ESR Meter buying Question

[Albert101]

Hello,

I would like to know if I buy one of those ESR meters sold on Ebay for around 20 or 30 bucks from China will it work ok to do simple repairs to LCD monitors or other electronics ?

If not, why and what should I buy instead ? I am on a small budget...

Thank you very much.

[ddavidebor]

Where you've found and esr meter at 20-30$?

[Albert101]

On Ebay...

[tld]

Where you've found and esr meter at 20-30$?

On Ebay...

Well, this needs to get checked out, doesn't it?

I've ordered one.  My guess is that it probably won't be the most accurate, and the build-quality and reliability probably won't be perfect, it might not last as long as some other products, but it *does* look interesting for hobby/learning.

Note that some ESR-testers claim to be able to test ESR in-circuit, and that would be a significant advantage for repair-work.

With the meter, I'm thinking you'll need to actually de-solder the caps to test them, and at that point you would probably solder in a new one anyway.  In other words; Without testing them in-circuit, it's a matter of "replace all the caps", and this meter doesn't really change that.

tld

[Skimask]

That particular version/brand/incarnation ESR meter has been on ebay for at least a couple of years now.
I don't remember where I saw it, but the circuit/code/etc is basically a copy of some guys work from somewhere, sometime, somehow...  Google would probably turn it up...if I was that ambitious.

[mtdoc]

Have a look HERE.  I recently got one of these myself. So far it looks good...

[brainwash]

These cheap units do work and most of the time you are able to test the parts in-circuit - circuit powered off, of course.
It's a must if you are doing a lot of power/backlight supply repairs.

[stryker]

Have a look HERE.  I recently got one of these myself. So far it looks good...

Thanks for the link mtdoc.  Having it in a case like that makes a lot of sense too.