Ready-built ESR meter- I need your opinion on price.

Bob Parker · Aug 24, 2003

G'day,
A good friend of mine in Europe is planning to manufacture and sell
an improved version of the ESR meter I designed. Problem is, he's not
sure how much it should sell for.
I've got a photo, some details of it and what I think is a good
price at http://bob.parker.web1000.com/euroesr.htm
Could you please take a look and give me your valuable comments?
Thanks!

Cheers,
Bob

Hate spam? Go to http://www.bluebottle.com (It's free)

Sam Goldwasser · Aug 25, 2003

Bob Parker said:
G'day,
A good friend of mine in Europe is planning to manufacture and sell
an improved version of the ESR meter I designed. Problem is, he's not
sure how much it should sell for.
I've got a photo, some details of it and what I think is a good
price at http://bob.parker.web1000.com/euroesr.htm
Could you please take a look and give me your valuable comments?
Thanks!

But I thought yours was perfect.

What's different besides the much cooler case and better test leads?

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ Home Page: http://www.repairfaq.org/
Repair | Main Table of Contents: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/
+Lasers | Sam's Laser FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lasersam.htm
| Mirror Site Info: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/F_mirror.html

Important: The email address in this message header may no longer work. To
contact me, please use the Feedback Form at repairfaq.org. Thanks.

Tweetldee · Aug 25, 2003

Sam Goldwasser said:
But I thought yours was perfect.

What's different besides the much cooler case and better test leads?

Hi Bob,
I think your suggested price , BUILT and CALIBRATED!!! of $80 USD is
fantastic. Considering that the best price that I have seen for the current
built and tested version of the DS ESR meter is around $99 USD. And it
doesn't have the input protection and the nice test leads!!
If I didn't already have one of the current version, I'd certainly buy one.
That is, unless the new version were to be offered in kit form too.

Cheers,
--
Tweetldee
Tweetldee at att dot net (Just subsitute the appropriate characters in the
address)

Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.

BJohnson · Aug 25, 2003

I have both the Capacitor Wizard and the CapAnalyzer 88A and paid $180
for each..... Based on that, I would say you price is very
reasonable.... Good Luck...... Bill

Eric · Aug 25, 2003

Have you got a chart for battery internal resistance?

: G'day,
: A good friend of mine in Europe is planning to manufacture and sell
: an improved version of the ESR meter I designed. Problem is, he's not
: sure how much it should sell for.
: I've got a photo, some details of it and what I think is a good
: price at http://bob.parker.web1000.com/euroesr.htm
: Could you please take a look and give me your valuable comments?
: Thanks!

:
: Cheers,
: Bob
:
: Hate spam? Go to http://www.bluebottle.com (It's free)

Bob Parker · Aug 25, 2003

BJohnson said:
I have both the Capacitor Wizard and the CapAnalyzer 88A and paid $180
for each..... Based on that, I would say you price is very
reasonable.... Good Luck...... Bill

Thanks Bill and everyone else for your very positive feedback. I'll
pass it all on to my friend to reassure him that he will be able to
make a bit of a profit from making his meters after all.

Regards,
Bob

Hate spam? Go to http://www.bluebottle.com (It's free)

Bob Parker · Aug 25, 2003

I've got an "under the hood" photo of the innards of that ESR meter
on that web page now, so you can see how well it's constructed. Hit
Ctrl/refresh if you can't see it.

Bob

Hate spam? Go to http://www.bluebottle.com (It's free)

John Bachman · Aug 25, 2003

Whatever made you think that? If I'd known back in 1995 that it
would become well-known, I'd have put more effort into refining it a
bit more. I thought it would be just another obscure unpopular
magazine project which would be forgotten in 6 months.

Big protection diodes to stop large charged caps with lots of volts
from damaging the circuitry i.e. blowing up the microcontroller.
Better displays, longer auto switch-off time, high quality components
and construction. Otherwise it's essentially the same as the existing
meter....

The only problem I have with it is that there is nothing to limit the
discharge current through the diodes. Exceed the dv/dt rating of the
capacitor under test and it might be damaged.

The meter is supposed to find bad caps, not create them.

JMHO

John

Bob Parker · Aug 25, 2003

G'day Mate!
Yeah, that is a concern. These kinds of things are always a
compromise... put in better protection and then it won't fit in the
nice small case.
The (re)designer of the meter into this form decided that
compactness outweighed the simplicity of the protection circuitry. If
a cap is damaged by a massive discharge current pulse, at least the
ESR meter should show that it needs to be replaced after the
accident....

Cheers,
Bob

PS- I haven't forgotten about you know what. This internet is the
worst distractor from getting anything done which has ever been
invented.

John Bachman said:
The only problem I have with it is that there is nothing to limit the
discharge current through the diodes. Exceed the dv/dt rating of the
capacitor under test and it might be damaged.

The meter is supposed to find bad caps, not create them.

JMHO

John

Hate spam? Go to http://www.bluebottle.com (It's free)

JURB6006 · Aug 26, 2003

I'll take one, maybe two.

JURB

Geo · Aug 26, 2003

I've got an "under the hood" photo of the innards of that ESR meter
on that web page now, so you can see how well it's constructed. Hit
Ctrl/refresh if you can't see it.

I cant see anything :-((
http://bob.parker.web1000.com/euroesr.htm

just keeps bringing up http://www.web1000.com/ main page

help?

Geo

Bob Parker · Aug 26, 2003

Hi Geo,
I dunno what the problem would be. That site's in the USA and I'm
able to access it OK from all the way down here in Australia.
Is anyone else having trouble seeing it?

Bob

Geo said:
I cant see anything :-((
http://bob.parker.web1000.com/euroesr.htm

just keeps bringing up http://www.web1000.com/ main page

help?

Geo

Hate spam? Go to http://www.bluebottle.com (It's free)

Sam Goldwasser · Aug 27, 2003

Bob Parker said:
Hi Geo,
I dunno what the problem would be. That site's in the USA and I'm
able to access it OK from all the way down here in Australia.
Is anyone else having trouble seeing it?

Site works fine here if with (gasp!) java turned off.

BTW, how large a charged cap do you figure those diodes will survive?

Maybe they should be replaceable like a fuse.

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ Home Page: http://www.repairfaq.org/
Repair | Main Table of Contents: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/
+Lasers | Sam's Laser FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lasersam.htm
| Mirror Site Info: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/F_mirror.html

Important: The email address in this message header may no longer work. To
contact me, please use the Feedback Form at repairfaq.org. Thanks.

John Bachman · Aug 27, 2003

Sam,

Well, here's this one to consider.

Snap!

One dead micro and had to order two micros along another ESR meter kit
for home, so ESR meter can stay at work, kept micro as spare for
either of my two Bob Parker's ESR meters. This happened on a modest
decent cap, guessing 220uF 50V.

Oh, Diodes did work channeling most of jolts, didn't die but the surge
still escaped, knocking out that micro. When I saw spark then I
looked down at meter display was blank. DANG! Good thing both ICs
are socketed.

Try our DSESRSavr. It is a small circuit board that protects the
circuitry including the micro from damage from charged caps. Lets the
meter work fine, controls the cap discharge current and protects the
ESR all at once. It will fit inside the DS meter - a little snug but
it fits.

We developed it for the Capacitor Wizard which is not as rugged as the
DS meter and then created one for the DS meter also.

See it at www.anatekcorp.com/testequipment/dsesrsavr.htm

John

Laurence Dishman · Aug 27, 2003

Hi again Bob: I'll give you just 3 guesses which ESR meter can and
has checked the ESR of fully charged batteries in ? ;-)

Bob Parker · Sep 23, 2003

For the information of anyone still watching this old thread, that ESR
meter is now being sold. Full details and user manual are available at
http://clientes.netvisao.pt/greenpal/

Bob

Hate spam? Go to http://www.bluebottle.com (It's free)

Tweetldee · Sep 24, 2003

Bob Parker said:
For the information of anyone still watching this old thread, that ESR
meter is now being sold. Full details and user manual are available at
http://clientes.netvisao.pt/greenpal/

Bob

Bob, are we to understand that this version is not available outside the
countries listed on the order page (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland,
France, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland)?

--
Tweetldee
Tweetldee at att dot net (Just subsitute the appropriate characters in the
address)

Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.

John Robertson · Sep 25, 2003

We sell assembled kits here in Canada...but ours is the original DS
kit... Looks much the same AFAIKS, except for case - and he has added
the two high current diodes across the inputs to protect the meter
from charged capacitors

http://www.flippers.com/esrkthnt.html

His box looks much nicer than the DS one though...

John :-#)#

Bob, are we to understand that this version is not available outside the
countries listed on the order page (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland,
France, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland)?

(Please post followups or tech enquires to the newsgroup)
John's Jukes Ltd. 2343 Main St., Vancouver, BC, Canada V5T 3C9
Call (604)872-5757 or Fax 872-2010 (Pinballs, Jukes, Video Games)
www.flippers.com
"Old pinballers never die, they just flip out."

Bob Parker · Sep 25, 2003

Bob, are we to understand that this version is not available outside the

countries listed on the order page (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland,
France, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland)?

G'day,
As far as I know, he's selling them to anyone anywhere who wants
one. That list of countries only applies to one particular method of
payment. I've told him that what he's written is confusing people and
to please change it. This is his first attempt at doing a website,
plus his English isn't perfect.

Cheers,
Bob

Moore's Lobby Podcast

Menu

Categories

Platforms

Content

Connect With Us

Network