will receive a free $5 discount coupon: www.pcbway.com/setinvite.aspx...
Links mentioned in this video:
All you need to know about ESR Meters to fix stuff!
• All You Need To Know A...
Parts required for this project (affiliate links)
BC547B s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DC9...
1N914 diode s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_Dnb...
Inductor kit s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DkI...
Trimmer Potentiometer Kit s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_Dkz...
Learn Electronics Repair is now on Discord! Come and join the fun, it's free.
/ discord
It takes a lot of time and effort to make TH-cam videos. If you enjoy my videos or they helped you with your own repairs please consider subscribing to my channel or click LIKE
If you would like to help support this channel you could consider sending a Paypal donation or subscribing to my Patreon page. All monies received will go towards buying more items to repair and make interesting videos, or to improve my video recording equipment and will enable me to spend more time making better videos. If you subscribe to my Patreon you'll get my Whatsapp number and I'll give personal repair support
You can send donations via this link
www.paypal.com/paypalme/youtu...
You can subscribe via this link
/ learnelectronicsrepair
Thank you for your support.
Richard
Since I moved from my large 2000 square foot house to a small 500 square foot apartment I had to put a lot of electronics into storage. I don't get to play with them now like I used to but I really enjoy your videos it takes me back to the time when I could experiment more freely.
I came across your Ch a few weeks back and learnt so much in that time.. Really enjoyed your simple,but detailed explanation of everything and just like to say thanks !! And keep up the great work..
I enjoy your work. I feel I learn a lot from observing your process and technique. Thank you.
great idea to do a video like this Richard cool to see the build done :)
Richard, the beauty of the original circuit is to use common discrete components and the simplest battery (AA) that with low current drain, skips the need of voltage regulator, especially if a trimpot is used to adjust reading’s Zero Ohm.
Your final brainstorm using an OpAmp somehow defeats those 2 points, making it more complicated than other famous ESR circuits as the “5 transistor” or the one based on quad OpAmp as in TL084.
I would love to see your investigations for improvement if possible, preserving the 1.5V and conventional BJT. Maybe another BJT could provide the Vce= 1.0V as a floating ground with low-enough impedance make a DMM’s differential voltage reading worthwhile.
Thanks for sharing these investigations and I look forward for these prospective outcomes.
Great comment I'd also like to see what Richard would say. 😊
I don’t think that was the point of this build.
I just want to add, there's so much pleasure to be had hand drawing your circuit, switching of the computer off and etching you own pcb. Its not ideal, but very educational and satisfying... I use an edding fabric marker to draw to circuit, and dont get pitting if ink is layered up!
I remember a circuit similar to this from back in my tv repair days.Cheaper than a Capacitor wizard.
For cutting tracks on vero/stripboards, I use a 4mm drill ending in a hexagon.I click it into a general bit holder and give it a about two, maybe three twists manually. Works great and it even avoids lifting the tracks on the chinesium boards I use for a quick prototype.
What do you mean by "ending in a hexagon" ?? Can you elaborate please 😊
@@keithking1985With "ending in a hexagon" I mean drivable with a standard screw bit driver in the shape of an Allan key.
@@keithking1985He means a 1/4” driver. You can also use a hand drill with a chuck style holder.
That’s a great idea, takes the fiddle out!
You may also take a look at the simple ESR Meter from Danyk. It is based on a 555-Timer. It may be more easy to add an operational amplifier to it as it is supplied by a 9V battery.
I use a drill bit with one of that cheap hand drill bit holders to clean the connections on veroboard like boars, clean, easy a give a really good finish, I use 4mm drill bits, found this tip in an older magazine.
Cool stuff Richard, I have to find some time to play with this circuit, thinking about adding a switch to measure the ESR at different frequencies, will report my findings here. Keep the good work dude.
Very nice circuit! You might try setting the Q2 collector voltage close to zero with the input shorted and re-run your tests with the resistors. You should get a wider range of ESR readings. Regards, David.
For those who haven't yet ventured into designing their own circuits and PCB's, I really encourage you to give it a try. There's free software out there such as KiCAD which helps you to draw the schematic of your circuit, and then convert that circuit into a PCB design. A lot of the process is automated, and a lot simpler than you might think. And once you've designed the PCB layout you simply save what's called a "gerber" file and upload it to the PCB manufacturer and they do the rest. Even if you just want to make a very simple circuit it's very inexpensive, with usually a very quick turnaround. And it also helps to avoid the many problems you might encounter with typical prototype boards (noise, stray capacitance, etc.).
You are so right! It is really a fantastic feeling getting them in the mail.
Jjust don't ask how many failure PCBs I have laying around - and being used for various scrapers, spacers and stuff :D
IV never made my own PCB yet. So far any pieces I needed I could get a modular piece. But I will check out that one you mentioned for sure.. thank you 👍🇮🇪🙏
With regards to pot types and their curves.... type A are logarithmic (volume control etc) B are linear, C is an inverted log (typically used to turn up gain more evenly or sometimes bass control) and W is specialized custom taper.
Very good start. A couple of observations (which may or may not help). Stripboard is notorious for creating 'capacitance' issues with sensitive and oscillating circuits, shortening all cables as much as possible and cutting the board down to size may make a significant difference.
I use a heavy-duty scalpel (live dangerously) to cut tracks (spot face cutters, drills etc just weaken the board and remove a potential component pad).
The resistors 'calibration checking method' would rely on resistor tolerance, and the circuit is oscillating (or should be, looking for reactance) so any touchy fingers will cause some issues.
You could use another BC547 to invert the output from Q2.
Dollars? I expect to see a 115V AC supply and an on-off switch where up is on, in part 2. Ho, ho.
Great stuff . Plot the readings on a quick graph
PS I have just made a 1 euro thermal audio probe for use instead of a thermal camera
Hi Richard, did you ever come around to make the second part of this video? I was searching around TH-cam and couldn't find it. Thanks for the video!
Heya nice esr meter diy
I always enjoy your video's they are very informative and clear, do you take requests? All you need to know about Buck converter? Thanks!
Ahhh, yeah, that is already on the To Do list 😉
Hi Richard
I have learned so much from your videos well done mate. Keep it going you are doing well .
Just for experiments a decade resistance box might help explain what’s going on ( help with them dodgy
Pots .
All the best Steve
Definitely that would help - I was just doing what I can with what I have. Ar least now I'm confident that my implementation is stable and can find caps with bad ESR rather well for such a cheap device. With a bit of work using op-amps or an Arduino variant I am also pretty sure it will read 1 ohm = 1 volt on a standard DMM 🙂
Love your videos... especially the intro ones you made covering various topics. Sorry... but after watching many of them my OCD kicked in and you need to fix your multimeter red probe/lead with the bent tip. LOL
I use veroboard ALL the time and I gotta say, I've never seen anyone build a circuit on one quite like that. Lol I suppose I COULD do it that way, but I make a Vero layout on the computer first. I then print it out to scale with the Veroboard and tape it down on top of the Vero and use my drill press to drill out all my trace cuts and then populate my components. I commend your abilities, sir!
Hi, I've used veecad for designing veroboard layouts on pc for years. It is now a free application for pc. Bit of a learning curve, you can export the net from kicad or tinycad which I use. See veecad on TH-cam for tutorials.
To check linearity, it would be easier and more intuitive to plot the values -- or even better use linear regression to calculate the correlation coefficient
I tried this and it works well. I, like you did not have a 1 Meg pot but I did have a 1 Meg ohm multi-turn preset pot which did work but is not practical as I want to run this from a battery. This means you need to re- zero the meter every time you use it as the battery will slowly wear out. I found that using a 500k pot with a 180k resistor in series ( 100k and a 390k ohm resistor also works) I could easily zero the meter, however you have to connect the metal body of the pot to ground to get a stable useable adjustment.
Wow ini bagus, boleh saya pakai skema ESR meternya, saya menggunakan esr yang memakai IC smicht trigger boros baterai
Best ESR meter made in italy, from Nuova Electtronica Magazine LX1518
I have a question about the mesr 100 i have was checking a circuit and had 400v capacitors and looked at the chart on thr mesr 100 meter and it is blank above a certain value. i have read the manual and it's not clear what the maximum size capacitors and voltage that can be tested. I have googled this and not had any luck finding the information.
needles to say if the value is not on the meter chart i wouldn't use the mesr 100 to test it
Greetings from Russia, I have been using the device according to this scheme for 10 years already. I wound the coil on the M2000 ring with a diameter of 20mm. Licendrat wire. 50 turns. The frequency was 16 kHz. Arrow indicator.
The performance is all down to the quality of the resonant section. The cap should be a high stability low loss of quality and fed into a buffer, high impedance input to minimise damping, an op-amp here is ideal. The standard is 100khz and I'd stick to that - this isn't, it seems over double?! If you wanted to keep the overall function of using the amplitude as a measure, a very simple detector and filter will average the level to ensure reliable readings. A comparator adjustable to null on shorted input will give positive results. Really this whole thing is a bit dicky but on the right track.
Edit: PS very good video, excellent for design.
If you are using an OpAmp output, you can probably eliminate at least one of the transistors since you no longer need the Darlington pair to do the amplification.
That's not quite a Darlington circuit with Q1acting as an common collector or emitter follower into R1, with feedback from via R1 and Q2 amplifying Q1's emitter from its collector, in a common emitter configuration.
Хороший esr meter. Я собирал по журналу радио за 2008 год выпуск 7 страница 23. Если не ошибаюсь пока.
Есть ещё вариант miron63
Но цена в 100$конечно не радует...
Автору спасибо. 👍
Thank you. I did credit the original source of this circuit in the video. I hope you like my variation on it, it does seem more stable now 😉
@@LearnElectronicsRepair where are you from? Are you from spain?????
@@hassanshahbaz1831 I'm an English man living in the south of Gran Canaria, Spain.
Maspalomas to be more exact.
@@LearnElectronicsRepair awww thanks for your reply. It means a lot ❤️
Do somebody knows which software was used for the schematic at 0:55?
You have one of these cheap Chinese component testers that measure ESR. Have you compared it with your circuit?
Anyone know when part 2 on the ESR meter is coming ?
Can I use this equivalent series resistance meter to measure my thetans? Curious Scientologists want to know.
(The picture on the Wikipedia page for "equivalent series resistance meter" looks like one of their meters.)
i would replace the mA meter with a precision 1 ohm resister and measure mV across it. You can then take that through op amps to get the reading you desire.
Yes.
Hi, what is the name of the blue tool you use? its simmilar to something ive seen befor for twisting metal pins on plate covers like RF boxes but cant put my finger on the name of it.
@A7
Mine's called a Vero spot face cutter.
Sir what its inductor value?
Terima kasih skemanya, untuk induktornya berapa ukuran nilainya. Berapa uH
As a hobbyist with only a moderate amount of technical knowledge, I’m curious why you went to the trouble of matching the 51k resistor exactly. I would imagine a deviation of less than 10% would hardly matter when it’s in series with a pot that’s 2000% bigger. Does it set some critical minimum resistance?
Agreed, a 47k would be fine!
After much iteration I changed R1 from 51K to 1Meg and used the 1Meg POT at about 0.4 turn of 1. Also I inserted a 10Ω resistor in series with the test capacitor to try get some linearity for the ESR from 0.1 to about 10Ω. One could actually discriminate to 20Ω like this. I guess the layout and gain values of the BC547C's influence the output resonating at about 14kHz.
May I know the frequency of this ESR oscillator? quite a simple circuit.
I think this current version is oscillating in the region or 15-17KHz It could be set to run at some other frequency by varying the values of the inductor and 100nF capacitors
@Jimmy Galigao I tried to post the simple equation you can use to calculate the frequency of an LC oscillator yourself but apparently equations aren't accepted :) Anyway, you can do a quick search for LC oscillator to get the equation, and just plug the L and C values in and calculate yourself. BTW, as I mentioned elsewhere this is a simple "Colpitts" oscillator if you want more info.
@@LearnElectronicsRepair I got slightly over 14kHz running on an LTSpice simulation.
´Super 😻😻😻 😻😻😻 💯💯💯 👍👍👍👍👍👍
Hi their,Hope this works for smd caps right?
Yes, though generally speaking we are not interested in the ESR of those. At least not for repair reasons
@@LearnElectronicsRepair Thank you very much. I'm learning a lot from this channel. Thanks a lot one again.
I think the first thing to do is see what the oscillator is doing, we want something around the industry standard which is roughly 100KHz, I'm not a design guy either but it's so 'Flaky' right from the off I would need to see that to gain any confidence in it before moving on...cheers.
@andymouse It isn't around 100KHz at the moment - Its about 17KHz. Without doubt It was very flaky/unusable to start off using the original implementation but after my little mod I hope you would agree it is fairly stable and it now finds caps with bad ESR pretty well as it stands. Yes I would like to get it to run at 100KHz on LER ESR V2, and it needs a bit of op-amp or even Atmel trickery to get it to display the actual as ESR 1 ohm = 1V on a standard DMM, but I'm very confident this will work
@@LearnElectronicsRepair Yep I look forward to V2 and I do agree its improved. I would like to see the waveform from the oscillator as I having trouble visualising it ! oooh yeah some Atmel goodness can't hurt, I think it will be great thanks for your rapid answer !....cheers.
I assume if you're into electronics you're familiar with simulators like LTSpice. Why not spend a few minutes and build the circuit in LTSpice and see the waveforms, etc., for yourself? That way you can also vary the parameters and see its limitations.
@@EETechStuff yes I could do that however I enjoy the video's as is, in fact I would love to see a video of somebody doing exactly as you describe but in the meantime just a look on a scope would be fine cheers for a good point.
@@andymouse If you're serious about learning electronics I encourage you to learn LTSpice, which is free. On my channel I have a series showing how to use it for beginners, and ,in this case for this simple Colpitts oscillator it would be super simple to drag 'n drop some components, wire them, and run a transient simulation and see exactly how the LC oscillator works with scope-like plots.
From where are you?
I'm from the UK but live and work on the island of Gran Canaria (Spain) since 2016
Whats the point of testing
Capacitors when you know they need to be changed anyway?
Because new parts do not equal good parts. Your brand-new "low ESR" capacitors may indeed have a high ESR because they are fake or defective. For LER, he does a lot of work with salvage capacitors, and those need testing too.
Capacitors are actually pretty complicated from a "is it good?" standpoint. You have to worry not just about the capacitance, but also about ESR, maximum voltage handling, temperature ratings, and electrical leakage. That's a lot that can go wrong, and being able to test those things can increase your confidence that your repair is going to be good long-term.
Why do you care about getting exactly 51K Ohms resistor when that resistor is in series with a 1M variable resistor and is only a small fraction of the resistance of the variable resistor? If you undersized the 51K to the next closest E6-series standard value (47K) or if even you use just your single available 33K resistor, the circuit will work just fine except that the potentiometer will end up being set a fraction of a turn different from if you had used an "exact" 51K
It’s a lesson for those who don’t know everything there is to know about electronics.
well, certainly not cheap on your time , but if you have a lot anyway.
That doesn't look hard to build. i honestly expected a more complicated circuit.. 😊
P.S. Richard if you don't have a particular resistor you can always use a little trim pot and glue it at the residence you need..
What about thermal drift?
$1 or $25.99 after inflation.
why don't you explain what is ESR firstly ?
I'm sorry sometimes I forget that there are new viewers not familiar with my channel 😊
th-cam.com/video/bMUzTGnvrbU/w-d-xo.html - All you need to know about ESR meters to fix stuff
th-cam.com/video/R9slJUqT6Ls/w-d-xo.html - All you need to know about Capacitors to fix stuff
@@LearnElectronicsRepair your replying to such is much apreciated, becuase in this world wide arena, thanks.
Electron Spin Resonance is my first word in and becomes the meaning Rc out, simply though, OK, thanks.
You can do better than that circuit .
The ones with sub 300 mv output & input protection !
Try the oscillator > DUT > amp > voltage detector .
Note
The 5 jbt one needs matched parts or a mod so you can balance it !
Remember in-circuit testing is desirable ….
@@gd2329j hello sir, I am a hobbiest/moderate-technician and I work primarely on vintage hi-fi equipement.
I live in a defavorable country to which it's very hard to get an LCR meter or those chinese ESR meters even.
I really want an accurate ESR meter circuit that I can DIY ( one that is accurate and can be used in circuit )
can you recommend please?
Thank you
Maybe you could find the time to fix that annoing webcam, it has been flickering for a very long time.. Dont you care?
Actually Yeah you are quite right - I must replace the damn thing!
Since he provides you free content, maybe you could return the favor and donate something towards a new camera.
Hi, I WOULD LIKE to follow more your channel and have tried so many times!
But for me, as Italian, I find your "dialect" (I dunno how to call it better) your speaking language so AWFUL that force me to stop viewing and try elsewere.
This is he fourth time I try to follow you in this video (as well in others) but can't go further than half an hour.
You may say: "it's my laguage!", but you tend to "bend" the words so much that i.e. when you say "...if you can abandon...", I heard "if you got bend..."😑😑😑
I think your channel DESERVES not 100k+ viewers but MILLION if only you could go over your accent and spak at least in plain (more american?) understandable english language!!!!
This is an appreciation to your efforts to spread you knowledge, NOT to criticize!
That’s funny.😄