The subiecl of qn

elecfrolytic copocitor's ESR

hos generqted <rlot of
interesf in recent issues.
Alon Witlcox hos tqken it o
stoge further in designing
o procticol ESRmeler. This
firsf porf deols wirh the
operotion of fhe circuitry
used in fhe meter .

'uh''E$M6tBr
Design.,of
lot has appearedin recent issueson the subject
of the ESR (equivalentseriesresistance)of an
electrolytic capacitor. The Capacitor Wizard
was reviewed by Martin Pickering in June 1998. It's
'
designedto measurea capacitor'sESR in-circuit while
ignoring any componentsthat are connectedto it. The.
unit described'in this. artible performs the same task, ..
and a lot of work has been put into achieving the end '
result. Even if you don't get around to building the
meter, this article will give you insight into the design
criteria and the way in which the instrumentworks. But
build it if you can: it's effective, very useful and inexpensive.

VCR ot monitor. A TV display may be pulled in from

the sideVtop/bottom.Diode and transistor failure can
occur over a period of time.
These and many other problems are often causedby
capacitors, with normal capacit'nce but high ESR,
which does not exist as a static quantity and therefore
cannot be measuredusing a conventionalcapacitance
meter or a:DC ohmmeter.ESR exists onlv when alternating current is appliedto a cdpacitorbr when a capacitor's dielebtric chargeis changingstate.It can be consideredas the total in-phaseAC resistanceofa capacitor, and includesthe DC resistanceof the leads,the DC
resistanceofthe connCctionto the dielectric,the capacitor plate resistanceand the in-phaseAC resistanc-e
of
:
.
,
'
ESR
the dielectric'material at a panitular frequency (my
' In view of Martin's
'
review and also the articlesby Ray italics) and temperature.. ,' , r
Porteron a capacitor'sESR (Januaryand April 1993)I
The componentcombinationthat constitutesESR can
won't say a lot aboutESR here: it would simply be rep- be thoughtofds a resistorin serieswith a capacitor:the
etition. To put it in a nutshell,a capacitor'smeasured resistor does not exist as a physical entity, so a direct
ESR (in ohms) is an indicationof its 'goodness'.The measurement
acrossthe,'ESRresistor,is not possible.
Iower the ohms reading, the better the capacitor. An If, however, a method of correcting for the elfects of
ESRcheckcan give an early indicationofcapacitor fail- capacitive reactanceis provided, aid consideringthat
ure, and is far more useful than a capacitancemeasure- all resistancesare in phase,the ESR can be calculated
ment. Indeed many faulty electrolyticsshow OK when and measuredusing the basic electronicsformula E = I
checkedwith a conventionalcapacitancemeter.
x R! This is the basisof the designof the Capacitor
In recent months I've talked to many people who Wizard."
don't appreciatethe importanceof ESR and in what
senseit differsfrom capacitance.
So I feel it worthwhile Design Criterio
including an extract from a technicalbulletin on the Capacitormanufacturers
quoteESR valuesmeasured
at
CapacitorWizard writtenby Doug Jones,the President l00kHz. So this is the test frequencyI chose.The
of Independence
ElectronicsInc. It sums up the ques- impedanceof inductorsin the microhenriesregioncan
tion of ESR well.
be measuredat this frequency,enabljngthe c-ondition
"ESR is the dynamicpure
resistanceof a capacitorto of video headsto be gauged--as they w6ar and the gap
an AC signal.High ESR can causetime-constant
prob- deteriorates,
their inductancefalls.
lems,capacitorheating,circuit loading,total failureetc.
The Wizard has a buzzerthat soundswhen the ESR
A switch-modepowersupplymay not startreliably- or is below lCl or so. A capacitorwith an ESR of less
start at all. Slight hum bars appearin the video of a than about lC) is generallyconsideredto be good, so

r16

M a r c h 1 9 9 9T E L E V I S I O N

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.:.
,i:;ril
r. ;; ,. .::,1 it .j

,. . :..:.:
.

' 'Anyway,

I digress.To get back to the point, the opamp usually:requiresa positiveand a negativesupply
with respectto a common earth. These.suppliesare
often noi shown on circuit diagrams, being taken for
granted.Thq common earth (0V line) servesas a refereirce point for the voltages that are presentin the circuit and as a'return path to the power supply for any
currentsgeneratedby the device's operation.
The main point here is that if the voltageat the + input
increaseswith respectto the voltage at the - input, the
output voltage will be positive-going.Co,nverselyif the
with respectto the voltvoliage at the + input decreases
hge at the 1 input the output voltage will be negativegoing.Thus in normal practicethe outputcorrespondsto
the difference between the inputs.
If the op-amp doesn't have any negative feedback
and the + input is at only 0'lmV abovethe - input, the
output voltage will be close to that of the positive supThe Op-Amp
ply rail. If the + input is lower than the - input by the
The circuit'uses the basic opamp as an oscillator, sameamount,the output voltagewill be close to that of
amplifier;' dslsctor, voltage-follower and .'comparator. the negitive supply rail. Thus the gain is equal to the
So'it's appropriateto devotesomespaceto a description' average slope, which is typically l0V/0'1mV =
of the op-amp and its associatedcircuitry. Incidentally
100,Q00.This very sensitiveproperty is used in comthe term'opcrational amplifier' relates to its use in ana- parat<ircircuits (it's'used in the ESR meter's buzzei
logue computersand appearedin a paper by Ragaziuini circuit). But the op-amp is far more useful when.the
and others in 1947.The first general-purposeop-amp, output is restricted to narrower limits.
with.differential inputs and using the familiar triangular
symbol'for circuit rcprcsentation,was :introduced;in. The Precision Inverting Amplifier
'
1952r 6Model K2-W, by'.George A. Philbrook This is one cif the'riiost common opimpapplications
Re.searches
Inc.). It's sobering to think that almost forty and is usedin the secondand third stagesof the meter.
yearsago an early op-amp, the P2, cost $227 - an eighth' Circuit operation will hopefully be made clear by the
of the cost of a VW Beetle at that time: now a superior rather unusudl representation(due to Tom Hornack)
device can tie bought for less than a pound.
shownin Fig. l.
The op-amp is a high-gain (x100,000 or so) amplifiAt (a) the op-amp is arranged to provide a voltage
er that usually has two 'inputs, on-e non-inverting gain of two. The fact that in this case the output is
Qabelled +) and the other inverting (labelled !). For inverted (the gain'is.minus two) is not important. The
practical'purposes.the gain.rcan be considered as heavy negative.feedback,viaresistorRf forces the outinfinitely high, with no cuirent flow at the inputs. The put to be such that the voltage at the - input is equal to
opamp'isr,designed primarily to' operate stably'with
that at the + input rjvhichis'oV. Remember that the ophcarlr- nefative. feedback' In 'fact from 'the' hisfelisal:; ::amp responds'td the"difrerencebetween its' inputs. As
poiriio"f:vlcw:de opamp andithe concept of negative' ;,point X is at earth'potential, there is "lV across Rin'
feddb4k(the, invention :of fi,S.'r Blach-'workingrforr' 'Ohm's
,(lk0) .and,ther,cirrrdnt flow via Rin, calculated by
Bell_'[5t*iratories, in 1927) are synon5rmous.Black'
Law;.iS lmA. jTherc is no current flow at the
wa5''w6ikihg'on telephones,'tis bu;ective biing to:. input of the op-amii So this lmA flows via Rf (2k0)
achieve'stable gain independent of the characteristics': whiih thus has 2V'across it.
of a valve (a thennionically-activated FET to youpgNotice how Rf and Rin behave like a seesaw as the
sterSl). When he tried to patent his negative-feedback input goes from a positive to a negative value, with the
amplifier in 1928-the idea:was ridiculed. Over the piVot at the null point X. This point is referred to as a
years however this concept has become one of the virtual earth. There is no current path between point X
most important in the field of electronics. Marconi had and earth, and point X is always at zero voltage with
much the sameproblem. It seemsthat people often dis- respectto earth.
miss things they don't understand.
The concept of a virtual earth is used as a short-cut
this is a very useful feature in situations where you
waht to cheik a number of suspectcomponents,. it
means that you need refer to the meter ohly when
there's no beep.I've incorporatedthis facility, b'utyou'
must bear in mind that a lot of the capacitorsin which
we'ire interestedhave ESR values of less than 0.5C)
when good. More on this later.
I'd like to stressthis basicpoint before going any furthen as with the CapacitorWizard, the meter described
in this article doein't measure a capacitor's microfarads. It simply lets you know if the capacitor is or
isn't up to thejob. After gaining somepractical experience with the meter, you will soon get to know"what
reading to expect from a good capacitor - taking into
accountits capacitanceand voltage rating. But in'any
casethe readingobtainedwith a faulty capacitorusuallf lea1e1little doubt as to its condition.

(ol

{bt

DSUd

Fig. 1: Precision inverting op-amp circuit, ia) witn a positive input, (b) with a negative input. Note how Rf
and Rin behave like a seesawas the input goes from positive to negative, with the pivot at the null (virtual
earthl point X. The gain of the stage is RflRin, so the output is Vin x Rfl&in.

TELEVISION
March 1999

317

ESR METER

The Oscillqtor - History

Fig.2: Jim Williams'original circuit, the firct

attempt at combining an op-amp with a Wien
bridge network to form an oscillator.

656t1

Fig. 3: An op-amp Wien bridge oscillator arrangement with the output set at 6V p-p (positive peak
shownl. At the resonant frequency points a, b and c
are in phaseand the waveforms at the op-amp's
inpuF are a third of that at its outpttt. The ratio
BflRin = 2.
when the operation of a current-to-voltage converter
is analysed.From Fig. I you can see that, becauseof
the virtual earth,Rf appearsto be in parallel with RL.
So the voltage acrossRf appearsacrossthe load as the
output voltage. But although the null point is cortsidered to be at earth potential, at a microvolt level it's
very much active.
It can be seenfrom Fig. I that the stagegain, within
the limitations of trhe supply, is determined by the
ratio of Rf to Rin. Incidentally there's a frequency
limit on the gain: with common types of op-amp we
are limited to a gain of about x10 at 100kHz.If the
resistorsin Fig. I are transposedthe stagegain will be
0.5 - the circuit actsas an attenuator.
Overview
Before we go further, it would be as well to provide a
quick introductionto the meter circuit presentedhere
(seeFig. 5). The first stageconsistsofa l00kHz oscillator, whoseoutput is fed to the capacitorbeing tested. Put simply, the currentflow throughthe capacitor
is sensedthen amplified as a voltage. It's finally
detectedand measuredby the meter movement.
The better the capacitor,the lower its ESR and the
higher the meterindication.It's not quite this simple,
becausethe meter must ignore the other components
connectedto the capacitorbeing tested.We'll come to
the solution to this problem later.

318

At the heart of the meter there's a Wien bridge network oscillator.This form of oscillator has an interestinghistory which is worth a few paragraphs.
In 1939 William RedingtonHewlett (co-founderof
Hewlett-Packard)producedhis StanfordthesisA New
TypeResistanceCapacityOscillator.It madeuseof a
resonantRC network that had beenconceivedby Max
Wien (pronounced Vene) in 1891. The American
inventor Lee DeForest(yes,we can blame him) hadn't started the ball rolling yet with the creation,in
I 906, of the triode valve.So therehad in I 89I beenno
meansof obtaining electronicamplificationand Max
couldn't have got his network to oscillate. That
wouldn't hav'etroubledhim, as he was using the network for AC bridge measurement.Amazing what people got up to over 100 years ago, isn't it? I think it
was, once again, somethingto do with telephones.
But Hewlett had the pentodevalve at his disposal.
He also had Harold S. Black's pioneering work on
negative feedbackto assisthim. In addition there was
Nyquist's Regenerative;Theory,which described the
conditions necessaryfor. oscillation.
Hewlett showed that the Wien network could be
made to oscillater A crucial problem had to be
resolved however, that of stage glin. With a gain of
less than unity there would be no oscillation. With a
gain of greater than unity there would be distortion.
With unity gain there,will be what Hewlett wanted, a
He had a flash'of inspiration; the solution
,sinewave.
'was
literally staring him in the fate - the electric light
bulb.
:
Hewlett's oscillator.wasa two-valve affair, with a
6J7 as the oscillator and a 6F6 as the output stage.His
solution for gain stability was to wire a tungstenbulb
between the cathode of the 6J7 and earth. The negative feedback was applied between the anode of the
output valve back to the cathodeof the triode oscillator valve. If the output increasesfor any reason, so
does the current flowing through the bulb. As it
warrns up, its resistanceincreases.So doesthe level of
negative feedback, thereby stabilising the oscillator's
output. Hewlett's idea of employinga light bulb was
brilliant in its simplicity. It survived in the Hp200
series audio oscillator during a fifty-year production
run - into the mid Eighties.
About fifty years after Hewlett built his oscillator
Jim Williams, who was working for Linear
Technology Corporation, was sitting in his den one
rainy Sunday trying to think of something to do. His
old HP200 caught his eye. Peering into the back, he
saw the light bulb where it had beenplaced half a century ago, and wondered how Hewlett's oscillator
would perform using a modernop-amp. He went on to
knock one up - the original circuit is shown in Fig. 2
- and was pleasedto find that it had a distortionfigure of only 0.0025pei cent.
Perhapshe could improve on it, by eliminating the
bulb? Jim was the first to use a JFET in place of the
bulb, but with this devicethe distortionfigure roseto
a massive 0.15 per cent. Unfortunately there's not
spaceto explain why the use of a JFET gives such
inferior resultscomparedto a bulb. In the event Jim
discardedthe JFET in favour of an optically-driven
CdS photocell.This, in conjunctionwith five op-amps
etc., producedan analyser-limiteddistortionfigure of
0'0003 per cent (threepartsper million). At one point
during his questJim writes (AnalogueCircuit Design,
Butterworth-Heinemann)"I could almost hear
Hewlett's little light bulb, which worked so well,

M a r c h 1 9 9 9T E L E V I S I O N

i.

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*;

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;ffi

'i{ii;r-."
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laughingat me". So no apologiesfor the useof a light

bulb'in this design-

Operotion of the Oscillofor

Fig. 3 shows the Wien,bridge netwoik oscillator as
you probablywon't haveseenit drawn before.It.illustrates the situation at the peak of the positive-going
half cycle. The positivefeedbacknetwork consistsof
the series-parallelRC (lead;lag) network: the negative
feedbackloop consistsof the presetRf and'bulb Rin.
We'll consider the RC network first. At very high
frequenciesthe shunt capacitorin the lower arm of the
bridge will appearto be a short-circuit and there will
be no signal at the op-amp's + input. At very low frequenciesthe seriescapacitor will appear to be opencircuit and again there will be no input from the feedback network. At somepoint in between there will be
maximum output from the network. The frequency at
which this occursis equal to ll(2nRC), which is called
the resonantfrequency (fr) of the bridge network. At
'
this point there is no phaseshift acrossthe bridge, and
the upper arm of the network has twice the impedance
of the lower arm, giving a transmissionlgss of 1/3. To
overcomethis loss and achievethe required stagegain
of unity, the closed-loopvoltage gain (ACL), which is
set by thc ratio of Rf to Rin, must be three. The formula for the closed-loop gain of a non-inverting
amplifieris ACL = M/Rin + 1, so Rf/Rin must be two
in order for ACL to equal three.
,
....
At power up the negative feedback is low, because
the bulb is at its lowest resistance,and.the gain is
high. As,a rcsult oscillation begins immediately, aud
' the bulb is warmed by the current current flow. Within
a fraction of a second the resultant increase in its
resistancereducesthe oscillator's output. It settles at
the level at which the bulb's resistanceis half that of
the feedbackresistor Rf. So the value.of Rf sets the
amplitude,of ,the"output.,Notethat the bulb's thermal
delay means that it cannot follow oscillations at relatively high frequencies.It.responds to the RMS.cur. rent,gnly, and phuslehavps,F a.nordinary resistor. . i ;g
.

- - b r ' . , i ] ; , t . r , f'+ '

The Bulb ,:

, . ' . . + , j r , y.

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.:'.

"

{"

'

Although the Wien bridge oscillator is the accepted

statrdard'at frequencies up to say lMHz, the use of a
bulb for gain control, popular in the USA, has never
found favour on this side of the Atlantic. I think I.
know thc rcason for this., In most textbooks things
begin to get a bit vague iwhen it comes to the actual
type of light bulb to use.
It is often said that any low-yoltage, low-current
bulb can be used. This is not so. I have seenthe following flawed reasoningin some books. Take a l2V,
50mA bulb-which has a resistanceof l2Vl50mA =
240Q. The feedback resistor must be twice this, i.e.
480Q or a lk() preset. There's nothing wrong with
this value for the feedbackresistor, but it won't work
with such a bulb. The point that's been missedis this:
the bulb must be operatedat a current level that gives
a large changeof resistance.
This occurs when the current is only a few mil-.
What
liamperes,and nowherenearbulb incandescence.
we requireis a bulb that hasa resistanceof about 200f1
when cold. When the type of bulb normally specifiedis
used, the result is overloading of the op-amp, distortion, heavycurrentdrain and dependenceon the supply
voltage for regulation rather than correct bulb operation.
I didn't do what Hewlett did, which was to plot the
1/ characteristics
of variousbulbs carefully. I simply

March 1999
TELEVISION

Yflt - 0v
Vioa -lY

D5UO

Fig. 1: Pr*ision rectifier circuit, (al with positive input, bl with negative
input. In (aJ the op-amp's orrtPttt goas as low as required to overcome the
forward voltage drop acrosli D'| and still satisfy Ohm's law as far as Bf and
R|n are concerned. D2.is off as the voltage at its anode is 2'6V le*s than
that at iE cathode. In (b) D.l is off, its cathode voftage being 0'6V higher
than its anode voltage. The conduction of D2 limits the positive o,ftptlt 8t
0.6V. This limiting factor speeds up the recovery of the op'amp when the
input goes positive again.
I ; :'r.;l

;:

i.

.''

measured the resistauce of pulbs that I thought might

be'iuitable, and found that the cold resistance of a
28Y,24r.A hulb is l70Q-. fitis soemedto be about
right. When I tried it -,bingo! So when, in this connection, you see "any low-voltage, 50mA or so bulb"
you can in future read "a28Y,24mA bulb". The oscillator,will work a treat.

The PrbcisionRectifier

The final stageof the basic meteruses an op-amp as a

precision rectifier..Keeping to the type ofrepresentation we've used before, Fig. 4 shows its method of
operation.
With a conventional rectifier there's the drawback
that the signal must rise above the diode's forwardvoltage drop before conduction begins. This can be
overcomeby the use of an op-amp in the circuit. At (a)
in Fig. 4 the input is positive and the output reduces
the voltage at the cathode of Dl. This enables the
input to carry on via Rf to the amplifier's output. As
in the caseof the inverting amplifier circuit, the output is again Vin x Rf/Rin. The diode's forward voltage drop, which is 0.6V with a silicon diode, is overcome becausethe op-amp'soutput goeslower by this
amount,satisfyingOhm's law as far as Rf and Rin are
concerned.
Point X is still held at earth potential by feedback
action from the output. D2 is off at this time, as the
voltage at its anode is lower than that at its cathode.
When the input goes negative however, as shown at

319

ESRMbTER

iq

Fig. 5: The basic meter circuit. VBI sets the oscillator's output level. Pin 8 of tCl and tC2 is connected to the +ve suppty, pin
1 to the -ve supply.

(b), the op-amp's output rises to the point at, which

D2 conducts. The current then flows via Rin, point X
andD2. DI is now off and the output ib zero.-

Bosic Meter Gircuit

The circuit of the meter itself is shown in Fig. 5. The
Wien bridge oscillator, redrawn, is the same except
for the inclusion of a lf,l resistor (R3) between the
bulb and the 0V line. Depending,onVRI's setting, the
bulb's current ii typically 3.5m4 RMS.'As a resriit, in
the absence of a capacitor under test about lOmV
peak-to-peakat lOOkHzis developedacrossR3. " ' '
VRI sets the amplitude of the oscillator's ouq)ut. In
this case the butput is used only for feedback,ind is
set at 5V feak+o-peak; There is nothing magical
about this figure, and with this application no test
equipment is required to set it. It's just that'to get a
higher level output you would have to use a higher
supply voltage. In fact however the higher thb output
voltage the better.'
The ESR of the'capacitor being tested forms part of
a potential divider with thez.lQ resistorR4. The voltage waveform across this resistor, as a result of the
current in the capacitor, is amplified by the rest of the
meter circuit. Bear in mind thit with the range of ESR
values we are measuring an ideal mid-scale figure
would be about 3Q. With low. ESR'value'C(good
capacitor) the signal across R4 is high, while with a
poor capacitor it wlll be low - often, in relation to
2.7d2,there can be an effective open-circuit.
Now if, for example, the ESR is 2.7Q, half the
sourcevoltagri acrossR3 would be passedto the meter
and a half-scale reading would be expected.It doesn't
quite work out like. this however, becausethe source
voltage is not independentof the lohd, and we will be
setting full-scale deflection with R3 and R4 in parallel (test leadsshorted).
If the ESR tends to go below the value of R4, it
becomes more effective in increasing the voltage
acrossR4. As the ESR rises abovethe value of R4, it
becomesless effective at incrEasingthe voltage across
R4. Hence the non-linear scale,which is ideal with
this application.R3 and R4 are of necessitylow in
value, becausethey compare with the values of ESR
in which we are interested..Thebonus here is that
becauseof their low valuesthi effect of associatedincircuit componentsbecomesinsignificant.
The design of this littlernetwork is such that the

320

waveforms across R3 and R4,are virtually in-phase

regardlessofthe value ofthe test capacitor.So we are
measuringthe total in-phase AC resistanceto which
Doug Jonesrefers (seequotation earlier).
You might wonder why the test.signal amflitude is
so small. It isn't becauserfe warit tg avoid turning on
semiconductordevices - we could go up to a'coiple
of hundred millivolts before there'would-be:any worries about thit, It's'similly'i"mattef .bf power con-r
sumption. Even our tittle iOmV requires 3.5mA, irnd
in this caseI have (dare I claim cleverly?) useda current source thdt's already there. A l00mV test source
would require a hefty 35mA, quirc a drain on
resources.If anything the value of the lQ resistor
could be even lower, so that with respoectto2.7Qit
would more closely approximate a constant-voltage
source.
You may think that to test an electrolytic capacitor
effectively a fair old currentishould be pumped
through it. Not so. A healthy l,Q00trrFcapacitor will
still present0.05C1or so to a couple of':millivolts and
'
:1
thus be producea reading.
The signal across R4 passesthrough two stagesof
amplification each with a gain of ten, and is then
detected for the meter movement. There is furtheri
amplification in the detector stage.The output iS integated by C4 to produce a DC output of about l.3V
with the test leads shorted - this correspondsto zero
. . r :
'
E
S
R
.
,
i
:
The basic meter circuit usestwo dual op-amps.you'
will seethat the signal path from the oscillatoi in ICI
passesto IC2 then back again.fhil is done to prevent
the first, sensitive stage of amplification picking up a
strong oscillator signal in the samepackage.

The Power Supply

There is no need for a regulatedsupply, becausethe
bulb stabilisesthe oscillatorand the implification factor of the op-ampsis fixed by the ratio of the feedback
and input resistors.
_Thepower supply arrangementusedis shownin Fig.
6. IC3a generatessplit rails from a single supply line.
The voltage at its output pin 7 is at half thC iupply
voltage,becausethe voltage ar its - input (pin 6) is
equal'to the half-voltagelevel set by R[2 and Rl3 at
its + input-(pin 5). This way of using an op-ampis'
known as the voltage-follower.There is total negaiive
feedback,and the c-losed-loop
gain is unity.

March 1999 TELEVISION

\i

.l
ii

,+
,.1.

_-;.,1,i,
- i

r '

i?t
: ;:. i:

ESRMETER
-

R1(
55k
22

ol
oa

Fig. 6: The..iplit-rail generator and buzzer comPdrator circuits'

is
The meter's total current requirement is only some output froin the meter rectifier circuit, across C4,
the
with
(pin
comparison
for
3)
+
input
the
D6to
appiiea
indicator
the
on
mA
for
of
l0mA,.plus a ,couple
pin 3
Two PF3 batteries in..series are ideal. Long life is vbitage,at the input (pin.2). If the voltage 1t
(see
goes
high
pin
I
pin
at
ttre
output
2;
that
at
e*""Jdi
described
is,
set-as
output
.
assured-. if the oscillator's
the
buzzer
and
earlier)
later, the meterls accuracy will be maintained until the comparator ciriuit.description
soun-ds.About lV is developed acrossthe series-consupply drops to-about 5V per battery.
inecied diodes.D3 and D4.rWhen the ESR value of the
ti tfrl fnt Uetweenthe batteries was connected to the ,
yoltage
0V rail this split-rail arrangementwould be unneces-. capacitor being testedis about lO or less, the
reference.
lV
this
above
sary.
-anIt's included to enable a DC adaptor to be used acioss C4 rises
as
alternative power source. An adaptor with an
output from,I2V to 30V can be used.A regulatedtype Next Month
is best,as ripple on the supply c.puldcauseproblems. In Part2 nextmontf,we will dealwith construction,
'
l i t ' 'additi-on
i,,'
settins uD. use and inductance measurement,and in
brovide a bit more information on ESR. A
The Buzzer
list will be included.
cbmponents
detailed
The
operation.
forbuzzer
as
a
comparator
lC3b serves

March 1999
TELEVISION

321

In fhis second pqrt Alon

Willcox deqls, wirh construcfion ond setting up of rhe
meter, upgrcides qnd use,
ond provides oddirionol
bockground informotion

'bler

I n pu.t I lqt month the design criteria were spccified

I and a full description of the operation of the circuit
f was provided. The meter i3 simple to build and the
effort rcqufuedis well worthwhile. ,
:
:::.:

Construction

.7t Suitable
'ier scale, ,relproced full size.

Fig. 8 shows the board layout. For convenience,'0.lin.

matrix stripboard is used. The most common problem
qo.l9.".Ts-ilr9 print cuts. If these are made by rwisting a
d.itl lit by hanp, as I do, insteadof usingthe correct
tool, it's all too easyfor the cut to be incoirplete orfor
some of the print to spreadover qoan adjacent track.
If a double-poleon/off switch is used,ihis is a cbnvenient point for the connection of an on/off indicator. A
flashing LED with a l0kQ seriesresistor does the job
we-ll:althoughit takesonly a coupleof mA, the flashing
light doescatchyour eye.
It is best to use screenedcable for the test leads,in
order to avoid pick-up of unwantedradiation from any

7 5 4 3

E S R a l 1 O Ok H z

426

.5

workirg.TV line outputstagein the vicinity. Ratherthan

use plugs and sockets,solder the test leadsto the ICB:
we are often concemed wittr RSR values of less than
0.1O, and it doesn't take long for a plug-and-socket
connectionto deteriorateand produceresistance.values
greater than this. The length ofthe leadsis not at all critical. I use a 24in. length of screenedaudio lead terminatedby two 8in. lengthsof flexible wire.
On- a cold, frosty morning, before the workshop has
reached its normal comfortable, cosy (?) temperature,
$9 leter's readings may increase,slightly. Alttrougtr
this_increasemay amount to the equivaleniof less thin
0JO, the fact that accuratelow-rciistance readings are
often required justifies the use of an off-the-board setzero control rather than a preset type as used in the
Wizard ESR meter.
This control also comes in handy if you want to
squeezethe last ounce out of the batteries, but the
buzzercan't be relied on when the batteriesproduceless
than5V T9 th" outputfrom the oscillatorbeginsto fall.
Also useful in this respectis the ability to alte; the pointer position easily at maximum output, to be able to
observethe operationof the bulb and the correct functioning of the oscillator. This is covered in the set-up
noteslater.
Probeclips wereusedfor the all-importantprobes.The
hooks were cut off, the internal springs were removed,
then the plastic was cut back to expose more of the
probes.They haveprovedto be ideal in practice,and are
small enoughto often be able to get under the capacitor
on the componentside of the PCB. The probesare not
polarity conscious,and it doesn't matter which connection is used for the screenofthe test lead.
The suggestedboardsize (3 x 2in.) is slightly larger

April 1999TELEVISION

ESRMETER
-

:.
..r

'.,

lrocl cut!

.::ii.i+r,....
_:{:f

'

than it needs to be to.dccdmmodate the components.

There arc two reasonsifor this: First, so that it will slot
into the case that was selected, and secondly to allow
spacefor future upgrades.With this in mind the set-zero
control is offset to the right, allowing spacefor a modular presetshaft.
The batteries are securcd with self-adhesive Velcro.
It's a simple solution, and the Vrlcro will transfer several times.

Apart from the bulb, the sp&ifrcation 6f ttre other componentsis not critical.

Fig.8: Meiel.
circuit layovt
on stipboard.
Board size is 3
x 2in. lo allow
for upgrudes.
See jex].

The Mefer Scole

The geometryof the meterlsscale(see'Fig.7) is dictar
ed by the relative values of R3 and R4. If the value of
R4 was'inbreased to say 10O, this would be the midscale reading and R3, being low in comparison, would
hav,eless effecl Say a capacitorwith -iriil!
aerESR of l0O is
.bepassedon,
connected.Half the signal ai.rossR3
andrtittb'6f ,its curreni will,be' diverteidt6,.reduce R3's
the
voltage;.rvhich is the result of i6i ibtii.Ent
' l * i r * , - . through
'.
.

. . 1. . ! , .

. .ir..;

"':

witli theWizard this meterdoes not diffeientidte betweena $hort4ircuit capac.

itor and a really good one (with an ESR :
arc-und 0.050). Now although we all
kiiow ' that a short+ircuit electrolytic
capacitor is quite rare, it ciio'occur and
has caught me and others out. Allot of
time can be wastedwhen it occurs and is
missed.So I've been testing an addition
that gives an audible indication when a
short-circuit is present.A further refinement is an auto power-off facility.
I've not included these extras at present becauseI feel it best to present as
simple and economica pdect as possible initially. But spacehas beenleft for
theseadditions.

Gomponenl Sources
I obtainedmost of the pans usedin the
prototype from Maplin Electronicsand
haveincludedthis company'spart numbers in the componentslist. The buzzer
and meter movement were obtained
from CPC. For correct operationof the
oscillator it's vital that Cl and C2 are
good-quality polystyrene capacitors.

lnlernal

view oJ ihe meter.

continued on Page 436

,l
'n

ffi

T E L E V I S I OA
Np r i l 1 9 9 9

4,27

ESRMETER
continued from page 427
bulb' A mid-scale reading of this order may be more
appropriatefor testing surface-mountedelectrolytic
capacitors,which seem to have higher ESR va.luei.
have no data on this type of capacitorat the time of!
writing however.
Anyway, the value of R4 used here,2'7{1, doesaffect
the sourcevciltageto an extent that has to be considered.The current that
-flows through the bulb is controlled_
by the settingof VRl. R3, being only le, does
not af-fect operationof the oscillatoi.
$e
scale calibration with an 0-100 dial ideally follows
the rule

=(R3
Reading
+R4v(R3
+R4+ESR)
x r00.

Leave the set-zerocontrol at minimum and observe

the-operationof the bulb uy ttit.ting on with the
qrgbei shorted together. vou *iir see the pointer
deflectrrlcrrtrren"lil;;ir";;;ui"iy.;".pdownrothe
stabilised"position.
Once the oscillator's output has beenset, adjust vR2
for full-scale oenectionw-iirri;;;.;;,
shortedtogether. ninaity, centrethe control knob.
Using the Meter
nxperi-encewith the meter providesthe bestguide as to
wh;t ESR value to "ip""t oi ;;;;
capaciror.Some

ffiT*iJ,iff:il#t,::tiT'l#Y"""",T#"J,".TTi';

Inpractice
thesignar
becomes
s9rory
athighESR
var- ;#i%:!E:X'r?l3lY"'[119,1*ft,:"d:d#ti":il"#

uesthat somenon-linearityin the cjrcuitis apparent, electrolyticcapacitor_.oft00pF

oi-over value, you
the resultbeinga-slightdlparnrrefrom this rbrmura.
a readingclose to this and cerrainly
itgtJ^"Id
Because
of this,it's betterto useeitherfixed resistors below0.5h.
to calibratethe scaleor copyFig. 7. If a standard90'
There * ,orn" exceptionshowever.I,ll mention
moYement
of a differentsiif is used,it is easyenough trremtrereas they caniuur" "ooruri;;. A^irih*;lsRtoreduce.olenlargb-thqscalebyphotocopyinE. valueis to be eipected
yrth ltF, ligh-vorh;;ei;-

'-

Un

letrlnS
.::', is.the oscillator's-outputlevel.
The
first consideration
rtutt-up"o.pon"ni. n"iog 6p"raiJin a pc context,its
with thespecifiedlamp,the oscillatorwil wbrk down Fsi iJil;ilp"rr-r
a new450v.rype
4t an e-xample
to
peak-to-qeakBut bearin mind that the oscilla- "tlt ;*;;;Uuce a reading
JV
of thebrderof:30f,I At the
tor's outputsetringis not importantg ilryt{ . tru--scale otniq eqoir rhe.qnge.
,
t9u.Eetrnp"r,oobpr,
deflectionissimplyadjustedby-vR2.wit_h.thelestleads:ryqgir;;ortnrriao"*i:prpioJ.ur.adingof0.le
sho{9!together'I,owsetting]ofthebircilIator:soutput<iireisiisau}f--:-:.i---:'.l1tr+-.lI
providesa longer battery-life,'iieduging
the livel it
Table l, from Dubilier,prwides a usefulguide,in
whichthe bulb ceasest9 functional.1 qery[tor.
addition,
ir ytu ar" unsurewhatreadingto expectit,s
Stre
testsignalcanhoweverbe so low at highEsR values
"ury "nougtiio *ut"'u "o-f*iro" *iiri",i-iili;;
thataccuracy
suffers.In practiceanoscillatoroutput
- of rr9- yoor?"il-stockedluy-J"r""t oiyti"r.
about5V peak-to-peak
is a goodcom-promise.
The-meterhas good protectionagainstplacingthe
rf an oscilloscope
is not available,thefollowingsim- probe, u"ros u .f,.g"d .upu"it-, But this
shouldof
ple methodcanbeused.Connecta 1o resistorbeiw""n "ourr" u" uuoia"a.
rfr" onryieui Juut" for
^uie",jiiig;:
concern
is
thetestIeadsandturntheset-zero
controlVR2 (shown . the.'mainsmootfring
block,,i.". u *an,
incorrectlyas a presetiri ric,
"i;t il*]l'ii-""paciior. we att tnow tr,atnis capacitor.
.s*fas1,-g-.tql [ti"r*t:
wise.Advancbthescttingof wil
slowly.Iust:afterthe. can abtlnb;".rrif1f pun.l *n"o " piLr-suppty has,:
half waypointtheoscillatorwill startup andthemeter's faibd l; siilt up.If you are-ofthe type
with a tendency
pointerwill deflect.c1rry oq.yntil th-e-buzzer
iounds ro suchacciJent,iiwour,l ue fruiiiito wke a couple:
steadily.Ar thispoint the oscillator'soutputshouldbe
acrossthemerer,sinpur.,,
F"fy ;F;; 6ack-to-babk
cloqeto 5v.peak+o-peak.
Note that with eachadj.ust- E
rrris stioutaliotect the meter,but it won,t help your
mentthe pointerwill twitch briefly as the bulb se[des, heart- ot yo'otprobes- in the event
of sucha misforgivingtheimpression
thatthepotentiometer
is no5r,
tune.rt'sgLoJpracticet" al*rr*ga irtit capacitorwith
Table1: TypicalESRvaluesat 100kH2...

a mains-type bulb - it is always reassurineto have a

visual indication that little chargeremains.Seewarning
note later.

Capacitancevalue Voltage rating

ltrF
2.21tF
4.7pF
10pF
221tF
471tF
471tF
100pF
100pF
2201tF
2201tF
4701tY
4701tF
1,000pF
1,000pF
2,2001tF
2,2001tF

50v
50v
50v
63V
50v
25V'
50v
16V
35V
16V
35V
16V
35V
16V
25V
25V,
35V

*When new - low-ESRtype.

436

lmpedance*
4Q
2.8A
2.4A
1.9c)
1.3c)
1.3cr
o.7a

0.scr
0.2scr
0.25fi
0 . 11 4 Q
0.114c)
0.065fi
0.0650
0.041c)
0.036ct
0.034f)

Inductonce
As the meter operatesat l00kHz, any inductancein the
circuit under test becomessignificani. The loudspeaker
that reads.8C)on your coqventionalohmmeterapp"*s
to be nearly open-circuitwittr ttre ESR meter.
This propert_ycan be quite useful. When testinga line
oxtput stage for exampleyou might find that there,sa
short-circuit acrossthe hansistor.In this eventthereare
in generalthree possibilities,(a) the transistoris shortcircuit, (b) the line output transformerhasa primary-tosecondaryshort, or (c) the HT line has a short-circuit
across it. If the short-circuit is still presentwhen the
ESR meter is used,the transistoris almostcertainly the
culprit: in the other two casesthe ESR meter will give
an open-circuitreadingbecauseof the inductanceof the
transformer'sprimaly winding.
. Video headtestersoperateby measuring,in effect, the
inductanceof the head.Its impedancefalls as the gap
deteriorateswith wear. Althou;h this meter operatesat
a frequencythat's inappropriatefor a video heid, it can

A p r i l 1 9 9 9T E L E V T S T O N

give a irelative indication of the head's

'don1thave,a collection of headsin various statesof
health to be able to confirm any figures, but it seems
that new headsproduce a reading of about 20 while
worn headsproducea readingofabout lf).
Inductorswith millihenry values, of the type used in
EW modulatorcircuits, normally give an open-circuit
reading.But ifa shortedturn is presentthe inductance '
dropsdramaticallyand the meter's pointer will deflect.

and considering the fact that ESR is an in-phasecompoient, I have made the assumptionin my calculations
that ESR amountsto the samething as an equivalent
fixed resistor.
Other uses for the meter emergethe more it is used.
For'example, non-electrolytic capacitois can be measured and their capacitanceestimatbd.But becauseof
the different types of capacitor construction in use, I
can't coine up with any hard and fast rule. A lower limit
for measurementis about 0:lFF. There seemsto be less
Anotogue v Digitol
and less needthesedays to measurethe actual value of
In dealingwith the problem of in-circuit ESR measure- a capacitor. With line output stage tuning capacitors
mentI've usedtraditional analoguetechnology.But, as and timing components'a conventional capacitance
is often the case,there's anotherway of doing things. meter is more appropriate.
Bob Parker, an engineet,fdown under' who was conThe ESR meter is one of those things that, once you
vinced of the importanceof such an instrument, hrst have one, you wonder how you ever managedwithout
tried analoguecircuitry. After "a few fairly unsuccess- it. Hats off to whoevercame up with the idea - it's not
ful attempts"he opted for a digital approach.His solu- mine. I've just taken this opportunity to sharewith you
tion'is to use a 7)log processor,with, instead of a the course I adoptedto end up with the solution pre,sinewaveas a test signal,shortcurrent pulsesappliedto sentedhere. I haven't clappedeyeson the Wizard yet the capacitorbeing tested.The resultantvoltagepulses, we can't afford one down here in Wales. I'd like to
which are.proportionil to the electrolytic's ESR, are know how the Wizard designer approachedthe probcompared to the level existing on a fttmp generator. lem, but no information has come my way.
Time measurementby the 286 processor determines
The idea for my meter was triggered off by the
the amplitudeof the pulses.
Wizard. When I first read about it I was impressed.It
.As far as the power,requirement is concerned, tliere's would test that most troublesomeof all components,the
a parallel in the form of a remote-control handset. The electrolytic capacitor.Not only that but.it would do so
LED is pulsedwith a high currentfor a short period, the in-circuit, ignoring associatedcomponents.t liked the
averagecurretrt drawl being low. The brief high cur- idea of a conventiohalmeter movementwith its easv'to-interpret
rent is supplied by a reservoir of stored power in an .
scale, also the buzzer feature for quick
electrolytic capacitorthat's wired across the battery's checking. But the meter was shroudedin mystery and
connections.
its price tag was beyond me. So I decidedto have a go
Friendly rivalry between the analogue and digital myself.
camps has existed for a long time. This brings to mind
an old story that sums it up well. Two male engineers, Development
. one specialising in digital design and the other in ana- A clear picture formed in my mind as to how to go
logue design, are working together in a lab. A nude about it. My idea was to supply a low-valuc resistor
.: femalc appeel! at the door, attracting the attention of (l0Q) with a constant-current l(X)kHz sinewave,
,, both men. This vision of beauty announces.that every - amptify and rectify the resultant ;voltage waveform
trlten'ieconds she'will reduce'the distance betrveen hei- acroSsthis resistor and feed it to h meter movement. [n
r::l'selfand the engineers.byone half. The digital engineer thii situation thb meter is to be set at full-scale deflec,r:lool3Sdisappginted and cries "that's terrible, she'll tion. The test leads were to be connected across the
. never get here". Xhe analogueengineer smiles and then resistor. Now ifthe capacitorbeing testedhas an ESR
rcplies i'that's OK she'll get close enough".
ofsay 10f,1,the voltage acrossthe resistor would fall by
half. Thus half-scale deflection would correspond to an
More on ESR
ESR of 10Q and so on. A very low ESR (good capaciParker(E/earonicsAustralra,
February
1996)puts tor) would produce a near-zero reading while a poor
,@ob
it this way.
capacitor would have little effect, the pointer remaining
"The electrolyte has an
electrigal resistance which, at near full-scale deflection. The result is a meter scale
along with the (negligible) resistahceof the connecting in opposite senseto that of the Wizard.
leads and aluminium foil, forms the capacitor's equivaWithin a couple of monthsof the startof development
lcnt seriesresistance.Normally the ESR has a very low work on the project I had a working prototype and
value, which stays that way for many years unless the decided to write an article about it. Then, at the
rubber seal is defective. Then the electrolyte's water eleventh hour, I had secondthoughts. Something was
gradually dries out and the ESR creeps up with time. naggingme. The meter looked OK, did its job, and othThe electrograduallycomesto act like a capacitorwith ers were happy with it. But after using it for some time
its own internal seriesresistor. . . Heat makesit worse. I felt that somethingwas not quite right.
If an electro is subjectedto high temperatures,espeMy main concernwas that it seemedto be very sensicially from heatgeneratedinternally as a result of large tive to the inductanceof the test leads.This impedance
ripple currents,the electrolytewill start to decompose meant that even with the test leadsshortedthe reading
and the dielectric may deteriorate- the ESR will then could not be brought down to zero. I had introduced
increasefar more rapidly. To make things worse,as the measuresto offset this, but in this connection a more
ESR increasesso doesthe internal heatingproducedby seriousproblem emergedafter some further use.
the ripple current.This can lead to an upward spiral in
When a capacitor with a very low (near zero) ESR
the capacitor'score temperature,followed by complete was being measured,the pointer would vary about the
failure - sometimeseven explosive , . ."
zero point if the distance between the test leads was
Both Bob (Dick Smith Electronics)and Ray Porter,in altered. If they were close together, their inductance
an article on ESR meter designin this magazinea few would tend to canceland the reading would decrease.I
yearsback, mention the use of fixed resistorsto assist was aware how important it was to be able to differenwith meter calibration. Armed with this information. tiate betweensay 0.5O and 0. lfl or between0'lfl and

T E L E V I S I OANp r i l 1 9 9 9

437

ESR METER

zero.This.wasa designweakness,and I was not happy. complexity. To do

away with it meantthat I neededa
At this time Bob Parker's K7204 ESR meter became higher supply voltage.
The use of two pp3s in seriesto
available.I had one with which I could make a com- obtain this may
seemto be a backwardsstep,but isn,t
parison,and noticed the samesensitivity to inductance really.
The meter now takeshalf the currentusedby the
that I was experiencing.Both metersmonitor the volr
first prototype, and will regulatedown to less than 5V
age acrossthe capacitor,whereasthe Wizard measures per battery.In,fact the
the current through the capacitor- this was clear from over the supplyrangeT:t9llgadinC remainsunchanged
l0-30V with the oscillatorset at
its scale.
5V peak-to-peak.
I went on to build a little circuit to do just that and,lo
Now,-almost a year after building my first prororype
and behold,this over-sensitivitydisappeared.The effec_ andquite
a few versionslater,I havepresented'this
_;y
tive lead impedance dropped dramitically, and that final (?) solution!
which remainedcould be iimply compensatedfor by
meansof the FSD preset.So it seemedthat the Wizard Worning
yay yas the right way. All rhis can be explainedusing It seemsthat forgetting to dischargethe
main smooth_
the relevantmaths,but I'm not about to brushup on my ing block
or HT reservoir capacitor before measure_
thcory and extendthis article longer than it is aieady.'
ment is a more frequent occurrence than had been
. Reluctantly,I-acceptedthat I had to scrapmy original expected.When this happensR4 at leastwill blow. As
ideaand starrall-overaggl
Thir was by nbw becoiling replacing components,on stripboard is a messyjob, I
an obsessionwith me - I had to come up with the besi strongly recommend
that protectionis built in. Aimall
solution,and it had to be.the simplest.
board with two 1N4007diodeswired back-to-backand
Certaiir things had to go. After s-omeuse I realised that a lA (N25) circuit protector
in serieswith one of the
qlugs and socketsfor the test leads were out ofthe ques- test leads can be mounted on the
back of the meter
tion. Their increasingcontact resistancemade low-o-hms movement.
readings unreliable. I had also been determined that the
meter should operatewith a single pp3 batterv.
Thonks
To this end I had built a DC-DC converter io provide I have to thank
Martin Pickering for his constructive
a negative supply line. This provided operation .iown to commentsafter
testing an earlier, voltage-sensingproto7V. But it used 7mA and geatly increased the circuit t)?e meter.

Componentslist
Item
R 1 ,R 2
R3
R4
R5, R7, R9
R6,Rg,Rls
R10
Rl1
R 1 2 ,R 1 3 ,R 1 4
R16
VR1
VR2

Value/type
3kQ,1yo
1Q

2.70
1oka

100kf)
- 91kO
5.6kfi
56kO
2.7K1or 10kfl*
500Qcermet preset
10kCtlinearpotentiometer

Order code
M3K
M1R
M2R7
MlOK
MlOOK
M91K
M5K6
M56K
M2K7or M10K
WR39
JM71

*Valuefor current,economy
C1,C2
C3,C4,C7i
c5,c6

47OpF,1%polystyrene
0.1!F miniitur'e ri;sindipped
22iF,16V

BX53
RA49
VH09

[c1,lc2,lca
D1,D2,
D3,D4,D5

TL082CN,
1N4148
FlashingLEDplus clip

RA71
oL80
OY96and W40

LP1

Miniaturewire-ended
28Y,24mAlamp

BT44

M1

100pAmeter movement

CPCcode PM11125

SW1

DPSTswitch

RD17

Buzzer
Stripboard
Case
Knob
Batteries
Probeclips

Miniaturealarm

CPCcode LS-M3
JP47

D6

ABS box type BM22

Two PP3splus clips

cc83

YXOl
HF28
HF21

Order codes are Maplin,s unless otherwise indicated.

438

A p r i l 1 9 9 9T E L E V T S T O N

OHMS

7 5 4 3

-.oix

compa re

E S R a t l O Ok H z

changed.An ESR metergets

aroundthis problemby usinga test
frequency(or pulserate)that'shigh
enoughfor the capacitivereactance
to be almostzeroohms,leaving
just the ESR as the measurement.

The equivolent series resistqnce (ESRI of qn electrolytic

copocifor is o relicrbleindicqtion of its condifion.
Alon Willcox's firsr ESR mefer".detign, published in these
pqges some five yeors a9o, wqs very populor. This Mork 2
version incorporoles severql improvements, in porficulor q
simpler oscillotor design ond single-botfery operotion
simplified equivalentcircuit
tancebut, when it deteriorates,it
of an electrolytic capacitoq
increasesthe impedancepresent.
seeFig. l, is usuallyshown
The lower the ESR, the betterthe
when providing a briefexplanation
capacitor!
of what ESR is all about.In addiElectrolytic capacitorsusedin
tion to the ideal capacitor Xc, a
switch-mode(chopper)power supsecondcomponentis present.It has plies and thosemountedclose to
a significanteffect on the capaciheatsinkstend to run hot. Heat is
tor's performance,and is referred
inclined to dry out the electrolyte
to as the equivalentseriesresistand, in time, a capacitormay develance(ESR).Electrolytic capacitors op a high ESR.This will itself
are usedmainly for decouplingand, introducea power loss - and more
to a lesserextent,for signal couheat!The effectoffailure ofthis
pling. This being so it's important
type in a power supply can be catathat, for optimum performance,the
strophic.For example,if the capacimpedance(AC resistance)of the
itor is in the HT monitoring section
capacitoris as low as possible.
of a TV set'spowersupplythe HT
An electrolyticcapacitor'sESR
voltagemight rise, damagingthe
is mainly determinedby the condiline output transistorand maybethe
tion of the electrolyte(paste)that
field outputIC.
separatesits foils. The electrolyte
This type of problemis more
increases
the component'scapacisignificant when a set is startedup
from cold, as the conditionof a
faulty electrolytic capacitoris
worsewhencold.Thus cold checks
are by far the bestapproachto testing! Problemswith electrolytic
capacitors,particularlythoseused
in switch-modepowersupplies,are
causednot so much by a changeof
capacitance
valueas by an increase
Fig. 1: Simplified equivalent circuit
in thecomponent's
ESR.Thus
of an electrolytic capacitor. Xc
removalof a suspectcapacitorto
represents an ideal capacitor. lts
checkit with a conventionalcapacreactance moves towards zero
itancemeteris largelya wasteof
ohms as the frequency increases.
time-Furthermorea faulty capaciXc = l/(Zt fcl. The value of the
equivalent series resistance ESRis
tor may be overlookedbecauseits
determined mainly by the condition
capacitance
valuehashardly
of the electrolyte.

76

Meosuring ESR
ESR obviouslycannotbe measured
directly,usinga conventionalohmmeter,so a meanshasto be found
to 'get to'the ESR that'shidden
insidethe capacitor.A numberof
ready-made
meterdesignsand kits
are now availablefor measuringthe
ESR of an electrolyticcapacitorincircuit,usingcold checks.They
achievesuccessandsimplicityin
varyingdegrees.Useof a suitable
meterenablescold checksto be
madewithout the risk of any furtherdamageoccurring.Strictly
speakingit is the impedancethat's
beingmeasuredbut,over a particular rangeoflest parameters,it can
be shown that this presentsmore or
Iessthe samevalue.
It is all too easyto over-complicatethings when it comesto ESR.
Thereare thosewho arguethat
ESR metersdon't measurethe ESR
precisely.But, in the real world,
how precisedoesthe readingneed
to be? It really doesn'tmatter.The
serviceengineerjustneedsto
know,as quickly as possible,which
capacitoris causingthe trouble.An
ESR meterdoesjust that!Once
technicianshave becomeaccustomedto using an ESR meter,they
wonderhow they ever managed
withoutone.Althoughthe ESR
variessomewhatwith frequency,
we can in practiceregardit as
beinga constantin-phasecomponent,and calibrateour meterusing
fixed resistors.This is useful,as the
meterwill alsoservewell as a lowohm meter.
So.if an ESR meterdoesn't
what readings
measurecapacitance,
can we expectfrom good and bad
capacitorsusingsucha meter?
How do you know whethera
capacitoris OK or not?The curve
shownin Fig. 2 givesa practical
ideaof the sort of ESR readings
thatshouldbe obtainedrvith good
capacitorsof differentvalues.
rule horvThereis no hard-and-fast
All
ever- it's not an exactscience.
it needsis a bit of gettingusedto.
This doesn'ttakelong:just measure the ESR of a f'ewnervcapacltors.Try l, 10,47, t00, 470 and
1,000pF.
You will find thatvalues
quite
of 47pFandabovemeasure
low.0'5O or less.with thebuzzer
comingon (thebuzzerturn-on
pointcanbe varied,seelater).The

D e c e m b e r2 0 0 4 T E L E V I S I O N

impo.rtantpoint is just how low

capacito-is
with valuesof 47uF and
abovemeasure
i At 47018 and ovr.,
the readingis closeto zero'ohms.
If, in practice,a 1,0004Fcapacitor
producesa readingas high as O.SSI,
rt's no good! i:

ES8(o)

Anqtd$i,i'ditiin"l ,
dtsPlg)B.ri,.
-.. ,
Digital..methods
bf measurement
andlisiildy are'generallyregarded
as pro,vldrng&ore accurateresults.
F9r mpny applicationsrhis is true.
but itjs nqr:,45pessarily
so wi*r gSn
measureineriflThere
ire two wavs
of interfacingthe,capacitorbeinl
tested'eiffi the m6tir:ftre capaciicir
can be connectedin parallel-with
the test sign4l.g"ourqe,
as shownin

Fis.3(a);Wiii"i;?:ii6b',
t#'rie. irbi.'

If a digital ESR readouti; ii;ad.

the capacitormust shuntthe test
signal.,Withan deal,capabito4the
resultrwill be:z0ro,ohms;
and.z&te.,.:
:t
display:.-witha.badcapacitorthere
will be d hieh rcading;with linle
s_h_untlng
away of. the test-signal.
We are interbstedin ESR viues of
3Q or less,rbuta digital meter
gives readingsfar higher than this.
It's not a major problem,but can
grve nse'to superfluousinformation
aSfar aSESRtmeasUrements
are r_j
concemed;A inore.important factor
is ftat the:bqraltdmetnoa results in
a signifiidrftlniiease in,tne read::^ :
ings obaiiied&ecauiff 'of,ejri:i:Ssivei

\_

sensitifi.df0lttiri[dluctiriie,ofithe,,l
ty$! le3+,rffis".ii,ii'be.overcome

ItF*

,Qgq$anr;

gl9se

qf9:3lgt.'

Rsample.Value
cfiosen for
optimum
meterscale

fi tting.twollehds.tor6actlprobe:;It
provides.cancellation"toi,laige- .
extent,;but:thissolution.is
a U'it .. ,
rmsyin.r'seand'toconshuct.The
""cries method ofiinterfacing
does ,;.,
not sufferrfrom,this.ilrawback;so
the useof;conventional test leads ,
becomes'acceptablelll don't know
y h y t h i s e f f e c t o c c u r s - I j u s:t,.
found out the hard way. . .
Although we have6ecomeused
to_digitalreadoutsnowadays,for
ESR measurementthere is-little
doubt that a moving-coil meter is
the.besttype of display.It gives a
raplo, ei$y-to-rnterpretindication
of the conditionof the capacitor.
After someexperienceof using it,
oxe getsto know wherethe pointer
shouldapproximatelybe with good
capacitorsof different values.
Indeeda meterscalebecomes
almostunnecessary.
I know of
peoplewho haveusedthis type of
meterquite satisfactorilywithout
ever having takenthe trbuble to fit
a scalededicatedto ESR measurement.
Layouio( Non willcox's Ma* 2 ESRmeF,ron stripboard.
To repeat:it's not an exact scin" n4z
incorporates
severol.improyements,
includinga simpler""riil.i";-i;;b"
encebut, with someexperience,
i,ii;igb_bottery
operalion.

ptb
?d anp

Fig' 4: The basic ESR meter circuiL new version. lcl and IC2 require positive
and-negative supplies at pins g and 4 respeaiiely.
Further circuitry is required, see nert month, to generate tne sim-riit iujpfu
and provide a buzzer comparator.

one soon gets to knoy whfglrlly capacitancewill providenegli_

, capacitoris causing_
the qo.ubleby .- gible oppositionficjto it.
knowingroughly wherethe ESR'': :t 'meter's pointer should be with a
Waveform: Analysis of a square_
good one. one argumentthat's
wave has beenused,and l'vL triea
sometimesput forward against the
,this myself. The results are a bit
use of a moving-coil movementis
unpredictablehowever.I had a lot
that the movement will be damofiroubre trying to preservethe
aged should the meter fall off the
waveform intaci at the mv level to
bench.I have a solution to this
give a useful, predictableindicaproblem. If you are inclined to be
tion. It's not *:orth the effort. A
glumsy,attacha piece_ofstring
sinewaveis so easyto generateand
betweenthe mererand the bench,
gnplify that I cannotsJeany.lusti
Iong enoughso that the meter
ncition for incorporatingsquare_
comesto-a halt just before it hits
wave analysisinto the dEsienof an
the deck but not so short that you
ESR metei.
'' dorittgetabitofajolttoservLas'117'l'*"1*. ( ..
'
:a'ieminder.
,
An improved
ESR.meter
Thr meter presentedhere is similar
TesFsignol porumeteru
to the one describedin the
Amplitude: To test for ESR or for
March/April 1999 issuesof
actual capacitancethere are no con-. Television. Since then the use of an
straintson how low the test sisnal
ESR meter to check quickly for
can be as far as the capaciior ii
faulty capacitorshas Lecomewell
concerned.Taking into account
established.The original circuit
power consumption,and the probworks well and has stood the test
lems associatedwith lowJevel sigof time, but feedback from the
nals of the order of microvolts,
hade has prompted me to make
noiseconsiderationsetc.,a level of
someimprovements.Theseinclude
about 5mV peak+o-peak seemsto
single-battery operation and
be a good compromise.
improved temperature stability.
The new circuit remainsstable
Frequency: The time period
down to 6.2Y, and consumesabout
shouldbe short enoughto zero out
l3mA. Becauseof the improved
the capacitivereactance.100kHzis
temperaturestability of thl new
a popularchoice.At aboutthis freoscillator circuit, there is no need
quencythe ESR and impedance
for an externally-availableset-zero
convergewith the type of capacicontrol.
tors in which we are interested.
Apart from that consideration,
The oscilloior cirrcuit
lOOkHzis about the top frequency
An IIF oscillator or pulse generator
at which a predictablegain of up to
with a stableoutput over a reasonten times can be obtainedwith
able supply voltage range is the
readily-available,low-cost operaheartof every ESR meter.ICla in
tional-amplifierICs.
the new circuit, seeFig. 4, is the
Rememberthat if the rate-ofsinewaveoscillator in this design.
changeof the voltageis fast enough, The simplestway of generatinga

7B

sinewave.isto incorporatein the

oscillator's positive-feedbackpath
a network originatedby Max Wien
in 1891.It ensuresthat the feedback is an in-phasecomponentat
only one frequency,which is fixed
by the rRCvaluesused.At very
high frequenciesC2 presentsi lowimpedancepath, while at lower frequenciesCl becomesan effective
open-circuit.At somepoint in
betweenthere will be maximum
output from the network Cl, Rl,
C2,R2, which is refened to as a
Wien bridge. The RC values used
here'resultin oscillationat about
lfi)kHz.
There are two simple methods
of stabilising the output level with
an op-amp Wien-bridge oscillator.
The method traditionally usedis to
include a bulb in the nelativefeedbackpath (between-pinsI and
2here). This was the approach
used in my 1999design.There
has been some misunderstandine
about the bulb, becauseof ttre Oifferent specificationsused in US
literature. I went into the maner
in some detail in the 1999 articles.
The correctspecificationis
28Y,24mA.
The principle behind the use of
a tungstenbulb is that its resistance increaseswith the current
that flows throughit. If a bulb's
resistanceis measured,the small
current from the ohmmeterwill
increaseits resistance,
When
employed correctly in this application the bulb doesnot come anvwherenearincandescence.
I decided to use the lamp then becauseof
its elegantsimplicity and extremeIy low distortionfigure (0.0025Vo).
With the new design I wanted to
reducethe operatingvoltageof the

l.)ecemhcr

,)OO4

TFI F\/lqlr.)\l

,
L

w h o l e m c t e r s o t h a ta s i n g l eP P 3
battery could be usedas the porvcr
s o u r c ew h i l e s t i l l a c h i e v i n gv e r y
lorv po"vcr consumption.The
problem '"viththe use of a bulb is
t h a t i n t h e s ec o n d i t i o n st h e b u l b ' s
temperatureis not sufficiently far
away from the ambient temperature to ensufegood stability. so
this time I decidedto use the
brute-forcemethodof diode stabili s a t i o n( D l , D 2 ) .
The idea here is that when the
output from the oscillator rises
above the conductionpoint of the
diodes the negativefeedback
increases,the output settling at an
amplitude which dependson the
characteristicsof the diodes. In
this case the net result is a
sinewavesourcesignal acrossR5
with an amplitudeof about 6mV
peak-to-p"uk.Diod. stabilisation
introducesgreaterdistortion, but
this is not important here. To
maintain oscillation,the value of
R3 must be over trvice that of R4.
A preset resistor, adjusted to just
sustainoscillation(lorvestdistortion), is usually used in the R3
position. I decidedto use a fixed
value that's a ferv ohms on the
high side, to ensurereliable oscill a t i o n r e g a r d l e s os f d i s t o r t i o n .

Interfocewith rhe copocitor

being tesfed
The interfacewith the capacitor
being tested is the crucial part of
the meter. It took me a long time to
get this right. SeeFig. -5.The waveform acrossR5 (the source resistor)
is not an ideal,constant-voltage
source,becauseof the needto
'--,.nclude the sampleresistor(R6),
rvhosevalue must be comparableto
the ESR valuesin rvhich we are
interested.The ESR of the capacitor being testedforms part of a
potentialdivider rvith R6. Thus if,
for exanrple.a good 1,0007rF
c a p a c i t o r v i t ha n E S R o f a b o u t
0'lO is connected
i o r t e s t ,R 6 i s
c { ' f b c t i v c l iyn p a r a l l c rl v i t h R - 5 T
. his
I n c a n st h a t t h e s u p p l y - s i g n aslo u r c e
i \ l c s \ h r ' t ' a u s rr' v. l r c rtrr c i l p : r c i l o iIs
b e i n gt c s t c c lt.l l c c o n s t i r n t - c u r r e n t
s o u r c ct o l l 5 i s s h l r r c trl v i t l rt h c
t : S I l u r r d[ { 6 i n p l r a l l c l .
'['hc
v o l t a q cr i , u r ' c l i r r ni lrc v c l
o p c t la c r o s s1 1 6l t s : rr c s u l to l l h e
, l r i l , ' i l 1l l t t , ' t t . - l lrl r e , l r P i r r ' i t r r t '
l r c i r r g{ c s t c t l i s l r n r l l l i t i c cul n t l t h c n
r l c t c c t c c bi y t l r c r c . l o l t l r c c i r c u i t .
l l t h c t r S I { o l t l r e c r r p a c i t o rb c i r r g
t e s t e ( li s c q u a l t o t h c v a l u c t r l l { 6 .
l u r l l o l t h c s t r p p l yw a v c l i r r r n r v i l l
-l'lrc
bc passctlorr.
supply rvavc.
I r l r r n i s r r o t i r r t l c p c n r l c r rot l l l r e
I o a c l l t o r v c v c r - .I l t h c I : S I t i s l c s s

l l l l \ ' l \ l r r '

than the value of R6, as rn rnost

casesit is, the lvavefonn voltage
acrossR6 increases.
A s t h e E S R r i s e sa b o v e t h e
value of R6, the latter becomes
less effective. The result of all this
is a non-linear scale, expandedat
the lolver range and somewhat
l o g g e do u t . T h i s i s i d e a l f o r t h e
p r e s e n ta p p l i c a t i o n ,b e c a u s eI n
s o m e c a s e si t i s i m p o r t a n tt o b c
a b l e t o d i s t i n g u i s hb e n v e e na v c r y
l o w v a l u e ,c l o s e t o z e r o , a n d o n c
of about 0 -5Q.

Internol view
I have achievedlow current conof the new
s u m p t i o na n d c i r c u i t s i m p l i c i t yb y
ESR meter.
tusingthe feedbackcurrent and
fhe test leod
comprornisingsomervhaton the
connections are ol
source.
ideal. constant-voltage
the bonom, with
proteclion diodes
bet,tveen them.
Nexf month
I n t h e c o n c l u d i n gi n s t a l m e n nt e x t
r r r o r r t hI ' l l c o m p l e t ct h e c i r c u i t
description,deal rvith sonrepractical points and protectionntethocls,
nts list
provide a detailedcontporre
I
and a stripboardlayor-rt.

6 m V p - pu n d e r
0 6V P-P anncr2nr oPen-circuit
( l C l a p i n2 ) : : ; : : : ' , "
condirions
i

Y""""'

t
lR4 1oo()

Esn

Constant-voltage
source
(from osc
f e e d b a c kl o o p )

Fig.5: The method of test capacitor interface used in this nreter. The source voltage is not a true
constant voltage because of the need for R6, whose value nrust be cotrtparable to the ESR of the
capacitors in which we are interested.
Current economy and circuit simplicity are achieved by using feedback current front the
'logged'
oscillator circuit as the source fed to the capacitor under test. The outltttt is inversely
out in relation to ESR.

This second, concl

Wittcox'slotest ESRmeter,with o suggestedstripboqrd loyout ond

component specificotions
1999issues,so only a briefdescription is given here.
The frequencyof the Wienbridge oscillator is approximately
equalto ll(zfiRq when resistors
Rl andR2 and capacitorsCl and
C2have equal values.At this frequencythereis no Phaseshift
acrossthe bridge and thus maxiCircuir description
mum positive feedback.At resoFig. 4 (seepage78 last month)
nance,the upPersectionof the netshowsthe basic ESR metercircuit.
work (Rl, Cl) hastwice the imPedthe
oscilof
The important features
anceof the lower section(R2, C2),
lator and test interfacesections
lossof
so there'sa transmission
is
There
were coveredlast month.
1/3.To sustainoscillation,the overno needfor a regulatedPowersuPall gain (ALC) must be greaterthan
ply. Just to remind you, the amPliloss
unitv.The transmission
tude of the HF output waveform
throughthe network is offset by the
obtainedfrom the oscillator(ICla)
gain determinedbY the ratio I +
which
is setby the characteristics,
(R3/R4).In this circuit theALC
of
are virtually temperature-stable,
would be more than the threetimes
the two diodesDl and D2 in the
requiredwere it not for diodesDl
between
negative-feedback
Path
pins I and 2. The amplificationand . andD2, which overridethe effect
of R3 as mentionedabove.
detectionlevelsprovidedbY the
The following two stflgesof
otherstagesaresetbY the ratio of
(IC2a and IClb) are
amplification
resistor
lhe sourcelnd feedback
valuesused.This is standardopera- straightforward,rvith no needfor
conectioncircuitry.CapacitorC3 in
practice.
The way
tional-amplificr
the feedto the detectorstage(IC2b)
amPlifiers
in whichopcrational
is includedto removeanYDC comin
detail
red
some
rvas
in
cove
work
oonentand alsoto rctluccsensitivity
my articlesin theMarch/APril
I n Part I last month I dealt with
and
I gSn and its measurement,
I describedthe significantfeaturesof my latestESR meter
design.I'll startthis month with a
descriptionof the basic circuitry
used.

158

to low frequencies(mainshum or
whatever).Rl2 setsthe gain in the
detectorstage.Becauseofthe high
intrinsic gain of an operational
amplifier,the forward voltagedroP
acrossdetectordiodesD3 and D4 is
overcomeand detectionat evenmV
level is not a problem.

SpliFroil genetator ond

buzzer
That is all thereis to the basiccircuit. But the operationalamplihers
requirepositiveand negativesupis provided
plies.This requirement
by IC3b,seeFig. 6, which is configured as a voltage-follower.Thereis
100 per centnegativefeedback(pins
7-6), so the outputvoltagemust settle at half the supplyvoltage,setby
the equalratioof Rl4 andRl5. I
was pleasedto find thatthe circuit
remainsstablewith outputsaslorv
as +3'lV. This lower supplyvoltage
rangeis quiteconsistent.
IC3a is configuredas a voltage
Whenthe ESRrcading
comparator.
is lessthan0'5Q, theoutputfrom
thedetectorgoeshigherthanthe
forrvardvoltagedrop acrossD8.
The outputat pin I of IC3 thcrcfore

J r r u a r y2 0 0 5T i l E V I S I O N

FromRl2lC4

lcl,lcz
pinI

lcl,lc2
pln4
:oes high, activatingthe buzzer.
.-fhe ESR level at which the buzzer
operatesis set by the overall gain.
This point can'easilybe changedby
alteringthe value of Rl2. If its
value is increased,the overall gain
rises and the buzzer will operateat
a higher ESR level.
The value of l00Q for Rl8 is
chosento limit the currentfrom an
external 12V sourceto a rechargeable battery to the trickle level. The
overall consumptionis so low that,
if you are one of thosewho remember to switch off battery-powered
equipmentwhen it's not in use,an
ordinary battery is OK and will last
for quite a long time.
Although the basic metercircuit
is happy with a supply between630Y the buzzerand LED won't be.
The value of 2'7kf,Jfor R19, which
is in serieswith the power-onindirtor LED, gives good brightness
.
\ver a supply rangeof 6-9V with
only a feg mA drawn.
Prqcficol points
As the meter operatesat 100kHz,
any inductancein a circuit being
checkedwill produce a highimpedancereading. If an EW coil
producesa reading,it has shorted
turns. Another use of the meter is
where the line output transistor
appearsto be short-circuit.A quick
check with the meter will isolateit
- if the short is elsewhere,in most
casesthe impedanceof the line output transformerwill be in the way
and will result in a high reading.If
there'sa low reading,the transistor
is most often the culprit.
ESR meter usershavecome up
with new applications.The nonpolarised,high-voltagecapacitors
usedin the line output stage(tuning

TELEVISION
2005
January

f I Prlntcuts(24)
+ve supply

Meter+ve'
'Connecl to track slde of board
Top - Fig. 6: The
split-rail generator
and buzzer comparator circuits.
Centre- Fig.7:
Suggested layout
on stripboard,
Left - Layout of
the prototype
meter on stripboard
Bottom - Fig.8:
The ESB meter
scale, shown full
size l58mml.

etc.) can be tested.I've not taken

the trouble to designa new meter
scalefor this application,as I have
no practicalexperienceof such
checks.It seemsto me that if such
a capacitorgives any readingat all
other than short-circuitit will be
OK. This type of capacitordoesnot
changevalue.
I would like to think that the
presentarticlejust about sums
everythingup with resPectto the

t 5 t !

ESRat 100kHz
Cr

159

...\
\

Partslist
Item

Valueftype

Rl,2
R3
R4
R5
R6
R7,9,11,16,17
R 8 ,1 0
R12
R13
R 1 4 ,1 5
R18
R19

3ka
220A
100a
1A
2.7A
10kc2
100ka
*68kQ

CPC order code

R E M F R 4f o l l o w e d b y t h e v a l u e

3.9kA
56kO
*100Q
*2.7kf2

A l l 0 . 5 W1, %m e t a l f i l m

VR1
c't,2
c3,4
c 5 ,6 , 7

1OkQcermet preset
470pF low-loss high-stability*r
0.1pF cer-amicmultilayer
221tF,16V

D 1 , 2 , 34, , 9 , 9
D5,6
D7
lc1,2,3
LED
M1
S1

1N4148
1N4004
1N4002
TLO82CN
3mm Superbright

1 0 0 p Am o v i n g - c o i l
M i n i a t u r et o g g l e s w i t c h

Buzzer
5V DC
Case
ABS box
Testleads 2mm plugto probes
Veroboard
Spotfacecutterfor Veroboard
PP3batteryclip lead
protectionchoke
High-current

RE01881
cA02068
cAo2098
cAo1613
sc1N4't48
sc1N4004
sc1N4002
scTL802.
sc00023
PM11119

sw-z201lz
1S00654
EN55030.
1N00772.
PC00046
PC00066
8T02187
PWo0037.

Seetext
Seetext

See text

quick in-circuitlocationof faulty

achievea slimmerappearance,
I
electrolyticcapacitors.If anyone
boughtanothercase,typeEN55029
contemplates
the designof a PCB
(too slim), and combinedthe
for the project, it is importantthat
halves.This might soundextravaseparateoperational-amplifier chips gant,but you still end up with two
are usedfor the oscillator and the
casesand theycostonly aboutf2.
first amplifier stage- to avoid
interference
Protection mefhods
betweenthe oscillator
andthe sensitivefirst amplifier
In a letterin theAugustissuethis
stage.Fig. 7 showsa stripboard
yearJim Littler suggested
wiring
layoutfor the meter'scircuitry.Fig. an inductoracrossthe testleadter8 showsthe meterscale.
minalsto protectthe metershould
Don't be temptedto useplugs
it be connectedto a chargedcapaciand socketsfor the testleads- you
tor.I can seeno problemwith this,
wouldin time get problemsin the
andfollowedup with a letterin the
low-ohmsrange.Solderedconnec- Scptember
issue.If a valuesometionsshouldbc usedthroughout.
I
rvhatlower thanthe l5(i7rHrccomuse2mm testleadswith theplugs
rnended
thereis used,producinga
cut off. Make surcthatyou file the
readingof say30Q, this rcading
probesto give sharppoints.The
rvill be presenteachtirre the nteter
coatingthat'son then.r
hasa signifi- i s s r v i t c h eodn a n dy o u r v i l lk n o w
cantresistance.
thlt it is workingcorrectly.It will
The casespccificdin theparts
not al'fectthe useof thc ntcter.We
list is a bit on thedccpside.To
l r r eo n l y i n t e r e s t ei nd v u l u c st h a t

r60

aremuch lower.
If this methodof protectionis
usedwith a digital meter,the display will settleat a fixed reading.
This will showthat all is well with
the meterand will alsoeliminate
superfluous
readings.In the caseof
a moving-coildisplay,it will double-upas a power-onindicator.
The useof a circuitprotectorin
serieswith the testleadshasbeen
suggested.
The problemis that it
would tendto blow too easilyand
requirefrequentreplacement.
To reitcrate,
diodeprotection
(D5, D6) shouldalwaysbe incluclcd.
Any contments
abouthigh-cLrrrentchokeprotection,
whichseenrs
to be a r"rniqr.re
idea,andon ESR
measurcntcr)t
in generalwouldbe
welconrc.
Youcanreachme by emailat
alancsr(lr
hotrnai
l.com
I t h i n kt h a tc o v e r se v e r y t h i n qt .

J , u r u a r2y0 0 5T E L E V I S I O N

Table 1: T.yRicalESRvalues at,1Q0(Hz.r.

...

,",

Capacilaicbvatie Voltagerating tmpedih'ce*

:
50v
lttF
4rl
50v
2-21tF
2.8cr
'
50v
4.71tF ' .
2.4A
63V
10ttF
1.gfi
,
'50v
221tF
471tF
471tF
100pF
100pF
2201tF
22O1tF
47OpY
. a7O1tF
1,000pF
1,000pF
2,2001tF
2,2O0pF

: .

25V'
50v
16V
35V.
16V
35V
16V
35V
16V
25V
25V',
35V

*When new - low-ESRtYPe.

1.3cl
1.3fi
0.7ct
0.5c)

0.2scr
0.25cl
0.114cl
0.114ct
0.065cl
0.06sfi
0.041rt
0.036rl
0.034cl

ponelmeters
Anologue

t-.#

FAnuetc

zz 98278

onoers
s t * i l r e r i c .

a
a

tulttrtlr, o
?*,rrlrrrrlrrrrlr
r'rr'4

a
a
a

Attrocfive md moderndextign
Clxfce of printed scdes
4 popdqr sizes
"Eosy-frf'scdes
Chss eO

^1t,ttl'l'l'lrrr7, ,
Crder Code

Size

Range

Rec. Price :
1+

5+

10+ 25+ 50+

METERS
3V15X1MA

CV-15X 0-1mA

:V15X100UA

CV-15X 0-100F4

:Vl5XGZ100UA CV-15X 100-0-100!A

A modernand attractiverangeof qualitydc moMngcoil metersavailbleat

verycompetitlveprices.
Thereare4 popularsizeswhichcan be eithersurface or flush mounted
cutout.The metersutilisea well
behindthe panel througha rectangular
proven and robust, 90 degree deflection,pivot and jewel moving coil
movemenl.

3Vi5XSZ20MA

CV-15X

3V'OXIMA

CV-16X 0-1mA

1004-1004

3Vi6X100UA

CV-16X 0-100ttA

3V16XCZ100UA CV-16X 1004-100A4

M6XSZ20MA

CV-16X 4-2OmA

;V18X1MA

CV-18X 0-1mA

3V18X100UA

CV-18X 0-100rA

;Vl8XCZ100UA CV-18X 100-0-100FA

Meters are supplied in sensitivitiesof 100 microamps,100-0-100 3V18XSZ20MA CV-18X 4-20mA

microamps(centrezero),1 milliampsor as 4-20 milliamps(supressed
CV-20X 0-1mA
3V20X1MA
zero)for signalprocessindication.
graduated
and numbered0-10,
seperately
Pre-printed
scalesareavailable
0-30,0-100and100-0-100.

CV20X100UA

CV-20X 0-100!A

3V20XCZ100UA CV-20X 1004-100pA

3V20XSZ20MA CV-20X 4-20mA

METERSCALES

cv-15x 0-10
cv-15x 0-30
cv- 5X 0-100
cv 5X 100-0-100

9/CV16XB

CV 6X

s/cvl8x10
s/cv18x30
s/cv18x100

Fixing studs on all meters (DimensionG)are M3 x 12mm

Dimensionsin mm
o

CV-15X Blank

s/cv15x10
s/cv15x30
s/cvr5x100
s/cv15xczt00
s/cv16x10
s/cv16x30
s/cv16x100
s/cvl6xczl00
s/cv18xB

{_fi+

S/CVISXB

dA eB l c

cv
cv
cv

Length

Blank

6X
6X

0-100
100-0-100

cv- 8X

Blank

CV 8X

0-10

cv-

0-30

8X

cv- 8X 0-100

s/cvl8xcz100 cv

6X

CV 6X 0-30

8X

100-0-100

S/CV20XB

CV-20X Blank

CV-15X 57

48

43

40

35

1 . 5 1 4 . 52 8 . 5 5 0 x 2 3 . 5

40

s/cv20x10

cv-20x 0{0

CV-16X 68

58

45 31.5 48

48

1.5 14.528.5 61.5x28

50

80

67

50 38.5 64

48

5 14.5 28.5 72 x35

64

1.5 14.5 28.5 92x45

cv-20x 0-30
s/cv20x30
cv-20x 0-100
s/cv20x100
s/cv20xcz100 cv-20x 100-0-100

cv-18x

CV-20X 100 83

24

50 51.5 80

63
78.5

rO A mOQ OF 25 PC$
AVA1ASIE FRort NATKta,lA!OlglRlBUtORs OR DIRECTFaOl ANO*S SUEJECT

ANALOGUE\CVl Revision4 03/06/04

plc Bayham
LondonNWl OEU UK
Place,
Onders electronics
Tel:+44 (0)2073808167 Fax:+44 (0)2078741908 wwwmeters.anders.co.uk

PageI of I

SD80/0-100UA
I MULTICOMP I PanelMetersI ElectricalI Farnell

2OO7
/08/08

S D S O I O - I O O U -A M U L T T C O M -P M E T E R 8, 1 X 8 1 M M O - I O O U A
P
Manufacturer: MULTICOM

4S

60

,Availability

Order Code: 4433932

Availability: 1

Manufacturer Part No: SD80/0-

Price For: 1

lOOUA

Minimum Order Quantity: 1

Rol15 :

Order Multiple : 1

Description

U*it ?rice: 99"5$

M E T E R8, 1 X B 1 M MO - l O O U A
D e p t h , e x t e r n a :l 3 6 . 5 m m
.._. -^:":
D i a m e t e r ,p a n e l c u t Orire
out:63.5mm
L e n g t h/ H e i g h t ,
:
external:81mm
i L - 4
Meter Movement
FSD:100pA
.t-n
a Pitch:34mm
.LO-24
a Resistance, coil: 1 500R
a Width, external:81mm
:25-49
a
a
a

Image is for illustrative purposes

only.
Pleaserefer to product description

_ _Qtv
List Price
9.5B
f 9.38
89.t9
8.96
E7.37

Product Attributes

Technical Specifications

Weight (kg): 0.12

Approximate weight in primary packaging

r*l Product Rang;e

Catalogue Page:
58s / UK2

Tariff No.: 90303399

ffirech::ical Oata$heet {i.95 kBi

Country of Origin: TW Taiwan

Country in which last significant manufacturing processwas carried out

fi0ierL*qc

p : i , / a c y $ l : a t c m en t

I S i t er f l e p j T er r r s c f P r r c h a s e I T e r m S l f A c c er :

Cc;:iTrlght ii-; 2307 l:rer*:er Ferneil UK Llmite d ALL R:Gli15

C o p y ! - r g h ti n t i l r w h o i e a r r d e v e r y p a r t o f l | i i s ! 1 i r t i s i l e* e l r n ; s i c P r er : i e r ? a n e t l i ) 4 . L a r n i f . : l
i i c e n $ e d t, r a n s f e r i - e dc, o p i e i o . r e p : ' o d u l e ciin w h o l e o T i n 3 a ! - li n a l y m a n n e r o r : ' : t t : l ' : ; i r ' ;
a c c c r c a n c e y , , l t ht h e t e r m s o f i r e O ' ^ n e r ' s a g r e e r : e f l | , w i t n o , , r tl n * p r t i ) t w r t '
F a i n e l l i s a d : v i s i o n o f p r e n ' r ; e rf * r n e l l U K L i m i t e d . R e g i s t * : ' * d i n f n c i a r d a n d W a i e s f i . : C { . } 8 (
Lecd:, i..gl: 2QQ.
Prcd ucer Rcg lstration l'lu *r be r : \'! f.f.I AKt), 4117.

08108/2007
http://uk.farnell.com/jsplElectricaliPanel+MeteTsAvIULTICOMP/SD80/0-100UA/disp...