00:00:04.850 hi there and welcome to another episode 00:00:07.07000:00:07.080 of mr. Carlson's lab this video we're 00:00:09.86000:00:09.870 going to take a look at a whole bunch of 00:00:11.24000:00:11.250 different capacitor testers that will 00:00:13.28000:00:13.290 help you determine which particular 00:00:14.93000:00:14.940 capacitor tester or capacitor testers 00:00:17.30000:00:17.310 would be the best for what you're 00:00:18.80000:00:18.810 servicing there's many different tests 00:00:21.43900:00:21.449 that can be performed on capacitors and 00:00:23.59900:00:23.609 all of these testers test capacitors a 00:00:26.39000:00:26.400 little bit differently and I'll get into 00:00:28.25000:00:28.260 that in this video so let's get started 00:00:31.72000:00:31.730 the first capacitor tester that we're 00:00:34.10000:00:34.110 going to take a look at today is this 00:00:35.27000:00:35.280 Pako model C 25 and this is classified 00:00:38.63000:00:38.640 as an insurgent capacitor tester and it 00:00:41.32900:00:41.339 truly is an in circuit capacitor tester 00:00:43.85000:00:43.860 due to the ingenious little circuit that 00:00:46.00900:00:46.019 they've designed inside this box really 00:00:48.71000:00:48.720 is quite bizarre so there are two tubes 00:00:51.56000:00:51.570 inside this unit first is the indicator 00:00:53.99000:00:54.000 tube here and then there's a little 00:00:55.34000:00:55.350 oscillator tube that's located inside 00:00:58.14900:00:58.159 the power supply inside this box has no 00:01:02.27000:01:02.280 filter capacitor so both of these tubes 00:01:04.46000:01:04.470 are running off of AC there's no 00:01:07.10000:01:07.110 filtering at all very interesting design 00:01:09.80000:01:09.810 so it almost makes one of these 00:01:12.53000:01:12.540 capacitor testers pretty much ready just 00:01:14.93000:01:14.940 to plug right in and try out there's no 00:01:16.85000:01:16.860 filter capacitors to really go bad and 00:01:18.83000:01:18.840 damage anything inside the device very 00:01:21.86000:01:21.870 interesting now these particular 00:01:24.65000:01:24.660 capacitor testers can be had at you know 00:01:27.11000:01:27.120 ham radio swap meets or online for 00:01:29.18000:01:29.190 relatively cheap and when you get them 00:01:32.72000:01:32.730 it's always a good idea just to go 00:01:33.83000:01:33.840 through the many ways and you know check 00:01:35.39000:01:35.400 everything out make sure everything is 00:01:36.74000:01:36.750 good now inside this unit is a 40 00:01:41.45000:01:41.460 megahertz oscillator and that 40 00:01:44.57000:01:44.580 megahertz oscillator is basically 00:01:47.42000:01:47.430 feeding a signal through this piece of 00:01:50.03000:01:50.040 coax which is cut to exactly one quarter 00:01:53.18000:01:53.190 wavelength now there's a trimmer 00:01:55.61000:01:55.620 capacitor inside this that you can 00:01:57.41000:01:57.420 adjust so you know if it's trimmed a 00:01:59.03000:01:59.040 little shorter a little longer you can 00:02:00.38000:02:00.390 adjust that frequency in there the 00:02:02.71900:02:02.729 person that added these ends on to the 00:02:06.05000:02:06.060 end of the coax here obviously did not 00:02:07.61000:02:07.620 understand how this works because these 00:02:09.58900:02:09.599 are way too long and this is going to 00:02:11.44900:02:11.459 cause erroneous readings so these need 00:02:14.03000:02:14.040 to be very short little leads with 00:02:15.59000:02:15.600 little alligator clips on the 00:02:17.30000:02:17.310 in order for this thing to work 00:02:18.71000:02:18.720 correctly and I plan on doing a 00:02:21.17000:02:21.180 restoration on this little capacity 00:02:23.54000:02:23.550 tester here in the future so if you're 00:02:25.19000:02:25.200 interested in seeing that leave your 00:02:27.35000:02:27.360 comments below and I'll revisit this in 00:02:30.53000:02:30.540 the future so at any rate a very 00:02:33.41000:02:33.420 ingenious design so the whole idea is to 00:02:35.78000:02:35.790 complete a 40 megahertz signal through 00:02:38.00000:02:38.010 this piece of coax here and then what 00:02:40.43000:02:40.440 you do is you clip this into the circuit 00:02:42.17000:02:42.180 across the capacitor inside the circuit 00:02:44.83900:02:44.849 and whatever is hooked in line or you 00:02:47.33000:02:47.340 know if there's any resistors that are 00:02:49.10000:02:49.110 hooked to this inside the unit because 00:02:51.28900:02:51.299 this is oscillating at such a high 00:02:53.18000:02:53.190 frequency it's going to basically ignore 00:02:55.25000:02:55.260 the rest of the circuitry so when I get 00:02:58.49000:02:58.500 into the restoration of this particular 00:03:00.22900:03:00.239 device I'll explain a little bit more 00:03:02.15000:03:02.160 about that at that point now one of the 00:03:05.72000:03:05.730 the cons to this particular device is a 00:03:09.08000:03:09.090 lot of the capacitors that you're going 00:03:11.24000:03:11.250 to be looking at in say a radio and 00:03:13.43000:03:13.440 amplifier or say even an older 00:03:15.28900:03:15.299 television nowadays have developed 00:03:17.87000:03:17.880 leakage this particular capacitor tester 00:03:20.66000:03:20.670 is a go or no-go kind of test it's 00:03:23.36000:03:23.370 basically looking at extremes it's 00:03:25.43000:03:25.440 either a short or an open capacitor and 00:03:28.34000:03:28.350 that's basically all it's looking for 00:03:30.43000:03:30.440 it's a relatively easy tester to read 00:03:33.86000:03:33.870 because a closed eye indicates a 00:03:35.80900:03:35.819 defective capacitor in these modes here 00:03:38.80000:03:38.810 so this really is not going to indicate 00:03:42.62000:03:42.630 leakage and that's a very important 00:03:45.22900:03:45.239 thing to be looking for nowadays because 00:03:47.30000:03:47.310 the capacitors in these older amplifiers 00:03:49.52000:03:49.530 and you know radios and televisions are 00:03:51.77000:03:51.780 developing leakage by now because 00:03:53.66000:03:53.670 they're breaking down inside again this 00:03:56.27000:03:56.280 is looking for extremes this is either 00:03:58.78900:03:58.799 looking for a short or for an opening 00:04:01.19000:04:01.200 the capacitor so you're not going to be 00:04:03.17000:04:03.180 able to test that leakage that is the 00:04:05.03000:04:05.040 con to this particular capacitor tester 00:04:08.55900:04:08.569 this ICO 955 is very similar to the last 00:04:12.31900:04:12.329 capacitor tester that we looked at the 00:04:14.36000:04:14.370 difference being is this capacitor 00:04:16.03900:04:16.049 tester has a much reduced range if you 00:04:18.65000:04:18.660 recall the Pako went to 400 micro farad 00:04:21.40900:04:21.419 for testing electrolitic s-- this one 00:04:23.48000:04:23.490 tops out at only 50 micro farad now 00:04:28.04000:04:28.050 again this is an in circuit tester 00:04:31.04000:04:31.050 and it's not really looking at an 00:04:33.14000:04:33.150 in-between state it really is a go/no-go 00:04:35.57000:04:35.580 kind of test so we have a short test and 00:04:38.21000:04:38.220 we have an open test and then we have 00:04:40.19000:04:40.200 our capacity test here which we would 00:04:41.93000:04:41.940 use this for now in my own opinion if 00:04:46.19000:04:46.200 you saw something like this on a table 00:04:47.57000:04:47.580 unless you're an eco collector I 00:04:49.64000:04:49.650 wouldn't really be too interested in 00:04:51.32000:04:51.330 something like this now if you're 00:04:54.41000:04:54.420 interested in you know say that price 00:04:56.06000:04:56.070 was right say this was you know five 00:04:57.68000:04:57.690 bucks or something like that and the I 00:04:59.21000:04:59.220 tube and this was still good 00:05:00.74000:05:00.750 might be worth picking up for the I tube 00:05:02.39000:05:02.400 or if you want something just as a shelf 00:05:04.52000:05:04.530 queen or something like that you know 00:05:06.20000:05:06.210 that'd be fine as well so if you're 00:05:09.14000:05:09.150 interested in seeing the inside of this 00:05:11.24000:05:11.250 and going over the circuitry and seeing 00:05:13.43000:05:13.440 the way this particular device works you 00:05:15.08000:05:15.090 may also want to leave that below in the 00:05:16.49000:05:16.500 comments as well this unit oscillates at 00:05:19.52000:05:19.530 around 22 mega cycles whereas the Pako 00:05:23.27000:05:23.280 oscillates around 40 mega cycles so the 00:05:26.54000:05:26.550 design is similar frequencies are a 00:05:28.31000:05:28.320 little bit different things like that 00:05:30.52000:05:30.530 again you know this is really just the 00:05:32.81000:05:32.820 reduced range version of that other 00:05:35.51000:05:35.520 tester so in my own opinion you see one 00:05:38.69000:05:38.700 of these things and you're looking for a 00:05:40.10000:05:40.110 usable capacitor tester keep on walking 00:05:43.96000:05:43.970 Heathkit capacitor tester model Ct one 00:05:47.09000:05:47.100 similar to the last design yet even a 00:05:50.06000:05:50.070 further reduced range lower oscillating 00:05:53.63000:05:53.640 frequency about nineteen megacycles so 00:05:57.53000:05:57.540 again unless you're looking for a nice 00:05:59.84000:05:59.850 eye tube for an older radio or something 00:06:02.12000:06:02.130 like that my suggestion is to keep on 00:06:05.51000:06:05.520 walking this is one of my favorite 00:06:09.38000:06:09.390 capacitor checkers this is the heat camp 00:06:11.66000:06:11.670 model i t11 I have another favorite 00:06:14.57000:06:14.580 which is my Jackson model 591 but I 00:06:17.24000:06:17.250 won't talk about that today just because 00:06:18.56000:06:18.570 it pretty much does the same thing that 00:06:20.36000:06:20.370 this capacitor tester does is just a 00:06:22.16000:06:22.170 different name and in fact the Jackson 00:06:24.71000:06:24.720 is a little safer than this particular 00:06:26.54000:06:26.550 tester as well but that safety thing can 00:06:29.48000:06:29.490 be a catch-22 because the safety thing 00:06:31.82000:06:31.830 on the Jackson tester eliminates one of 00:06:34.46000:06:34.470 the functions that this particular 00:06:35.78000:06:35.790 tester is capable of and I'll explain 00:06:37.85000:06:37.860 that here in just a little bit so this 00:06:41.93000:06:41.940 is still a very valid piece of test gear 00:06:43.91000:06:43.920 today on 00:06:44.69000:06:44.700 any test bench this does a whole host of 00:06:47.09000:06:47.100 different functions and it does so many 00:06:50.27000:06:50.280 functions that it's really beyond the 00:06:52.01000:06:52.020 scope of this video here so explaining 00:06:54.98000:06:54.990 exactly everything that this tester does 00:06:57.41000:06:57.420 could be a video within itself now I 00:07:00.65000:07:00.660 really only use this particular 00:07:02.99000:07:03.000 capacitor tester for its leakage 00:07:05.12000:07:05.130 function you can see leakage here this 00:07:07.37000:07:07.380 is the test that all of those other 00:07:09.23000:07:09.240 capacitor testers didn't do those were 00:07:12.02000:07:12.030 all just pretty much go and no-go kind 00:07:14.60000:07:14.610 of tests this will test that in between 00:07:16.88000:07:16.890 state this will indicate when a 00:07:19.49000:07:19.500 capacitor is breaking down inside so on 00:07:22.16000:07:22.170 the paper is going back essentially the 00:07:25.07000:07:25.080 capacitor is turning into a resistor now 00:07:29.18000:07:29.190 this doesn't supply any RF into the 00:07:31.55000:07:31.560 circuit like the other capacitor testers 00:07:33.68000:07:33.690 do so this requires you to disconnect 00:07:36.41000:07:36.420 one end of the capacitor in order to 00:07:38.81000:07:38.820 make that test within the circuit what 00:07:41.93000:07:41.940 this does is this applies DC across the 00:07:44.99000:07:45.000 capacitor and reads the leakage current 00:07:47.05000:07:47.060 that the capacitor has itself so it'll 00:07:50.45000:07:50.460 measure the amount of leakage and it 00:07:52.25000:07:52.260 will display that on the eye here so if 00:07:54.89000:07:54.900 the eye closes that tells you that the 00:07:57.53000:07:57.540 capacitor is bad in that of course is 00:08:00.32000:08:00.330 when this is in the leakage position so 00:08:03.53000:08:03.540 this brings me to this safety talk about 00:08:06.11000:08:06.120 this particular capacitor tester this is 00:08:08.27000:08:08.280 a very dangerous capacitor tester if you 00:08:10.79000:08:10.800 don't know what you're doing just 00:08:12.26000:08:12.270 because of this switch right here now as 00:08:16.88000:08:16.890 you can see we have a voltage control 00:08:18.38000:08:18.390 here that goes from 3 volts in steps all 00:08:21.38000:08:21.390 the way up to 600 volts so if this is in 00:08:26.45000:08:26.460 the leakage position like it is now and 00:08:28.67000:08:28.680 this is up at 600 volts there is 600 00:08:31.37000:08:31.380 volts across these two terminals at all 00:08:33.62000:08:33.630 times until you click this to discharge 00:08:37.30000:08:37.310 now you'll notice that this is 00:08:39.08000:08:39.090 spring-loaded in the jackson tester this 00:08:41.90000:08:41.910 is spring-loaded and it'll spring back 00:08:44.24000:08:44.250 to the discharge position this you can 00:08:47.45000:08:47.460 leave in leakage and forget about it and 00:08:49.79000:08:49.800 that makes this very dangerous now 00:08:52.07000:08:52.080 here's the thing many people want this 00:08:55.07000:08:55.080 non spring-loaded switch because they 00:08:57.71000:08:57.720 like to use 00:08:58.58000:08:58.590 to try to reform capacitors so there's 00:09:02.18000:09:02.190 that catch-22 thing so you need to be 00:09:04.82000:09:04.830 very careful with this capacitor tester 00:09:07.49000:09:07.500 if you forget about this and try to 00:09:09.23000:09:09.240 remove a capacitor you're in for a nasty 00:09:11.78000:09:11.790 shock if you have an electrolytic 00:09:14.72000:09:14.730 capacitor across these terminals it 00:09:16.79000:09:16.800 could be deadly 00:09:18.13000:09:18.140 so you always need to remember to click 00:09:21.53000:09:21.540 this to discharge watch the tube up here 00:09:24.20000:09:24.210 the tube will indicate when the 00:09:25.85000:09:25.860 capacitor is discharged 00:09:28.16000:09:28.170 once this indicates the cap is 00:09:30.95000:09:30.960 discharged you never take a chance you 00:09:33.20000:09:33.210 always take a screwdriver and short it 00:09:35.21000:09:35.220 across the capacitor before you remove 00:09:37.43000:09:37.440 it you can imagine what would happen if 00:09:40.85000:09:40.860 you have this in the electrolytic 00:09:42.14000:09:42.150 position and say you had a 100 00:09:44.65000:09:44.660 microfarad electrolytic capacitor 00:09:47.45000:09:47.460 charged up to 400 volts and it wasn't 00:09:50.84000:09:50.850 you know properly discharged so say it 00:09:53.06000:09:53.070 was still again sitting at that 400 00:09:55.01000:09:55.020 volts that would be a very very 00:09:57.29000:09:57.300 dangerous situation so if you're going 00:09:59.42000:09:59.430 to use a capacitor tester like this I 00:10:01.28000:10:01.290 strongly suggest that you read the 00:10:03.17000:10:03.180 instruction manual become very familiar 00:10:05.75000:10:05.760 with this device what I always do I 00:10:08.51000:10:08.520 always make a note to make sure this 00:10:11.12000:10:11.130 isn't discharge and turn that rate back 00:10:13.79000:10:13.800 down to three before I use it again for 00:10:16.73000:10:16.740 the next capacitor it's kind of like one 00:10:19.82000:10:19.830 of those things that you just do 00:10:20.95000:10:20.960 automatically if you were to forget and 00:10:24.14000:10:24.150 you left this at 150 volts and say you 00:10:26.63000:10:26.640 took a 25 volt capacitor and put it 00:10:28.64000:10:28.650 across these terminals and accidentally 00:10:30.17000:10:30.180 hit leakage the things going to explode 00:10:32.60000:10:32.610 so it can be very dangerous so you need 00:10:35.63000:10:35.640 to be very very careful with this 00:10:36.98000:10:36.990 capacitor tester so other than that this 00:10:41.39000:10:41.400 thing is a great device to use this has 00:10:44.44900:10:44.459 so many different features you can even 00:10:45.89000:10:45.900 look at turns ratios or workout turns 00:10:47.93000:10:47.940 ratios of transformers with this thing 00:10:49.79000:10:49.800 again this goes well beyond the scope of 00:10:51.98000:10:51.990 this video here again I only use this 00:10:54.92000:10:54.930 device for its leakage test I use 00:10:57.19900:10:57.209 digital meters for everything else and 00:10:59.51000:10:59.520 in a moment we'll take a look at those 00:11:01.69900:11:01.709 digital meters as well 00:11:04.30000:11:04.310 the next meter we're going to take a 00:11:06.11000:11:06.120 look at is known as an LCR meter so L 00:11:09.47000:11:09.480 for inductance C for capacitance and all 00:11:12.29000:11:12.300 are for resistance this particular meter 00:11:14.57000:11:14.580 has the added bonus of being able to 00:11:16.61000:11:16.620 test microwave diodes and Zener diodes 00:11:18.71000:11:18.720 at the six point eight volts the reason 00:11:20.69000:11:20.700 it will test the six point eight volts 00:11:21.98000:11:21.990 entered out is because the unit itself 00:11:23.81000:11:23.820 is powered by an internal 9-volt battery 00:11:26.86000:11:26.870 now the reason that I'm talking about 00:11:29.03000:11:29.040 LCR and not just see in this particular 00:11:31.61000:11:31.620 meter here is because if you're going to 00:11:33.80000:11:33.810 have any type of electronic service 00:11:35.60000:11:35.610 bench or if you need to do any type of 00:11:37.46000:11:37.470 electronic servicing there's going to be 00:11:39.59000:11:39.600 a point in time when you're going to 00:11:41.03000:11:41.040 need to test some form of inductor and 00:11:43.30000:11:43.310 this will do it the price of an LCR 00:11:46.67000:11:46.680 meter an LCR meter like this really 00:11:49.22000:11:49.230 isn't that much more than a dedicated 00:11:51.29000:11:51.300 capacitance meter and by having this you 00:11:54.20000:11:54.210 know you get all of this and basically 00:11:55.79000:11:55.800 one meter so very handy thing to have on 00:11:59.09000:11:59.100 the bench now the thing that really made 00:12:01.73000:12:01.740 this particular meter shine for me the 00:12:04.31000:12:04.320 dalm 240 this is made by circuit test is 00:12:06.67000:12:06.680 the inductance range this goes to 200 00:12:10.04000:12:10.050 Henry's now on dealing a lot with 00:12:12.41000:12:12.420 modified heisting modulation and 00:12:14.54000:12:14.550 modulation reactors and a lot of the 00:12:16.94000:12:16.950 times those reactors are up around 60 to 00:12:20.15000:12:20.160 80 Henry's and that exceeds the range of 00:12:22.94000:12:22.950 a lot of these particular types of 00:12:24.47000:12:24.480 meters this one here will test up to 200 00:12:27.41000:12:27.420 Henry's so this is comfortably within 00:12:29.30000:12:29.310 their range that's what really made this 00:12:31.40000:12:31.410 particular meter stand out to me so you 00:12:34.76000:12:34.770 can test things with the alligator clips 00:12:36.62000:12:36.630 or you can plug capacitors directly into 00:12:38.90000:12:38.910 the unit itself to do the test so it is 00:12:41.03000:12:41.040 very versatile so this particular meter 00:12:44.63000:12:44.640 or some variant of a meter like this is 00:12:47.69000:12:47.700 an absolute must for any electronic 00:12:50.51000:12:50.520 service vention a letís if you plan on 00:12:54.14000:12:54.150 working on switch mode power supplies 00:12:56.00000:12:56.010 owning an ESR meter is an absolute must 00:12:58.64000:12:58.650 is our stands for equivalent series 00:13:00.98000:13:00.990 resistance so you can picture an 00:13:03.32000:13:03.330 electrolytic capacitor with a resistor 00:13:05.36000:13:05.370 in series with one of the legs now the 00:13:08.84000:13:08.850 nice thing about these particular meters 00:13:10.34000:13:10.350 is they will test a lot of the 00:13:11.93000:13:11.940 capacitors right in circuits so you 00:13:13.46000:13:13.470 don't even need to remove them again 00:13:15.23000:13:15.240 this is dealing with our RF so we're 00:13:17.63000:13:17.640 dealing with a signal at the jacks here 00:13:19.55000:13:19.560 which a lot of the times not all the 00:13:22.40000:13:22.410 times but a lot of the times pretty much 00:13:23.99000:13:24.000 avoids all the rest of the circuitry and 00:13:26.18000:13:26.190 there's 00:13:26.63000:13:26.640 you're pretty much just testing the cap 00:13:28.69000:13:28.700 now ESR you can look at it like this 00:13:32.44000:13:32.450 switch mode power supplies first of all 00:13:34.61000:13:34.620 are very hard on electrolytic capacitors 00:13:36.95000:13:36.960 a lot of the times electrolytic 00:13:38.63000:13:38.640 capacitors leak and I'll end up drying 00:13:40.82000:13:40.830 up when they dry up they develop ESR and 00:13:44.29000:13:44.300 ESR can be looked at like a resistor in 00:13:47.45000:13:47.460 line with one of the leads climbing in 00:13:49.76000:13:49.770 resistance over time as this is drying 00:13:52.31000:13:52.320 up well if we have a resistor say in 00:13:55.61000:13:55.620 line with a 1000 micro farad capacitor 00:13:57.74000:13:57.750 here and say it's up to 5 ohms and it's 00:14:01.43000:14:01.440 going up to 10 ohms and then up to 15 00:14:03.80000:14:03.810 ohms well what's going to happen to that 00:14:05.99000:14:06.000 resistor if it's in series with that 00:14:07.97000:14:07.980 capacitor and the capacitor is working 00:14:10.07000:14:10.080 in the circuit that resistor is going to 00:14:11.63000:14:11.640 get hot and that's effectively what the 00:14:14.51000:14:14.520 capacitor is now doing it's becoming 00:14:16.91000:14:16.920 resistive and it's getting hot inside 00:14:18.77000:14:18.780 and it's kind of like a runaway 00:14:20.09000:14:20.100 situation the capacitor itself will keep 00:14:22.79000:14:22.800 getting hot and hot hot and really start 00:14:24.59000:14:24.600 to boil 00:14:25.28000:14:25.290 sometimes they burst out of the top and 00:14:27.26000:14:27.270 if you've worked on any kind of a 00:14:28.85000:14:28.860 computer power supply or motherboards 00:14:30.44000:14:30.450 you've seen that they actually kind of 00:14:33.14000:14:33.150 explode on the top and they let the 00:14:34.82000:14:34.830 pressure because they boil inside and 00:14:36.92000:14:36.930 that is because of developed ESR and 00:14:39.68000:14:39.690 that's what this particular meteor tests 00:14:42.05000:14:42.060 Tandi it has its own little chart right 00:14:44.18000:14:44.190 on the face right here so you can look 00:14:46.52000:14:46.530 up the rating of the capacitor and 00:14:48.02000:14:48.030 compare your ESR reading to what's on 00:14:50.09000:14:50.100 the chart here and you'll know if the 00:14:51.98000:14:51.990 capacitor is faulty or not again if 00:14:55.22000:14:55.230 you're working on any type of a switch 00:14:56.96000:14:56.970 mode power supply owning some form of an 00:15:00.23000:15:00.240 ESR meter is an absolute must to find 00:15:03.98000:15:03.990 these capacitors a lot of the times 00:15:05.84000:15:05.850 you'll test the capacitor in a normal 00:15:07.85000:15:07.860 capacitor tester just looking at its 00:15:09.68000:15:09.690 capacitance it'll test fine but when you 00:15:12.80000:15:12.810 test it with an ESR meter it grossly 00:15:14.90000:15:14.910 fails here's an example of using two 00:15:18.44000:15:18.450 different capacitor testers to help us 00:15:20.27000:15:20.280 identify whether a capacitor is good or 00:15:22.85000:15:22.860 bad 00:15:23.15000:15:23.160 the first test will be a capacitance 00:15:25.67000:15:25.680 test the second test will be a leakage 00:15:27.89000:15:27.900 test the capacitor we're going to test 00:15:30.38000:15:30.390 today is a brand new wax capacitor point 00:15:34.04000:15:34.050 one micro farad at 200 volts DC so as a 00:15:37.19000:15:37.200 wax on the leads here had to warm up the 00:15:39.98000:15:39.990 time machine 00:15:40.58000:15:40.590 this one so the capacitor tester here is 00:15:44.15000:15:44.160 set to 2 micro farad that's the scale 00:15:46.85000:15:46.860 it's set to because this capacitor is 00:15:48.77000:15:48.780 rated at point 1 micro farad so what 00:15:51.65000:15:51.660 I'll do is I'll just put the test leads 00:15:54.32000:15:54.330 onto the capacitor here and as you can 00:15:58.88000:15:58.890 see it's reading 0.14 so one might think 00:16:03.59000:16:03.600 that this capacitor is actually a little 00:16:05.93000:16:05.940 bit of an overachiever so it looks good 00:16:08.60000:16:08.610 on this tester now what I'm going to do 00:16:11.87000:16:11.880 is remove the two leads from this tester 00:16:14.42000:16:14.430 here and make sure the voltage is 00:16:16.52000:16:16.530 sitting at 3 volts and the switch here 00:16:19.31000:16:19.320 is on discharge I'm going to plug the 00:16:22.40000:16:22.410 leads in to the leakage test now I'll 00:16:25.64000:16:25.650 just set this off to the side so that I 00:16:27.77000:16:27.780 don't have to hold the capacitor when 00:16:30.02000:16:30.030 I'm putting voltage across this so now 00:16:34.10000:16:34.110 what I'm going to do is click the switch 00:16:36.17000:16:36.180 to leakage and slowly advance the 00:16:38.45000:16:38.460 voltage control here you keep an eye on 00:16:41.18000:16:41.190 the I tube you'll see that the I will 00:16:43.40000:16:43.410 close when I click this to leakage 00:16:45.65000:16:45.660 that's indicating that it's charging 00:16:47.33000:16:47.340 this capacitor when the capacitor is 00:16:50.42000:16:50.430 charged the I will open so here we go so 00:16:55.76000:16:55.770 there's 3 volts across this capacitor 00:16:58.19000:16:58.200 now the eye is open indicating that 00:17:00.14000:17:00.150 there is not excessive leakage current 00:17:02.65000:17:02.660 so we have 6 volts 10 volts 15 volts you 00:17:09.88000:17:09.890 can see it's slowing down 25 volts the 00:17:15.47000:17:15.480 eye is an opening anymore indicating 00:17:17.93000:17:17.940 that this capacitor is excessively leaky 00:17:21.17000:17:21.180 at 25 volts now if we look at the 00:17:27.08000:17:27.090 capacitor here again you can see that 00:17:33.32000:17:33.330 it's rated for 200 volts being a wax 00:17:37.61000:17:37.620 capacitor like this we know that this is 00:17:39.65000:17:39.660 going to be in some form of vacuum tube 00:17:41.48000:17:41.490 circuitry and chances are it's going to 00:17:44.12000:17:44.130 be close to 200 volts if this is leaking 00:17:47.72000:17:47.730 at 25 volts we're going to have a big 00:17:50.33000:17:50.340 problem with the equipment that this 00:17:52.61000:17:52.620 particular capacitor 00:17:53.96000:17:53.970 is in so this capacitor is very faulty 00:17:57.82000:17:57.830 so this did not indicate the fault where 00:18:01.91000:18:01.920 this did that's why it's so important to 00:18:04.67000:18:04.680 have a leakage tester let's test a small 00:18:08.74000:18:08.750 electrolytic capacitor so the capacitor 00:18:12.05000:18:12.060 we're going to test is rated 100 micro 00:18:15.08000:18:15.090 farad at 25 volts and as you can see it 00:18:17.63000:18:17.640 looks like it's in nice condition 00:18:19.19000:18:19.200 the vent hasn't popped or anything like 00:18:20.81000:18:20.820 that so the first test we're going to 00:18:24.08000:18:24.090 perform is a capacitance test so I'll 00:18:26.96000:18:26.970 take this capacitor and plug it into 00:18:28.46000:18:28.470 these slots right here and we have 104 00:18:33.29000:18:33.300 micro farad capacitors rated at 100 00:18:36.74000:18:36.750 micro farad looks pretty good 00:18:38.80000:18:38.810 now let's perform an ESR test so in 00:18:43.01000:18:43.020 order to use this little meter here what 00:18:45.74000:18:45.750 we need to do first is turn the meter on 00:18:48.19000:18:48.200 since this is a low ohms meter it wants 00:18:51.08000:18:51.090 to read its own lead resistance so we 00:18:53.45000:18:53.460 have to zero that out clip the leads 00:18:55.37000:18:55.380 together first and then hit the button 00:18:57.68000:18:57.690 one more time and it zeros that out so 00:19:02.36000:19:02.370 now we'll take this 100 micro farad 25 00:19:05.90000:19:05.910 volt capacitor and test its ESR and as 00:19:11.81000:19:11.820 you can see we have 0.54 of an ohm so 00:19:16.28000:19:16.290 remember that point 5 4 if we take a 00:19:20.66000:19:20.670 look at the chart here we can see 100 00:19:23.54000:19:23.550 micro farad at 25 volts the approximate 00:19:26.87000:19:26.880 worst ESR value is 0.32 this capacitor 00:19:32.72000:19:32.730 is reading point 5 4 which means that 00:19:35.96000:19:35.970 this capacitor has excessive ESR and 00:19:38.66000:19:38.670 needs to be replaced so you can see how 00:19:42.77000:19:42.780 important it is to perform multiple 00:19:44.72000:19:44.730 tests on many capacitors just doing a 00:19:48.17000:19:48.180 simple capacitance test much of the time 00:19:50.60000:19:50.610 is not enough thanks for stopping by the 00:19:54.50000:19:54.510 lab today hope you enjoyed this episode 00:19:56.24000:19:56.250 involving all of these capacitor testers 00:19:58.49000:19:58.500 if you did you can let me know by giving 00:20:00.62000:20:00.630 me a big thumbs up and hang around will 00:20:03.05000:20:03.060 be many more episodes coming like this 00:20:04.70000:20:04.710 in the near future if you haven't 00:20:06.71000:20:06.720 subscribed 00:20:07.43000:20:07.440 you may want to do that as well I also 00:20:10.24900:20:10.259 have an ongoing electronics course on 00:20:12.64900:20:12.659 patreon that covers vacuum tube and 00:20:14.89900:20:14.909 solid-state electronics and it's 00:20:17.57000:20:17.580 friendly to all skill levels so I'll 00:20:20.45000:20:20.460 have the link just below the video right 00:20:22.34000:20:22.350 about here if you're interested in 00:20:23.96000:20:23.970 taking part in that might want to check 00:20:25.78900:20:25.799 that out as well so until next time take 00:20:29.77900:20:29.789 care bye for now 00:20:40.65900:20:40.669 you
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