Author Topic: Peak Atlas ESR70 Meter Video Review  (Read 15842 times)

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Offline SteveyGTopic starter

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Peak Atlas ESR70 Meter Video Review
« on: March 30, 2015, 06:43:01 am »
Hi all,

I've just uploaded my 10th electronics video. Let me know your thoughts and suggestions!  :-+

« Last Edit: June 09, 2015, 08:06:21 am by SteveyG »
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Online tggzzz

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Re: My 10th Electronics Blog Video is up! - Peak Atlas ESR70
« Reply #1 on: March 30, 2015, 09:10:40 am »
Hi all,

I've just uploaded my 10th electronics video. Let me know your thoughts and suggestions!  :-+


Give us a clue why we should spend 30 minutes of our remaining life looking at your video. You have 10 seconds.

Note, I can read much more in in 10s than you can say, therefore you have a greater chance of captiring my attention with the written word.
There are lies, damned lies, statistics - and ADC/DAC specs.
Glider pilot's aphorism: "there is no substitute for span". Retort: "There is a substitute: skill+imagination. But you can buy span".
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Offline EEVblog

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Re: My 10th Electronics Blog Video is up! - Peak Atlas ESR70
« Reply #2 on: March 30, 2015, 09:21:54 am »
Give us a clue why we should spend 30 minutes of our remaining life looking at your video. You have 10 seconds.

The clue is in the video title, it's accurate. Either you are interested in what the video has to offer, or you aren't. If you are interested, then it's likely worth your time.

 

Offline Muttley Snickers

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Re: My 10th Electronics Blog Video is up! - Peak Atlas ESR70
« Reply #3 on: March 30, 2015, 10:12:53 am »
The best sixty two and a half minute's that I've spent in a while,
Watched it once, had a coffee and a biscuit, then watched it again.

Big Thumb's Up...... :-+


Muttley
« Last Edit: March 30, 2015, 11:39:45 am by Muttley Snickers »
 

Offline SteveyGTopic starter

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Re: My 10th Electronics Blog Video is up! - Peak Atlas ESR70
« Reply #4 on: March 30, 2015, 10:24:32 am »
The best sixty two and a half minute's that I've spent in a while,
Watched it once, had a coffee and a biscuit, then wacthed it again.

Big Thumb's Up...... :-+


Muttley

Thanks a lot for the kind comments!  :-+

Give us a clue why we should spend 30 minutes of our remaining life looking at your video. You have 10 seconds.

Because you may learn something, find it useful if you're in the market for an ESR meter or may be able to teach me something that I missed.  :D
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Offline Galenbo

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Re: My 10th Electronics Blog Video is up! - Peak Atlas ESR70
« Reply #5 on: March 30, 2015, 11:16:43 am »
My constructive comment on it:

The first 1:12 is a picture of some device. I am not interested in some picture of some device.
Show something it does, something you do, your face, your lab.

Most viewers will quit after 30 seconds. Maybe your viewed-count is already counted up, but I don't think they will subscribe or come back.

 
If you try and take a cat apart to see how it works, the first thing you have on your hands is a nonworking cat.
 

Offline SteveyGTopic starter

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Re: My 10th Electronics Blog Video is up! - Peak Atlas ESR70
« Reply #6 on: March 30, 2015, 11:22:11 am »
My constructive comment on it:

The first 1:12 is a picture of some device. I am not interested in some picture of some device.
Show something it does, something you do, your face, your lab.

Most viewers will quit after 30 seconds. Maybe your viewed-count is already counted up, but I don't think they will subscribe or come back.

Thanks for the input. I did think after I uploaded the video that I shouldn't have left a static image on screen  :palm:
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Offline Melt-O-Tronic

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Re: My 10th Electronics Blog Video is up! - Peak Atlas ESR70
« Reply #7 on: March 31, 2015, 01:39:27 am »
I liked it!  And it was very relevant to my interests.  The pace was a bit slow for my taste, but A) probably fine for most and B) made perfect by the YouTube 1.25X option.   :)

I like your other titles too.  Looking forward to absorbing them . . .

Thumbs up!   :-+
 

Offline Chipmunk

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Re: My 10th Electronics Blog Video is up! - Peak Atlas ESR70
« Reply #8 on: March 31, 2015, 05:37:39 am »
Professionally done. I'd second the no still image thing, but you've done that already.

Nice use of annotation to allow skipping the theory.

A link to Peak's website page for the meter in the video description wouldn't have gone amiss: If they see a few people coming in from your video  they might offer you stuff for review ;)
 

Offline SteveyGTopic starter

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Re: My 10th Electronics Blog Video is up! - Peak Atlas ESR70
« Reply #9 on: March 31, 2015, 06:18:22 am »
Thanks for the feedback  :-+

Pace of the video is a bit difficult to judge as I have no idea of the technical experience of the audience. Definitely will try to improve next time
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Offline bookaboo

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Re: My 10th Electronics Blog Video is up! - Peak Atlas ESR70
« Reply #10 on: March 31, 2015, 09:21:01 am »
Nice video, well worth watching. Clear and to the point with theory, tear down and practical demonstration. Subscribed.   :-+
One suggestion for product reviews would be to quickly discuss alternatives and where this product sits in the market price wise etc., other than that I think you had it all covered.
 

Offline jancumps

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Re: My 10th Electronics Blog Video is up! - Peak Atlas ESR70
« Reply #11 on: March 31, 2015, 10:47:58 am »
I liked the video. Thanks!
 

Offline SteveyGTopic starter

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Re: My 10th Electronics Blog Video is up! - Peak Atlas ESR70
« Reply #12 on: March 31, 2015, 11:10:51 am »
One suggestion for product reviews would be to quickly discuss alternatives and where this product sits in the market price wise etc., other than that I think you had it all covered.

Aha, good tip! Again, thanks all for the feedback and for viewing.
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Offline Radio Tech

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Re: My 10th Electronics Blog Video is up! - Peak Atlas ESR70
« Reply #13 on: March 31, 2015, 11:24:30 am »
Very nice video. Well done. Now if I can only get my videos that good.
Well done  :-+

Offline neslekkim

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Re: My 10th Electronics Blog Video is up! - Peak Atlas ESR70
« Reply #14 on: April 02, 2015, 01:02:11 pm »
Very good video, learned a lot.
 

Offline BlueBill

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Re: My 10th Electronics Blog Video is up! - Peak Atlas ESR70
« Reply #15 on: April 02, 2015, 08:03:43 pm »
I'll watch it when I get home.

I'd like to know why I'd spend $150 vs $15 for a MK138 Component Tester?
 

Offline AHT52

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Re: My 10th Electronics Blog Video is up! - Peak Atlas ESR70
« Reply #16 on: April 02, 2015, 10:35:02 pm »
Good video :clap:

All explained well and good look round the product

I am still weighing up this product or the Bob Parker design. This does have the advantage of the capacitance value as well as the esr value. Decisions decisions
 

Offline SteveyGTopic starter

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Re: My 10th Electronics Blog Video is up! - Peak Atlas ESR70
« Reply #17 on: April 03, 2015, 01:04:47 pm »
I'll watch it when I get home.

I'd like to know why I'd spend $150 vs $15 for a MK138 Component Tester?

I wasn't able to find any details of a MK138, however the point is still valid. Why spend so much money? It'll come down to the typical factors when choosing a piece of test equipment - the Peak has 24 months warranty, accuracy and resolution, confidence in the instrument and it is a well built piece of kit.

I personally am more willing to support a UK manufacturer and one thing I did like is that the website sells a comprehensive set of spares such as new cases, laminated front cover stickers, probes etc. at a really reasonable price. I needed a replacement battery compartment screw for the Fluke 289 and Fluke wanted £120 flat rate  :wtf:

Thanks for watching the videos  :) Some new ones are up today on a new shotgun mic I purchased.
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Offline HighVoltage

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Re: My 10th Electronics Blog Video is up! - Peak Atlas ESR70
« Reply #18 on: April 03, 2015, 05:31:53 pm »
I liked your video and the explanation of how PEAK was calculating the capacitance through a constant current.

I also have Peak Atlas ESR70 for a while and it has helped me many times to find bad caps.

There are 3 kinds of people in this world, those who can count and those who can not.
 

Offline Howardlong

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Re: My 10th Electronics Blog Video is up! - Peak Atlas ESR70
« Reply #19 on: April 03, 2015, 05:51:03 pm »
I've been pondering one of these for a while. I've had an LCR40 and DCA55 from Peak for some years, and use the LCR40 with the SMD tweezers permanently fitted.

In general I've been reasonably happy with them but I will mention some design problems with these Peak devices, which appear to be in the ESR70 too.

O The form factor makes them difficult to store conveniently, they won't sit conveniently on shelves or in drawers;

O If thrown into a bag for a journey on site, you are at risk of running the battery down as it switches on too easily;

O That darned GP23A battery... yet another battery to need a small stock of.

But otherwise I've had them both for many years and have proved perfectly reliable.

*edit to add: I did once have to repair the pigtail cable where it connects to the PCB on the LCR40: there is little in the way of strain relief there. Visually it looks the same as on your ESR70.
« Last Edit: April 03, 2015, 05:54:10 pm by Howardlong »
 

Offline SeanB

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Re: My 10th Electronics Blog Video is up! - Peak Atlas ESR70
« Reply #20 on: April 03, 2015, 05:54:06 pm »
GP23 battery is not a problem, as I keep them for remote controls. I buy them by the strip, and depending on who is at the shop till i either get them for 50c US each or 50c US for a strip of 5. ;) I tend to buy around 5 strips at a time......
 

Offline Howardlong

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Re: My 10th Electronics Blog Video is up! - Peak Atlas ESR70
« Reply #21 on: April 03, 2015, 05:56:25 pm »
GP23 battery is not a problem, as I keep them for remote controls. I buy them by the strip, and depending on who is at the shop till i either get them for 50c US each or 50c US for a strip of 5. ;) I tend to buy around 5 strips at a time......

Yep, that's what I do now, but there's nothing else in the house that uses this battery.
 

Offline SeanB

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Re: My 10th Electronics Blog Video is up! - Peak Atlas ESR70
« Reply #22 on: April 03, 2015, 06:01:59 pm »
GP23 battery is not a problem, as I keep them for remote controls. I buy them by the strip, and depending on who is at the shop till i either get them for 50c US each or 50c US for a strip of 5. ;) I tend to buy around 5 strips at a time......

Yep, that's what I do now, but there's nothing else in the house that uses this battery.

Aren't I lucky......... ::) The one battery that is not in common use by me is a C or D cell, nothing much uses them so they are expensive to buy. That and CR1616 cells used in car remotes.
 

Offline SteveyGTopic starter

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Re: My 10th Electronics Blog Video is up! - Peak Atlas ESR70
« Reply #23 on: April 05, 2015, 08:08:53 pm »
I've been pondering one of these for a while. I've had an LCR40 and DCA55 from Peak for some years, and use the LCR40 with the SMD tweezers permanently fitted.

In general I've been reasonably happy with them but I will mention some design problems with these Peak devices, which appear to be in the ESR70 too.

O The form factor makes them difficult to store conveniently, they won't sit conveniently on shelves or in drawers;

O If thrown into a bag for a journey on site, you are at risk of running the battery down as it switches on too easily;

O That darned GP23A battery... yet another battery to need a small stock of.

But otherwise I've had them both for many years and have proved perfectly reliable.

*edit to add: I did once have to repair the pigtail cable where it connects to the PCB on the LCR40: there is little in the way of strain relief there. Visually it looks the same as on your ESR70.

I think you can buy little padded cases for these on the Peak website, although that's not necessarily ideal. The ideal solution would really be a proper slide switch on the side of the device. Fortunately I have quite a few GP23A's from a project a while back, although I've noticed quite a few devices such as the DCA75 which I just reviewed on my channel run off a single AAA battery which is better. No idea why this isn't standard though - I'm looking at getting the LCR45, but oddly that uses the GP23A despite being quite new.  :-//
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Offline Howardlong

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Re: My 10th Electronics Blog Video is up! - Peak Atlas ESR70
« Reply #24 on: April 05, 2015, 08:43:59 pm »
I am sure it will be a price compromise, generating sufficient voltage (12V or so) to measure zeners and wotnot form a AAA wasn't as cheap as it is nowadays, I am sure the basic design of those peak meters goes back well over a decade.

To engineer the newer devices to run of a single AAA is to be applauded.
 


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