Don't Miss

Testing Electrolytic Capacitor

By on August 16, 2009

Since after got the ESR meter i hardly test the capacitance value of electrolytic capacitor. Normally whenever the ESR value shoot up the capacitance value would be out too so there is no point on checking the value of the capacitance. However in some very rare cases the ESR value of an e-cap is okay but the capacitance value may be down. Usually if i really could confirm that a particular section have problem  and my ESR value did not reveal any bad e-cap then i  will use my digital capacitance meter to test out the e-cap value. I’m mentioning it again that this type of situation is very rare and usually with an ESR meter you could easily detect a bad cap. If you have any comment about ESR meter tested good on e-cap and failed when check with digital capacitance meter i would like to hear from you-thanks!

Likes(3)Dislikes(0)

12 Comments

  1. beh

    August 17, 2009 at 10:16 am

    HELLO JESTINE

    i realy like my esr meter it works very good and helpful .
    but i have this question some time during the ck of caps
    when i shake the wire the digital value on display changes
    ofcourse the wire are tight on the board.and why?
    thank u so much of reply
    beh

    Likes(1)Dislikes(0)
  2. admin

    August 19, 2009 at 7:36 pm

    Hi Beh,

    If the wire is too long and twisted the inductance will affect the reading of the meter. If possible make it shorter for a stable reading.

    Jestine

    Likes(0)Dislikes(0)
  3. Noel

    August 19, 2009 at 8:21 pm

    Hi Jestine,

    I have an incounter that the e-cap is good at Blue ESR meter,also good at my Digital capacitance meter.But when I directly replace the E-cap the SMPS works,then I try to install back that e-cap then its not work,its a 1000/16volts nichicon caps.I found this case 2 times in the same model of SMPS single output 12vdc TDK brand.

    Noel

    Likes(0)Dislikes(0)
  4. beh

    August 20, 2009 at 12:57 am

    HELLO JESTINE

    thank you for reply .the wire of my prob is about 70 cm
    each what do you recommend me what is the good lenght for
    each wire prob i mean technicaly is good ?
    thanks in advance
    beh

    Likes(0)Dislikes(0)
  5. admin

    August 20, 2009 at 7:21 pm

    Hi Beh,

    Try 30cm.

    Jestine

    Likes(0)Dislikes(0)
  6. admin

    August 20, 2009 at 7:25 pm

    HI Noel,

    The cap could be breaking down when under load. However did you solder out the e-cap from the board and test it? May i know what is the value that you got?

    Jestine

    Likes(0)Dislikes(0)
  7. beh

    August 22, 2009 at 4:49 pm

    hello jestine

    i cut the wire of my prob to 30cm now esr works great
    tkx&rgrds
    beh

    Likes(0)Dislikes(0)
  8. admin

    August 22, 2009 at 11:41 pm

    Hi Beh,

    You are welcome!

    Jestine

    Likes(0)Dislikes(0)
  9. Noel

    August 24, 2009 at 8:56 pm

    Jestine,

    The E-cap I mentioned are 1500/16volt nichicon brand,the esr reading is .12 ohms and the other is .16 ohms.I directly replace it and the SMPS works fine.

    Noel

    Likes(0)Dislikes(0)
  10. admin

    August 25, 2009 at 11:36 pm

    HI Noel,

    That was an interesting finding and i wish i had this ecap so that i could do some R and D and find out the truth. Anyway thanks for your posting.

    Jestine

    Likes(0)Dislikes(0)
  11. yad

    December 31, 2012 at 6:08 am

    HELLO JESTINE,
    I have a hp laptop. It had power on- off problem. I flash bios then not coming dispaly. debug card error message is 62. what'sthep[roblem.

    Likes(0)Dislikes(0)
    • Jestine Yong

      January 3, 2013 at 6:39 am

      HI Yad, 62 means the memory and some refer to Bios data.  What is your manual reference for 62? Is the power LED not stable after flashing the bios? Jestine

      Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

Leave a Reply

Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Open

Close