ESR meter upgrades

[stj]

Re: ESR meter upgrades

yea, but put a fet or a transistor with reverse-diode in it and see how much text it has to display!

when you flash it each time, is it forcing you to calibrate it by shorting all 3 lines and then fitting a small film cap?
because it should.
if not then your problem may be residual crap in the eeprom because you must erase the chip before you program it.

[stj]

Re: ESR meter upgrades

about the fonts.
i see this:

# If option WITH_LCD_ST7565 is present one of the following fonts should be
# choosen. With a font width below 8 more than 16 characters can be shown in one display line.
#CFLAGS += -DFONT_5X8
#CFLAGS += -DFONT_6X8
#CFLAGS += -DFONT_8X8
CFLAGS += -DFONT_7X12
#CFLAGS += -DFONT_8X12thin
#CFLAGS += -DFONT_8X14
#CFLAGS += -DFONT_8x15
#CFLAGS += -DFONT_8X16
#CFLAGS += -DFONT_8X16thin

the one you like is the 8x15 one.

[Per Hansson]

Re: ESR meter upgrades

when you flash it each time, is it forcing you to calibrate it by shorting all 3 lines and then fitting a small film cap?
because it should.
if not then your problem may be residual crap in the eeprom because you must erase the chip before you program it.

Yes it does, I actually have not calibrated it yet.
But I need to find the required cap but also RTFM on how to actually do it right

[stj]

Re: ESR meter upgrades

well that explains your 0.00 error.
i enabled a new testing mode - far more acurate. (if you calibrated it)

you need a way to short the 3 lines - i use a 3way pinstrip with the ends soldered together in the test-socket.
and a cap between 100n and 1uf that is stable.
i use a 220n film cap

it will also ask for "cap for L-res" - ignore that till it times out for now - it's related to small inductors.

[stj]

Re: ESR meter upgrades

i was just thinking about where this could be used
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/181969533556

i can see an order coming on.

[Per Hansson]

Re: ESR meter upgrades

I tried calibration on "testing-tuning2.zip"
Not sure I did it right but it saved the data at least and does not ask for calibration on powerup anymore.

But I might be expecting too much from the ESR test, because before I had the cap on the SMD testlegs.
Now I put it in the ZIF socket (mine is really poor btw, already complained to the seller).
But it shows ESR .00 for most LOW ESR caps I have.
Pretty much like my Bob Parker MKII ESR meter, in it's case it's because the resolution is not high enough.
Is it the same with this meter?
Attached pictures showing testing a K2698 Mosfet.

[vinceroger69]

Re: ESR meter upgrades

Hi guys just got in and checked this thread a question per hansson when you ran your selftest how long did it take? mines been 5 mins now and just on test 7 also which test version are you running? my tester does seem slow booting up etc at the minute i will let it calibrate and try again.
i might go back and try the one with the encoder going the wrong way as the capacitor and resistor reading wasnt far off my pre built version this firmware on now is reading a 1500 cap at 200.7uf esr.00 (brand new capacitor) so maybe a firmware issue i will try the one i tested first thing this morning and compare things.

[stj]

Re: ESR meter upgrades

slow boot = usually your fusebytes are wrong.

this whole situation is bullshit - i am starting to think the atmel's are bad.
here is the makefile for the latest test version

to break the display output you just need to change

# The USE_EEPROM option specify where you wish to locate fix text and tables.
# If USE_EEPROM is unset, program memory (flash) is taken for fix text and tables.
#CFLAGS += -DUSE_EEPROM

that should not happen.
using the eeprom is standard - that's why it didnt work for so long!!

[stj]

Re: ESR meter upgrades

o.k.
final test files - try both the 8MHz ones.


for calibration,
1: link the 3 lines together
2: power on
3: when it says "selftest mode..?" press the button within a second or 2.

then follow instructions.
when it asks for a 10-30nF cap, ignore it till it times out.

-------------------------
i have unified the code to work in both the GM328R kit and the GM328A smd version.
it may also work in the original GM328 unit.

this means i can test it myself too.

[vinceroger69]

Re: ESR meter upgrades

stj i will try these files in a little while do you think its worth trying/ordering a new atmega ic too rule any issues out? also with that file where the encoder turns the wrong way the readings im getting and the esr seems too work ok.

[stj]

Re: ESR meter upgrades

firstly, if the 2 8MHz files work differently then you need a new atmel - i tested both and they both work.

as for the other bit, the old firmware and latest firmware use different methods to calculate the values.
the latest is seriously more accurate, but you *must* calibrate it after flashing.

once we get this over with,
we can look at trivial stuff like which font and graphics to use and if the pin numbers should be inverted or not.
there are lots of options for the visuals

if it is a bad atmel, RS sell's them in pairs for a good price.

[vinceroger69]

Re: ESR meter upgrades

i will order a new atmel then always worth having a spare,
the file that seems too work are in post 413 with my results in 415 that file reads esr ok
and yes i get what you mean regarding old vs new firmware i did try calibrate took ages then still read .00 esr? but on my other esr testers i had a reading of esr
i will test your latest files asap thanks again.

[Per Hansson]

Re: ESR meter upgrades

vinceroger69; mine does the test much quicker, probably your fuse settings are wrong so the CPU is running at for example 1Mhz instead of 8Mhz.

stj: "testing-final-test.zip"
"no-eeprom": This one works but capacitance is very wrong, I use a 1uF film capacitor to test and it reads just 740nF. ESR also on this one shows too low.
This was the same before & after calibration but this one did not ask for the >100nF capacitor to be tested during the calibration step!

I only tested this one and not the "+eeprom" version, bear with me now
In my Mcumall GQ-4X programmer I have the buffer tab for the code (the HEX file) and the data tab for the eeprom (the EEP file)
I noticed the problem now, the data tab goes up to 3FF which is 1024 bytes.
So anything after that gets clipped...
Now you might want to blame the programmer and rightly so but I'm not sure what is being done here.
Looking at the specs for the Atmega328P it has a 32KB flash area, an EEPROM of 1024 bytes and a SRAM of 2KB.
Looking at the EEP files all the ones that did not work are in the range of 2.5KB, so obviously they where clipped by the programmer.
But then again it means the SRAM and EEPROM area is being combined so I'm not sure how that is supposed to work...
Any idea how avrdude handles it? Because I see it's just specifying the file and to send it to EEPROM: "-U eeprom:w:TransistorTester.eep".
But since that's 1024 bytes in the specification does it just fill over into the SRAM or what?
And isn't the SRAM itself volatile memory? Or did Atmega simply use flash for it to save on costs?

[stj]

Re: ESR meter upgrades

the files are hex, not binary.
the binary size will be less than half of the hex size.

just make sure the programmer erases the eeprom before it programs it.

if you dont get asked for the 100nF cap, repeat the cal process by shorting the 3 lines before pressing the button to turn it on.

[stj]

Re: ESR meter upgrades

i will order a new atmel then always worth having a spare,
the file that seems too work are in post 413 with my results in 415 that file reads esr ok
and yes i get what you mean regarding old vs new firmware i did try calibrate took ages then still read .00 esr? but on my other esr testers i had a reading of esr
i will test your latest files asap thanks again.

http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/microcontrollers/9222142/

no stock right now

[stj]

Re: ESR meter upgrades

just looked at the programmer foto's

tick "erase" and "blank-check"
otherwise the eeprom could have crap left in it written by older firmwares.

[vinceroger69]

Re: ESR meter upgrades

Thats the exact one s ive saved in my list with rs i will try middle of next week see if they have some.

[vinceroger69]

Re: ESR meter upgrades

Maybe a stupid question but i will ask anyway these chips that came with the tester i couldnt read mine was full of ff s so maybe copy protected so even if i erase the chip will the copy protected data still be on the ic? what happens to this data when we load new firmware onto the ic.

[stj]

Re: ESR meter upgrades

full erase clears the protection register, the program memory and the eeprom.
i dont know if it touches the H,L and E fuses - but that's fine because we program those anyway.

as for your second question - we full-wipe the chip before uploading new firmware.

why? thinking of trying it on the other chip?

[vinceroger69]

Re: ESR meter upgrades

no lol that testers working fine, when rs have some in i will order two and try to re programme them, the ebay seller needs too be aware these tester kits have there problems i wonder how many they have sold and people cant get them working i doubt they sell pre programmed atmega328p that works just for that particular 2016 ezm tester.