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    Chinese clone of Bob Parker Blue ESR meter

    Maybe these have been around for a little while but first time I've seen chinese clones based off the BlueESR/BobParker

    https://www.ebay.com/itm/133690692481

    Seems they claim the Zilog finally got replaced with something newer. Would love to see a teardown of this.
    Attached Files
    Last edited by jayjr1105; 02-16-2022, 02:54 PM.
    --------------------------------------------------------------
    Ryzen 3600x
    16GB Patriot 3600MHz
    MSI B450 Gaming Plus
    MSI Air Boost Vega 56
    Acer 32" 1440P Freesync
    Rosewill Capstone 750W
    --------------------------------------------------------------
    Hakko FX-888D Station
    FX-8802 Iron
    MG Chem .8mm 63/37 RA 2.2%

    #2
    Re: Finally built the Bob Parker "Blue" ESR Meter

    Interesting

    They even use the same model number as the blue. K-7204 original

    To say the least,... Can you say trademark infringement?

    Feel Bad for Bob to have his work stolen like this and then waved in front of his face!

    Maybe I am wrong and he sold his work but I seriously doubt it!

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Finally built the Bob Parker "Blue" ESR Meter

      I'm not sure what happens once you post a design in an electronics magazine. I do notice you don't get source-code for projects with an MCU, in magazines.
      ESR Meter Mk2 is from 2004 and really needs an update.

      1/3 the price for a chinese clone? Likely a chinese cheapola STC (8051-compatible) is in there but who knows how the code was ported over.
      Zilog Z8 MCU 1KB OTP and 125 bytes of RAM- obsolete but Bob got diagnostics in there which is really nice.
      There's no secret sauce in it other than being a decent design that simply works really well, compared to other crap out there. I wouldn't trust the knockoff to work well at all, but never did check ROM protect bit on the original MCU. There's also entire companies in china dedicated to hacking out firmware though.

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Finally built the Bob Parker "Blue" ESR Meter

        not many people can program or read a z8.
        they clearly spent some money on that product though,
        injection moulded case, red led display - costs more than a generic i²c lcd in bulk,

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Finally built the Bob Parker "Blue" ESR Meter

          From that listing, so this how you measure ESR I've been doing it wrong for years lol Inspires such confidence in the product...
          Just realized there's no blue here and the case is off the shelf Hammond clone with LED's drive direct by MCU so still cheaper than an LCD.
          I'm disassembling some 8051 and the entire CPU manual is like 120 pages, compared to ARM 1,200 pages. Z8 would not be too hard. It's a bit esoteric and from that era where memory was really small in MCU's.
          Attached Files
          Last edited by redwire; 02-16-2022, 11:27 PM.

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Finally built the Bob Parker "Blue" ESR Meter

            Looking at the schematic I don't get why they don't just use the decimal point LEDs in the 7-seg.. there usually is one, as long as you select the LHDP models as needed...

            The only thing I see failing is that these things should detect/estimate capacitance, and based on that capacitance and calculated ESR it should be able to give a really rough pass/fail or at least a scale of 0-9 how good that capacitor is, albeit it would need to assume a working voltage...)
            Last edited by eccerr0r; 02-17-2022, 02:44 AM.

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Finally built the Bob Parker "Blue" ESR Meter

              I messaged him on Ebay asking for pics or schematic....

              New message from: winwinstudy (57Blue Star)
              The circuit is basically the same as the BLUE ESR METER, the MCU is replaced by a PIC16F627A and the circuit diagram can be easily found on the internet.
              --------------------------------------------------------------
              Ryzen 3600x
              16GB Patriot 3600MHz
              MSI B450 Gaming Plus
              MSI Air Boost Vega 56
              Acer 32" 1440P Freesync
              Rosewill Capstone 750W
              --------------------------------------------------------------
              Hakko FX-888D Station
              FX-8802 Iron
              MG Chem .8mm 63/37 RA 2.2%

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Finally built the Bob Parker "Blue" ESR Meter

                That's a tiny PIC 18-pin 1K flash. The acid test is if the self-diagnostics got carried over.
                The big 3mm LED for decimal point works great when you're inside a machine doing in-circuit testing. The display's tiny decimal point (unused) would be hard to see and it's a huge mistake to get that ESR number wrong by 10 or 100.

                I like the 50mA test pulse, seems to handle most electrolytics.
                A newer meter would have an extra digit and measure capacitance as well.
                Not a prob. with modern MCU's they have lots of code space.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: Finally built the Bob Parker "Blue" ESR Meter

                  BOM reduction! higher profit from a fake!

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: Finally built the Bob Parker "Blue" ESR Meter

                    Changing from through-hole to SMT, the size could be made less than 1/2. That's how you lower cost - smaller PCB & case.
                    The components are all really low cost. An ARM MCU the same price as the new old PIC- yet gives 100x the performance.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: Finally built the Bob Parker "Blue" ESR Meter

                      He actually sent me a pic...
                      Attached Files
                      --------------------------------------------------------------
                      Ryzen 3600x
                      16GB Patriot 3600MHz
                      MSI B450 Gaming Plus
                      MSI Air Boost Vega 56
                      Acer 32" 1440P Freesync
                      Rosewill Capstone 750W
                      --------------------------------------------------------------
                      Hakko FX-888D Station
                      FX-8802 Iron
                      MG Chem .8mm 63/37 RA 2.2%

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: Finally built the Bob Parker "Blue" ESR Meter

                        Looks like an almost 100% copy of the original PC board, except the PIC MCU is flipped compared to the Z8, and they added a top-layer ground pour.
                        The firmware matters the most on how accurate the port over to the PIC is.
                        Attached Files
                        Last edited by redwire; 02-19-2022, 01:02 PM.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Re: Finally built the Bob Parker "Blue" ESR Meter

                          woah heck forget the ground pour, the original is a single sided PCB, the fake needs more tracks - on the upper layer...

                          Heeyyy... Now I get why they used those oversized T-1 LEDs... seems just about all the 0.5/0.56" 10-pin 0.6" center LED displays made today are all RHDP... dang. Just because of the slant it fits that way...
                          Last edited by eccerr0r; 02-19-2022, 04:57 PM.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Re: Finally built the Bob Parker "Blue" ESR Meter

                            I split off the discussion from the original thread here: https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=95107

                            After a quick Google search it seems this clone is based off the firmware that is available to purchase on a pre-programmed PIC16F627A here: http://www.nippur.hu/english/bpesreng.html
                            Quite funnily the Chinese cloners of this (reverse engineered?) design even copied the exact text used from that page and the word document it links to for their eBay AD.
                            Can't spend enough money to even write their own text, bleh!
                            "The one who says it cannot be done should never interrupt the one who is doing it."

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Re: Chinese clone of Bob Parker Blue ESR meter

                              ahhh... interesting... Someone make a replacement microcontroller clone to replace the one in the original, and then the cloners decided to copy the board... put 1+1 together... complete clone!

                              Sigh. maybe it's time to make my own clone too...

                              Comment


                                #16
                                Re: Chinese clone of Bob Parker Blue ESR meter

                                Blue ESR meter is really good, it works well but a little pricey at $100 for the kit. So many junk little ESR meter circuits out there.
                                Blue 2 ESR Meter apparently has a talking option lol. But missing an extra digit! And no capacitance reading! It could talk out the value...
                                I'd make one with more features. I just bought ARM M0+ mcu's for $2 each, easy to make crazy powerful firmware and talking... it can swear at you or curse the capacitor lol.
                                Last edited by redwire; 02-20-2022, 07:45 PM.

                                Comment


                                  #17
                                  Re: Chinese clone of Bob Parker Blue ESR meter

                                  Well, how well does the clone work?

                                  I'm still using my homemade analog one which is not very well calibrated, though it does work... then if I need actual values, avrtransistortester seems to work just fine.

                                  (I just upgraded my homemade one...added a DC block capacitor in it and now it shouldn't get damaged by charged capacitors and can test ESR of batteries. It may even more or less be impervious to anything except AC...)

                                  Comment


                                    #18
                                    Re: Chinese clone of Bob Parker Blue ESR meter

                                    Per Hansson alerted me to this discussion. I'm not sure where to start. Maybe by saying that the Zilog Z86E0412PSG1866 microcontroller is still in production, so not obsolete just "vintage". The "Blue" ESR meters from Alltronics are still selling very well.

                                    By piecing together all the evidence, this Chinese clone of the Anatek "Blue" meter is simply a direct copy of its PCB and he's probably getting the PIC microcontrollers from the Nippur guy who has actually duplicated the functions of the original Dick Smith ESR meter microcontroller and added a few functions of his own without getting the code out of the Zilog chip. Well done!

                                    If it was necessary to use more than 2 digits of accuracy for determining whether or not the ESR of a capacitor is too high, I would have put 3 digits in the original meter. The failure mode of electrolytic caps is almost always very elevated ESR due to deterioration of the liquid electrolyte. The plate area and dielectric constant of the oxide layer is not going to significantly change, so why measure the capacitance? It's basically impossible to reliably measure capacitance in-circuit anyway, and these ESR meters are meant to do measurements in-circuit. I designed it to be practical in real repair situations

                                    If there are any 0.5" displays with left-hand decimal points, I've never found one. That's why the 3mm decimal point LEDs are there. And the Chinese clone also uses a 4094 shift register (not the microcontroller) to drive the displays.

                                    Actually I'm kinda flattered by someone in China cloning the Blue ESR meter design. Didn't someone say that "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" or something like that?

                                    Yes, the Blue ESR meter and the Dick Smith ones before it (which Altronics in Australia is still selling kits for: https://www.altronics.com.au/p/k2574-esr-meter-kit/ ) are a very old design. That's why I completely redesigned it around a PIC microcontroller in all SMD, which reads down to 0.001 ohms, is powered by 2x AA cells, is in a smaller case, and there is a talking version for people who don't want to shift their attention between where the probes are, and the display. The displays in this one are driven directly by the PIC chip. You can see some details on my website at http://bobparker.net.au/esr_meter/blue2-esr.htm

                                    If I think of anything else which is relevant, I'll post another reply.
                                    Last edited by Bob Parker; 02-20-2022, 10:41 PM. Reason: Fixed a few typos.
                                    It is a good shrubbery. I like the laurels particularly...

                                    Comment


                                      #19
                                      Re: Chinese clone of Bob Parker Blue ESR meter

                                      The Blue ESR meter has served me well for a long time and if anything bad ever happened to it I would not hesitate buying another just like it to replace it!

                                      The Bob Parker version! Not some clone look alike!

                                      Reading capacitance of a suspected cap will most of the time show good while the ESR test will show the true fault. Resistance

                                      Thank you Bob for all your hard work!

                                      Comment


                                        #20
                                        Re: Chinese clone of Bob Parker Blue ESR meter

                                        Originally posted by volkswagenvan View Post
                                        The Blue ESR meter has served me well for a long time and if anything bad ever happened to it I would not hesitate buying another just like it to replace it!

                                        The Bob Parker version! Not some clone look alike!

                                        Reading capacitance of a suspected cap will most of the time show good while the ESR test will show the true fault. Resistance

                                        Thank you Bob for all your hard work!
                                        Hi there Volkswagenvan. In Down Under Australia, the old Volkswagen vans were called "Kombi vans" (see picture).

                                        Thanks for your nice comments - much appreciated! I think that the reason some people think capacitance meters read low on sick electrolytic caps is because the very high ESR fools the capacitance meter.

                                        Happy repairing! 👍
                                        Attached Files
                                        It is a good shrubbery. I like the laurels particularly...

                                        Comment

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