I need a Capacitor Tester that will Test below 1uf help!!!

[finom1]

Sub Pf capacitance is hard to measure. Two alternatives: use an LC oscillator and measures its frequency, or to drive it by an oscillator of known frequency. A crystal oscillator will do fine HerE.

Thank you for sharing!!!

[ez24]

Some back ground for what we are trying to accomplish at this time. I am trying to set up a test bench for my son and I. We have purchased vintage test equipment and have been purchasing parts to restore them.

I thought you bought a magic eye cap tester ?  If so, why does it not do the job for you?

[finom1]

Some back ground for what we are trying to accomplish at this time. I am trying to set up a test bench for my son and I. We have purchased vintage test equipment and have been purchasing parts to restore them.

I thought you bought a magic eye cap tester ?  If so, why does it not do the job for you?

Yes your correct. What we are trying to do right now is to restore the vintage test equipment.

Take care.

[oldway]

Hello, I read the thread and it amused me.

You are almost out buying a multimeter 5 1/2 digits to restore an analog meter dating from the sixties ! 

You want to restore vintage equipments but you are missing something important: the vintage spirit. 

You can not apply the current technical standards and requirements for devices dating from the 60s.

I saw some topics on vintage equipment restorations and found them simply absurd.

I did not intervene because everyone does what he wants and has the right to "waste time" as he wants.
But desoldering and measure each and every capacitor and resistor of a vintage equipment is completely absurd, even if it is a measuring device.

Tolerance required by tube circuits was very wide, tubes themselves had very variable characteristics and the circuit would continue to operate even if it was partially worn.

I'd go with a different philosophy:
- Replace the cheap components that have a great degradation over time, ie low voltage electrolytic capacitors and some wax paper capacitors
- Test and substitute the worn tubes
- Clean the contacts
- Applying voltage gradually with a variac
- Measure the ripple of power supply and change the high voltage electrolytic capacitors only when necessary.
- Do a functional test of the device. We must accept at least 10% tolerance from the specifications of the new device.
- If it is out of tolerance, look what is the component that causes it.
- Trust the marking of new capacitors, you do not need to measure them.

As an example, you did not need an ESR meter, nobody ever used it at the time of the tubes ....

EDIT: A tip from my experience in tube tv set repair: one of the big concern was the danger of explosion of high voltage electrolytic capacitors.
It can hurt you.
To prevent this risk, we used to power on the tv set only for a short time (10 s more or less).
If the capacitor is getting warm, it will explode if you power on the TV set for a longer time.
Substitute this capacitor.

[Kleinstein]

Measuring small caps in the pF range is difficulty because of the parasitic caps you get from the leads and so one. Otherwise this is not difficult. It starts to get difficult if you need much better than fF resolution.

Usually there is not much need to check such film caps - unless abused they are more reliable than most meters.

[finom1]

Hello, I read the thread and it amused me.

You are almost out buying a multimeter 5 1/2 digits to restore an analog meter dating from the sixties ! 

You want to restore vintage equipments but you are missing something important: the vintage spirit. 

You can not apply the current technical standards and requirements for devices dating from the 60s.

I saw some topics on vintage equipment restorations and found them simply absurd.

I did not intervene because everyone does what he wants and has the right to "waste time" as he wants.
But desoldering and measure each and every capacitor and resistor of a vintage equipment is completely absurd, even if it is a measuring device.

Tolerance required by tube circuits was very wide, tubes themselves had very variable characteristics and the circuit would continue to operate even if it was partially worn.

I'd go with a different philosophy:
- Replace the cheap components that have a great degradation over time, ie low voltage electrolytic capacitors and some wax paper capacitors
- Test and substitute the worn tubes
- Clean the contacts
- Applying voltage gradually with a variac
- Measure the ripple of power supply and change the high voltage electrolytic capacitors only when necessary.
- Do a functional test of the device. We must accept at least 10% tolerance from the specifications of the new device.
- If it is out of tolerance, look what is the component that causes it.
- Trust the marking of new capacitors, you do not need to measure them.

As an example, you did not need an ESR meter, nobody ever used it at the time of the tubes ....

EDIT: A tip from my experience in tube tv set repair: one of the big concern was the danger of explosion of high voltage electrolytic capacitors.
It can hurt you.
To prevent this risk, we used to power on the tv set only for a short time (10 s more or less).
If the capacitor is getting warm, it will explode if you power on the TV set for a longer time.
Substitute this capacitor.

For some reason Oldway, I'm starting to get that headache again!!!

I understand what you are saying. I purchased some very inexpensive 630 vdc film caps. I did not have a meter to measure their values. My ESR70 would not go down that low.

We also have around 10 loaded organ chassis with components on them. I purchased a Hakko FR300-05 FR300-05/P FR300 Handheld Desoldering Gun to remove the parts.

Then I need to identify the components quickly.

I may be going about this the wrong way.

Thank you for sharing your wisdom with us!!!

[oldway]

Vintage spirit, it is just do the things simples and avoid headaches....

For sure, yours 630 vdc film caps have markings  and you don't need to measure them.

Even the lowest brand multimeter has a capacitor range.

Daily, I use an old bulletproof fluke 73 to repair all kinds of electronics and appliances but I often have to check X2 capacitors and this multimeter has no capacitor range.
I bought a crap DT-9205M for 15 bucks for this purpose and it works well.

In audio vintage repairs, you don't need precision.

About your Hakko FR300-05 FR300-05/P FR300 Handheld Desoldering Gun, it is very good to desolder components on print board but I think it is useless for old chassis tube equipment.
In this time, the correct way of mounting components was to tight them mecanically and I don't see how you could desolder them with a desoldering gun.

EDIT: if you want to dessolder and reuse the components of the 10 loaded organs chassis, let them in place, don't desolder  them...
When you need a component, you look for it in the chassis and desolder it.
Don't do as I did...I desoldered a lot of components, I have several boxes of old components but I'am  loosing very much time to find the component I need in all these boxes.

[ez24]

Solder wick might be more useful for you than a de-soldering station.  Use it then needle nose to bend the wires so you can remove them

[finom1]

Vintage spirit, it is just do the things simples and avoid headaches....

For sure, yours 630 vdc film caps have markings  and you don't need to measure them.

Even the lowest brand multimeter has a capacitor range.

Daily, I use an old bulletproof fluke 73 to repair all kinds of electronics and appliances but I often have to check X2 capacitors and this multimeter has no capacitor range.
I bought a crap DT-9205M for 15 bucks for this purpose and it works well.

In audio vintage repairs, you don't need precision.

About your Hakko FR300-05 FR300-05/P FR300 Handheld Desoldering Gun, it is very good to desolder components on print board but I think it is useless for old chassis tube equipment.
In this time, the correct way of mounting components was to tight them mecanically and I don't see how you could desolder them with a desoldering gun.

EDIT: if you want to dessolder and reuse the components of the 10 loaded organs chassis, let them in place, don't desolder  them...
When you need a component, you look for it in the chassis and desolder it.
Don't do as I did...I desoldered a lot of components, I have several boxes of old components but I'am  loosing very much time to find the component I need in all these boxes.

Good solid advice!!!

Thank you for taking time out of your very busy life to share your wisdom with us!!!

[finom1]

Solder wick might be more useful for you than a de-soldering station.  Use it then needle nose to bend the wires so you can remove them

Great advice, Thank you for share with us!!!

[ez24]

Also don't forget this, actually you would use this first and then clean up with wick:

https://www.amazon.com/Edsyn-Desoldering-Pump-PT109-Soldapullt/dp/B000PDQJYI

This is my go to iron:

https://www.amazon.com/Solid-State-Soldering-Gun-Accessories/dp/B004ME3A0W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1477088294&sr=8-1&keywords=weller+gt++soldering+iron

It is strong enough for vintage wiring and heats up very fast (couple seconds) and is light weight.   Much better than the bigger and cheaper Wellers and much better for your type of work than a pencil.  With this and the sucker and wick you could go to town on your stuff and pull out those old caps in no time.  I hope someday you will post a picture of using your magic eye on them.


Edit: change pump link to a better model

[finom1]

Also don't forget this, actually you would use this first and then clean up with wick:

https://www.amazon.com/Electronix-Express-060820-Solder-Desoldering/dp/B00L2HRW92/ref=sr_1_145?ie=UTF8&qid=1477088133&sr=8-145&keywords=weller+soldering+iron

This is my go to iron:

https://www.amazon.com/Solid-State-Soldering-Gun-Accessories/dp/B004ME3A0W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1477088294&sr=8-1&keywords=weller+gt++soldering+iron

It is strong enough for vintage wiring and heats up very fast (couple seconds) and is light weight.   Much better than the bigger and cheaper Wellers and much better for your type of work than a pencil.  With this and the sucker and wick you could go to town on your stuff and pull out those old caps in no time.  I hope someday you will post a picture of using your magic eye on them.

Thank you for sharing what you use daily!!!

[oldway]

As desoldering tool, I prefer the EDSYN PT 109, I am using this model since the time I was making tubes amplifiers.

https://www.amazon.com/Edsyn-Desoldering-Pump-PT109-Soldapullt/dp/B000PDQJYI

[ez24]

As desoldering tool, I prefer the EDSYN PT 109, I am using this model since the time I was making tubes amplifiers.

https://www.amazon.com/Edsyn-Desoldering-Pump-PT109-Soldapullt/dp/B000PDQJYI

Good to know because this is what I have.  Did not know it cost so much.   Changed my link to the other model to this one because I know this one still works after 40 years.

[finom1]

As desoldering tool, I prefer the EDSYN PT 109, I am using this model since the time I was making tubes amplifiers.

https://www.amazon.com/Edsyn-Desoldering-Pump-PT109-Soldapullt/dp/B000PDQJYI

Good to know because this is what I have.  Did not know it cost so much.   Changed my link to the other model to this one because I know this one still works after 40 years.

"Worked for 40 Years" This old dog will not last that long. My son will have to keep counting for me.

Thank you for sharing!!!

[oldway]

More than 40 years    but I had to change the tip several times !
I bought 2 x PT 109 in 1975, I still have one of them partially working (one of the two springs is broken.)

I bought recently a new one by Farnell.

[ez24]

OP be sure to check this out to give your stuff the old look in case you have some new stuff laying around:

https://youtu.be/n9hZRLbI6BU

and check him out for other ideas, I just found him today

[finom1]

OP be sure to check this out to give your stuff the old look in case you have some new stuff laying around:

https://youtu.be/n9hZRLbI6BU

and check him out for other ideas, I just found him today

There are a couple people that have been very king to me on youtube.
1. Uncle Doug (& Rusty)
2. Mr Carlson's Lab
3. Old64goat
4. Here is another person who has not answered some questions, but can turn anything into a guitar amp The Guitologist

You have a great eye for what I am doing with this vintage stockpile of chassis and components. Please take time and watch Uncle Doug & Mr Carlson's lab about components, schematics & amplifier sections.

Thank you for sharing!!!

[finom1]

I found this for anyone who is slow at learning like me to identify capacitor markings!!!
1. http://www.elecraft.com/Apps/caps.htm
2. http://beamdream.solarbotics.net/Tutorials/CapGuide.htm
3. http://kaizerpowerelectronics.dk/theory/capacitor-code-table/
4. http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=86718.0

These sites helped me allot. If anyone has other great sites please share them here!!!