Peak Atlas ESR70 Gold or alternative?

[soldermarc]

I'm looking for a simple device for testing electrolytic caps. I already had good experience with the older ESR60 model. It seems the newest version of this device has a bigger range and does measurement faster. There is a backlight and the battery changed from 12V to the very common 1,5V AAA, too.

Now my question is, if I spend 100+ €/$/£ are there better alternatives for simple cap fault finding?

I'm not planning to do measurements for selecting caps or other high accuracy needs.
I liked the simple handling and automatic discharge feature of the ESR60 very much and wonder if there is no alternative which brings a discharge feature. Even at a very high price range... They all only label "..please discharge before..." -> that is no feature (only a stupid sticker).

[PushUp]

As long as your ESR60 does measure everything, you don't need anything else! I do have the other models and they are fine, but do not give you any added value, as they measure minimal different, but the direction and conclusion is always the same:





You know our german saying: "Wer viel misst, misst viel Mist!", which cannot be translated into english to be also funny, but it means: "When you measure a lot, you will have a lot of different measurements, which in the end does not help you either - so it is rubbish!"

I like having both values of capacitance & ESR while checking a mainboard, thus you immediately see wheter the caps are in parallel, serial or single, which a simple ESR-value might lead you in a wrong direction, when in serial...





However, if you are also in love with testgear and cannot have enough and wanna spend some money, than go for it!


Cheers! 

[soldermarc]

Oh wow, what a nice collection.   
I only had the ESR60 at work some years ago... now I'm looking for an esr meter for my private workplace.

Is there already a supply source for the ESR70 Gold in germany?

[PushUp]

Not in Germany any more, as the official dealers "reichelt.de" and "ELV.de" probably quit ordering "Atlas Peak Electronic"-testgear after the Brexit, I guess...


But I have ordered the newest models from our neighbours being in Eindhoven "Eleshop.nl" via PayPal (+3% fee) + shipping + extra fee. If you do a short trip to the sea, you could buy it personally, as they seem to have a shop there - but no guarantee.


The webside is NL-only, but you will have no problem to "read" it, they ship via GLS and are very fast - I can recommend them by all means!!!


The calibrated version is more expensive, I ordered the "normal one" and got the blue-ish display with newest FW 6.00:






https://www.eleshop.nl/catalogsearch/result/?q=esr+70+gold



...and don't forget to also buy the stand, which is worth any cent, having always the best view on the display:






https://www.eleshop.nl/3d-geprinte-peak-atlas-houder.html



Cheers! 

[Huluvu]

The ESR 70 gold is a very good peace of equipment from Peak which I have also bought from Eleshop some weeks ago. It runs from aaa Nimh which is very great to prevent from leaking 

[Caliaxy]

Peak Atlas in UK sell them directly, for about EUR 82 (assuming you don’t have to pay VAT) plus shipping. That’s where I got mine from, way cheaper than from any American retailer. Not sure what other fees you’d have to pay in Germany though.

https://www.peakelec.co.uk/acatalog/esr70-capacitor-esr-meter.html

[dibro]

Or look at eleshop.eu, which has english and french.
https://eleshop.eu/peak-electronics-esr70.html
This has the price without tax so may be just as expensive as the dutch eleshop version.

[soldermarc]

Thanks for all the replies. Nice to know, that it also works with NiMH battery.
I will go for it. 

[TheDefpom]

This might be of interest to you, I did a review of the ESR70 Gold recently.

[Grandchuck]

Thanks Scott.  The more equipment we have the more we are unsure

[HighVoltage]

I tried to buy one direct from the UK, but that is ridicules since brexit.

So, I bought a ESR70 Gold from France a few weeks ago, since all other stores were sold out.
It arrived fast.
Web: www.eleshop.fr

I am really happy with the ESR70 Gold

[yar]

You know our german saying: "Wer viel misst, misst viel Mist!", which cannot be translated into english to be also funny, but it means: "When you measure a lot, you will have a lot of different measurements, which in the end does not help you either - so it is rubbish!"

To an English speaker, that's approximately Segal's law: "a man with one watch knows what time it is, and a man with two watches could never be sure." or more commonly "a man with two watches never knows what time it is". It sounds very close in spirit to your German saying. I think most English speakers know the saying or the sentiment, but not the name.

If one meter says it's 241 volts but two meters say it's 241 volts and the other 238 volts, now you have more measurements, but the irony of less confidence in your readings.

Variations of this are observed by geocachers using GPS to find an object hidden by others. When you have three GPSes, you have doubt which one is "right". With one, you'll put the thing down and LOOK. :-)