Which Esr meter

[shadowless]

I am planning to get a esr meter. Should I get a Bob Parker design Blue ear meter or save up for a IET DE-5000 instead?

[robrenz]

Definitely save up. 

For that extra $235.00 you get:
Higher resolution ESR, Capacitance, Inductance, Resistance, Milliohm meter, Dissipation, Quality, Phase angle, Sorting, all at various frequencies between 100Hz and 100kHz.

Sounds like a bargain now

[mariush]

If you only want a device to tell you if a capacitor is faulty or not (as in you're fixing hardware), Bob Parker's esr meter will do the job just fine. BP's esr meter will just give you a value that's approximate but good enough to tell you the capacitor is bad.

If you want an all around accurate tool with lots of functions like measuring impedance, resistance, esr at various frequencies and other properties of capacitors, then you should go for that IET meter, or the Mastech or whatever LRC meter is the flavor of the day.

The point is that if you're on a budget and you want something just to fix electronics, those 150$ could be used for something else, like buying an isolated power supply or a good multimeter.

I personally have the ESR Micro, you can find a mini-review about it here: http://www.dragonslairfans.com/smfor/index.php?topic=2651.0

It works fine for me, I can determine what capacitors are bad or not, it gives a reasonably close value for capacitance... it just works.

If you want it, it would probably cost you around 50-70$ but the best way would be to contact the person making these directly on the badcaps.net forum, his name there is RusMike. 
From time to time he has problems sourcing lcd displays or he waits for the pcbs or plastic cases to come from China so it's best to ask him directly if he has some available. 

[shadowless]

Yeah saw the micro version, seems to work well too. Only if he does not have a part shortage issue.

[robrenz]

I agree with all your points, but OP implied saving up would not be an issue. If he is going to be into electronics for the long term he will be very glad he waited.  One much more versatile instrument on the bench instead of a bunch of other meters.

[MacAttak]

I'm just curious as to how the $20 Thailand Specials from ebay compare with the Bob Parker meter for example?

I mean, I know "you get what you pay for" but those cheap ebay devices seem to work well enough (usually) if you're only checking for bad caps or the random unmarked part identification.

Obviously they are also lacking in amenities such as not being in a case (unless you supply your own), no test leads (unless you solder your own), etc. I also have no way of knowing how accurate it is without having anything better to compare readings to. But it has done a reasonably OK job of identifying most parts that I have tried it with, and the ESR readings for small caps I have tried it on seem within the range I would have expected for good and bad caps.

So from that perspective of just wanting an ESR meter to do quick cap tests (often in-circuit) for DIY repair - what would warrant spending 10x to 100x the money for one of the "real" meters?

[mariush]

Those 20$ "specials" on eBay determine the "esr" pretty much the same way as BP's esr meter. It's relatively simple to make one and accuracy isn't that important for such a tool ... if a capacitor is bad, usually that capacitor will measure way outside what it should read, so it's obvious it's bad.

If you test a capacitor with esr of 0.05 ohm , BP's meter may show 0.08 ohm and that the cheapo eBay meter may show 0.1 ohm, both are wrong yet still close enough to tell the capacitor is good. If it shows as 0.4 ohm or 1 ohm and you expect 0.05-0.1, you know it's bad or "weak".

I said this on another forum and Bob Parker himself chose to add me to the ignore list or something like that, he felt offended. I just argued that for the price the meter sells at, I would update the design to use more modern components, offer a better pcb with better silkscreening, consume less battery life and so on.

BP's meter is basically a 10-15$ meter if you start adding up the components. The most expensive components are the 3-5$ case from Hammond (http://www.hammondmfg.com/1553colors.htm , http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/1553BTBUBK/HM1148-ND/2094886 4.7$ for 100 pcs) , the PCB is probably 2-3$ from China , the segment displays cost about 1$, the cheap one time programmable microcontroler costs about 1-2$ (http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/Z86E0412PSG1866/Z86E0412PSG1866-ND/929546) and the probes probably cost 1-2$
The rest is just a bunch of transistors, capacitors and resistors that total to maybe 2$.

[lemmegraphdat]

Check out the CapAnalyzer 88A Series II from EDS Inc.

[shadowless]

Capanalyzer is pretty ex:)

[PA4TIM]

IET DE-5000, I love it.
I would never spend so much money on a BP style ESR indicator ( or better Z indicator)
You can build one using some standard Voltmeter display or analog meter for less then 5 dollar and it as easy to build one that actual measures ESR instead of Z. I use a LM339 as oscilator (20-200 KHz) , a 4013 to split the signal. A 4066 to charge / discharge the cp and a good opamp and two good sample caps ( mkt or mkp) to meaure the true ESR. If you use your multimeter to read it you build it under 5 dollar. ( this version is not yet on the site but is the same as the one that is there only the oscillator and 4013 are different and replace the other construction that is working too, but you need 50 % dutycycle and it took me several 74 series from several brands/years to get that done. The 4013 version is less conponent dependent.
( see at www.pa4tim.nl search for ESR )