ESR meter upgrades

[stj]

i meant capacitors - most people only want the henry's of an inductor

[eccerr0r]

ESR of inductors is important too Granted it shouldn't change...

[momaka]

Originally Posted by stj

it works a lot better if you use my firmware instead of the factory one.
it's had the esr/inductor code re-written since the chinese compiled it.
also, a 20MHz crystal increases the accuracy.
(but you need to reprogram it to recognise the crystal)

Yeah, I know really should do that, as you've suggested it to me many times now. I don't have a programmer, though... and I generally shy away from anything that has to do with programming firmware, as I never seem to do things right, thus always ending up struggling. (Programming and digital electronics have always been my weak side.)

Also, I wonder if there's an updated version of the firmware, but for the stock 8 MHz crystal.

Originally Posted by eccerr0r

I thought if I hook up any two wires to the tester, it will give me the expected reading; if I connect all three to the tester, it gives me two resistors...

Hmm. Maybe because the autotransformer windings are a coupled inductor, that's making the TT confused?
In any case, I still think it should be able to measure the inductance of the individual windings, one at a time. If not, then probably the inductance is too low.

Originally Posted by eccerr0r

ESR of inductors is important too Granted it shouldn't change...

Inductors have ESR?
I thought they only have inductance and resistance from the windings... and maybe a slight hint of stray capacitance when the windings are close to other objects in the circuit??
But I guess at very high frequencies, the skin effect will make it appear as if the windings have overall higher resistance. Perhaps that's what you mean by ESR?

[eccerr0r]

Yes...well equivalent series resistance I'm considering things that you don't see at DC.

Dunno. took an even "bigger" tapped inductor (one side of a transformer) and fed one side into transistortester and it gave me two resistors. Couldn't make heads or tails of it. Actually it's pretty funny what it did, not going to post results to add to suspense

Warning: Don't go too big of an inductor, I think you might damage your transistortester, which would be the sole hint...

[Per Hansson]

Originally Posted by momaka

Also, I wonder if there's an updated version of the firmware, but for the stock 8 MHz crystal.

The project is always evolving: You have two firmware branches:

M-firmware by Markus (username Madires on the eevblog forum)
K-firmware by Karl-Heinz Kübbeler (username kubi48 on the Mikrocontroller forum)

These can be compiled with any options and crystals you choose.
Both I and STJ have posted a couple precompiled here, but then where is the fun in that?
Much better to go crazy and do it all yourself

[stj]

i do M builds for the TC1 with a rotary encoder and 20MHz if anybody wants it posted.

[momaka]

Originally Posted by Per Hansson

The project is always evolving: You have two firmware branches:

M-firmware by Markus (username Madires on the eevblog forum)
K-firmware by Karl-Heinz Kübbeler (username kubi48 on the Mikrocontroller forum)

Thanks!
Bookmarked for when I feel confident enough to upgrade mine some day.
Bricking it would be a major setback for me in terms of being able to check out e-caps.

Originally Posted by Per Hansson

Both I and STJ have posted a couple precompiled here, but then where is the fun in that?
Much better to go crazy and do it all yourself

Erm.... no. I'll probably completely mess up everything.
Digital circuits was never my specialty. And programing/firmware/compiling... I always screw up somewhere and spend hours trying to do something simple.
So I'll probably just have a look at the links you mentioned and see if there is something pre-compiled there (and hopefully with hand-holding detailed step-by-step instructions for the software-challenged, like myself. )

[mazenkataya]

thank u

[eccerr0r]

I should figure out how to upgrade mine... build my own fw, etc. Too bad the one I have does not have the pins ported out on a 2x3 or 2x5 Atmel 0.1" header

[eccerr0r]

Curiosity... what's the word(and language) that the "U" comes from when the avrtransistortester displays voltage for Vf and Vbe? (It whimsically says Uf=0.700 or something for diodes, etc.)

I would have thought for an English port it should have V for Voltage. I guess this is a pet peeve that I need to change on my unit...

[Per Hansson]

Considering the title of the thread I didn't want Bop Parkers great ESR meter to feel left out!
So here it is with some nice new bright Lite-On LTS-5003AWC 7-segment LED's before and after

Original LED's:


Replacement LED's:

[Bob Parker]

Originally Posted by japlytic

There is one thing ESR meters should have, which is Kelvin sensing (4-wire measurement capability), which keeps measurement errors to a minimum.

The "Blue2" ESR meter has that.

[Bob Parker]

Originally Posted by Per Hansson

Considering the title of the thread I didn't want Bop Parkers great ESR meter to feel left out!
So here it is with some nice new bright Lite-On LTS-5003AWC 7-segment LED's before and after

Original LED's:


Replacement LED's:

Thanks Per. It's amazing how much brighter even cheap Chinese displays are, compared to what was available back in 1995 when I designed the original meter! 👍

[eccerr0r]

This is annoying:

I had a transistor that was shorted... stuck it in the avr transistortester...

Went into cal mode! What a pain...

[stj]

lol - it shouldnt go directly into cal,
it should show a message and wait for confirmation with the button.

[Per Hansson]

I compiled a new build of Karl-Heinz firmware from the new GIT repository a few days ago.
It works well on my GM328R, this time I only included a 20Mhz build.

I also replaced the encoder and that fixed the bad behavior I described earlier in the thread with Madires firmware.
I made a small post on eevblog about it if you're curious:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testge...41/#msg4259041

[stj]

was the encoder blue?
i buy the light green ones - they seem better quality

[Per Hansson]

You can see a photo of the top of the encoder in my original build photo way back in this thread: https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...6&d=1468518476
Here is how the bottom looks, it is light green, this is what was delivered with the DIY kit...

[stj]

not seen those before,
the ones i refered to are all one colour.
i think the blue has splines on the shaft, the light green has the half-moon shaft type.
i call it that anyway

[jellytot]

Originally Posted by stj

i do M builds for the TC1 with a rotary encoder and 20MHz if anybody wants it posted.

Hi Stj. I'm interested in your TC1 project... can you provide more info please/
Thank you.