[jcassity]

here>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhovRIM5xAo

watch the vid
this thing will test cap in or out of circuit and offers another feature called the forecast mode where it gives you a visual indication that a cap is on the way out.
tests all types of caps.

a Heathkit and Jackson tester is used side by side to compare the results of this new tester.

it also demonstrates how you can overlook a bad cap using the Jackson & Heathkit as well as it shows bad "new out of the box" capacitors.

another neat feature it has is it will tell you what "type" of capacitor you are testing.

[Radioroslyn]

Here's a simple cap leakage tester.  http://www.angelfire.com/electronic/funw..._caps.html
Scott, You know my unfoulable test...

[Eliot Ness]

That's pretty slick but you need to make (etch & drill) a PCB and do some surface mount soldering.  It'd cost me too much just to buy the supplies to make the PCB plus the drill press for my Dremel (guess I could use my HF drill press) not to mention the surface mount soldering. 

I guess I'll stick with my Jackson and Heathkit cap testers that have served me well for years.

[Phlogiston]

He seems to be creating a problem where one does not exist and then building a solution where one does already exist (most Fluke VOMs).

[jcassity]

yep,, i tend to agree with you all yet his goal was to solve the elimination of using high voltage..

oddly the NEC considers 600v to be low voltage and so do i

[Phlogiston]

I tried to watch all of his video - which should have been about 2 min. long - but skipped ahead a lot. He did not really address the "power" measurement on standard cap testers. It can give you some idea of the ESR on electrolytic caps AND a numeric value to go along with it.

The 600V charging voltage of the tester isn't really a problem - - until you get a big cap charged up. THEN BE CAREFULL ( my duty to the uninitiated). Most Fluke meters will give you about the same low-voltage test and I suspect that his "mica" measurement is simply a standard film cap test with tighter parameters. ( I can't really see what else it would be). NOW if you want to see if that cap that failed the "mica" test was going to break-down and fail (for real) - let's see, what do I need??? -  - hum. How about a cap tester that can generate 600V? Yeah, that will do it.

As to in-circuit testing, unless you can (and want to) calculate all of the other parallel/series resistances  - - nah.

P.S. His argument might carry some weight with solid state techs but we deal with 300+ volts on every radio we work on so using the same caution with test equipment isn't much to ask. (should I tell Kirk? - - again - - nah)

[morzh]

I watched, skipping parts.

My #1 question is this: the leakage might show under high voltage that would not even exist under low voltage.

Also I did not watch till the end so don't know if he shows in-cirquit measurements but I am not sure how a capacitance can be measured in circuit, unless in few specific situations.

[Arran]

Once again, another long, drawn out, video presented by Mr. Carlson, bordering on irrelevancy if not error. I lost interest in that guy the day he started going on about non polarized plastic film capacitors being polarized, and supposedly "proved it" by connecting one lead to a scope and holding the body of the cap between his fingers. Meanwhile this guy has bought some rather nice Canadian radios over craigslist, and restored them, but never really posts much about them video wise, such as rebuilding the resistor boards that many Rogers products have. Unlike lets say a Brand Z or a Philco 20, radios such as Deforest Crosleys, and Rogers models, are rather poorly represented in restoration blogs, or videos, others are almost non existent. I guess I'm too used to how Buzz, Bob Andersen, radiotvphononut, and Shango066 repair things.
Regards
Arran

[morzh]

Well...I successfully haven't used capacitance tester except to measure capacitance itself.

I am not sure it is a veru much needed thing.

Why?

In old radios, the electrolytics and papers get replaced by default, and micas get the benefit of the doubt untill proven guilty. In which case simple capacitance measurement will show the problem.

[Eliot Ness]

......In old radios, the electrolytics and papers get replaced by default, and micas get the benefit of the doubt untill proven guilty. In which case simple capacitance measurement will show the problem.

I often check new caps just to be sure, especially if they are the Chinese "Yellow Devils".  I have found at least one bad one and one mis-marked, and I double check caps that have already been replaced by someone else if they are the "Yellow Devils" and if something is wrong with the radio.