UNI-T UT139C - measuring ceramic SMD capacitors

[mattek]

Hello guys,
I recently bought this awesome multimeter. One of the reasons for equipping with device is very big range of capacity measurement - it should even handle picofarads. Unfortunately, I have problem with SMD ceramic capacitors. After desoldering them with hotair and trying to check theirs value, multimeter usually shows random value, then LCD says "OL". Already checked manual and this means, that capacitor has short-circuit or its value is out of range.
Anyone knows what could be wrong? Or am I doing something not properly?
Thanks

[joeqsmith]

As you stated, the capacitors you are trying to measure may be outside of its range or shorted.  For smaller parts you would need to use the REL mode.   This was the last one I bought reading down to 150pf.   I no longer have the 139C and can't tell you how low it could measure.   Just because the manual shows a 1pF res, I don't think you are going to read 1pF with it.   

https://youtu.be/zFvuigSS2Xk?t=1011

Hello guys,
I recently bought this awesome multimeter. One of the reasons for equipping with device is very big range of capacity measurement - it should even handle picofarads. Unfortunately, I have problem with SMD ceramic capacitors. After desoldering them with hotair and trying to check theirs value, multimeter usually shows random value, then LCD says "OL". Already checked manual and this means, that capacitor has short-circuit or its value is out of range.
Anyone knows what could be wrong? Or am I doing something not properly?
Thanks

[mattek]

Thank you for response.
I figured out what was wrong - totally forgot, that measuring takes few seconds. Multimeter instantly says "OL" in REL mode (which I was always using, needlessly), but in normal mode it displays "dot" while checking value. In this moment I thought that something had gone badly. That's why I started looking for help here.
In brief - did everything definitely too fast. Now I am able to check every capacitor I have

[joeqsmith]

Glad you got it sorted out.  It's not a bad little meter for the price.   I ran a couple of them and they are one of the most robust handhelds UNI-T offers.