EVB ESR Meter kit - full experience

[pixel63]

I've just received my new ESR Meter Kit from EVB (Portugal), based on Bob Parker K7214 MKII original project.

I'll post my entire experience on the unboxing, assembling, testing, calibrating and using it on my repairs.

Bye.

Pixel63

[BurningTantalum]

I bought one of these kits many years ago. The design still looks to be the same today.
It works perfectly well for my purposes, and it has had a lot of use BUT:
The on/off switch is absolutely an appalling design. It doesn't work reliably or repeatably and drove me nuts. It consists of a TAC switch on the PCB with a length of silicone tube pushed over the tang. This has to be JUST the correct length to kiss the back of the membrane on the front panel. The practical movement of the membrane is less than the movement of the switch between 'not touching' and 'operated' so the switch has to be under some amount of 'pre-load'. Finally I removed the offensive item and mounted a small push button in the front panel, with a home-machined guard to stop accidental operation.
In addition the case is VERY tight for space and doesn't latch closed reliably because of this. In fact some brands of 'PP3' 9V battery are fractionally too wide to allow the case to click shut.
Regards,  BT

[pixel63]

ROUND 1

Unboxed, plenty of components, ohhh.

Here the images of the content of the kit and of the PCB from both sides.

I've soldered the resistors, the diodes and the sockets for ICs and displays (last image).