The following information may have errors; It is not permissible to be read by anyone who has ever met a lawyer. Use is confined to Engineers with more than 370 course hours of electronic engineering for theoretical studies.
All content entered becomes and is (C)2007 Transtronics, Inc. the property of Transtronics, Inc. Rest assured that your contributions won't be sold and will be publicly available.
ph +1(785) 841 3089 Email inform@xtronics
Capacitor Wizard
From Transwiki
Contents |
[edit] Capacitor Wizard
[edit] Precautions
Always DISCONNECT all power to equipment under test and DISCHARGE the capacitors before using this device! Failure to do so may damage the Capacitor Wizard™, equipment under test, and could be hazard- ous to the operator. Damage caused by attempts to use this device on powered up equipment or charged capacitors is NOT covered by the Warranty!
[edit] ESR is the key to finding bad Capacitors and makes you a circuit wizard.
The Capacitor Wizard is 'THE' fast and reliable way to find bad capacitors using ESR. Most capacitance meters read only the capacitance value - but did you know that a change in value is not the usual way for capacitors to fail? Instead, The Capacitor Wizard looks at the [reference/esr.htm ESR] (Effective Series Resistance).
A bad ESR in a cap detects the vast majority of capacitor failures. If the capacitor is 1uF or larger you can test in-circuit, eliminating the time required to remove the capacitor. Amazingly, the Capacitor Wizard finds bad caps in-circuit that even very expensive capacitance meters totally miss with out-of-circuit testing!
[edit] Why measure ESR?
[edit] Well let's look how capacitors fail:
- Open capacitor failure has an ESR of infinity.
- Changes caused by dielectric leakage or moisture contamination will cause the ESR to go up by several ohms while the capacitance value often doesn't change! This lets the Capacitor Wizzard find failures a regular capacitance meter misses!
- Delaminated plate foil causes an increase in ESR that also doesn't show up in the farad value.
[edit]
[edit] Why should you buy the Capacitor Wizard?
Because Time does equal money. Your money. Standard capacitor meters don't read ESR. 'Tough-dog' repairs caused by ESR failed caps eat up your bottom line.
- Purchase a Capacitor Wizard
[edit] Where will the Capacitor Wizard shine?
In-coming-component-testing, Switching power supplies, Computer Monitors, Printers, Medical Electronics, TVs. Even Air Conditioning, Refrigeration, and Electric Motor technicians will appreciate the Capacitance Wizard Electronic design engineers need the Capacitance Wizard to determine their what ESR to specify.
