Since I moved from my large 2000 square foot house to a small 500 square foot apartment I had to put a lot of electronics into storage. I don't get to play with them now like I used to but I really enjoy your videos it takes me back to the time when I could experiment more freely.

For those who haven't yet ventured into designing their own circuits and PCB's, I really encourage you to give it a try. There's free software out there such as KiCAD which helps you to draw the schematic of your circuit, and then convert that circuit into a PCB design. A lot of the process is automated, and a lot simpler than you might think. And once you've designed the PCB layout you simply save what's called a "gerber" file and upload it to the PCB manufacturer and they do the rest. Even if you just want to make a very simple circuit it's very inexpensive, with usually a very quick turnaround. And it also helps to avoid the many problems you might encounter with typical prototype boards (noise, stray capacitance, etc.).

Richard, the beauty of the original circuit is to use common discrete components and the simplest battery (AA) that with low current drain, skips the need of voltage regulator, especially if a trimpot is used to adjust reading’s Zero Ohm. Your final brainstorm using an OpAmp somehow defeats those 2 points, making it more complicated than other famous ESR circuits as the “5 transistor” or the one based on quad OpAmp as in TL084. I would love to see your investigations for improvement if possible, preserving the 1.5V and conventional BJT. Maybe another BJT could provide the Vce= 1.0V as a floating ground with low-enough impedance make a DMM’s differential voltage reading worthwhile. Thanks for sharing these investigations and I look forward for these prospective outcomes.

For cutting tracks on vero/stripboards, I use a 4mm drill ending in a hexagon.I click it into a general bit holder and give it a about two, maybe three twists manually. Works great and it even avoids lifting the tracks on the chinesium boards I use for a quick prototype.

I came across your Ch a few weeks back and learnt so much in that time.. Really enjoyed your simple,but detailed explanation of everything and just like to say thanks !! And keep up the great work..

You may also take a look at the simple ESR Meter from Danyk. It is based on a 555-Timer. It may be more easy to add an operational amplifier to it as it is supplied by a 9V battery.

Greetings from Russia, I have been using the device according to this scheme for 10 years already. I wound the coil on the M2000 ring with a diameter of 20mm. Licendrat wire. 50 turns. The frequency was 16 kHz. Arrow indicator.

Cool stuff Richard, I have to find some time to play with this circuit, thinking about adding a switch to measure the ESR at different frequencies, will report my findings here. Keep the good work dude.

I just want to add, there's so much pleasure to be had hand drawing your circuit, switching of the computer off and etching you own pcb. Its not ideal, but very educational and satisfying... I use an edding fabric marker to draw to circuit, and dont get pitting if ink is layered up!

With regards to pot types and their curves.... type A are logarithmic (volume control etc) B are linear, C is an inverted log (typically used to turn up gain more evenly or sometimes bass control) and W is specialized custom taper.

I enjoy your work. I feel I learn a lot from observing your process and technique. Thank you.

Very good start. A couple of observations (which may or may not help). Stripboard is notorious for creating 'capacitance' issues with sensitive and oscillating circuits, shortening all cables as much as possible and cutting the board down to size may make a significant difference. I use a heavy-duty scalpel (live dangerously) to cut tracks (spot face cutters, drills etc just weaken the board and remove a potential component pad). The resistors 'calibration checking method' would rely on resistor tolerance, and the circuit is oscillating (or should be, looking for reactance) so any touchy fingers will cause some issues. You could use another BC547 to invert the output from Q2. Dollars? I expect to see a 115V AC supply and an on-off switch where up is on, in part 2. Ho, ho.

Best ESR meter made in italy, from Nuova Electtronica Magazine LX1518

I use a drill bit with one of that cheap hand drill bit holders to clean the connections on veroboard like boars, clean, easy a give a really good finish, I use 4mm drill bits, found this tip in an older magazine.

Хороший esr meter. Я собирал по журналу радио за 2008 год выпуск 7 страница 23. Если не ошибаюсь пока. Есть ещё вариант miron63 Но цена в 100$конечно не радует... Автору спасибо. 👍

I remember a circuit similar to this from back in my tv repair days.Cheaper than a Capacitor wizard.

I tried this and it works well. I, like you did not have a 1 Meg pot but I did have a 1 Meg ohm multi-turn preset pot which did work but is not practical as I want to run this from a battery. This means you need to re- zero the meter every time you use it as the battery will slowly wear out. I found that using a 500k pot with a 180k resistor in series ( 100k and a 390k ohm resistor also works) I could easily zero the meter, however you have to connect the metal body of the pot to ground to get a stable useable adjustment.

I use veroboard ALL the time and I gotta say, I've never seen anyone build a circuit on one quite like that. Lol I suppose I COULD do it that way, but I make a Vero layout on the computer first. I then print it out to scale with the Veroboard and tape it down on top of the Vero and use my drill press to drill out all my trace cuts and then populate my components. I commend your abilities, sir!

The performance is all down to the quality of the resonant section. The cap should be a high stability low loss of quality and fed into a buffer, high impedance input to minimise damping, an op-amp here is ideal. The standard is 100khz and I'd stick to that - this isn't, it seems over double?! If you wanted to keep the overall function of using the amplitude as a measure, a very simple detector and filter will average the level to ensure reliable readings. A comparator adjustable to null on shorted input will give positive results. Really this whole thing is a bit dicky but on the right track. Edit: PS very good video, excellent for design.

If you are using an OpAmp output, you can probably eliminate at least one of the transistors since you no longer need the Darlington pair to do the amplification.

To check linearity, it would be easier and more intuitive to plot the values -- or even better use linear regression to calculate the correlation coefficient

Hi Richard, did you ever come around to make the second part of this video? I was searching around KZfaq and couldn't find it. Thanks for the video!

Love your videos... especially the intro ones you made covering various topics. Sorry... but after watching many of them my OCD kicked in and you need to fix your multimeter red probe/lead with the bent tip. LOL

great idea to do a video like this Richard cool to see the build done :)

Very nice circuit! You might try setting the Q2 collector voltage close to zero with the input shorted and re-run your tests with the resistors. You should get a wider range of ESR readings. Regards, David.

Great stuff . Plot the readings on a quick graph PS I have just made a 1 euro thermal audio probe for use instead of a thermal camera

Wow ini bagus, boleh saya pakai skema ESR meternya, saya menggunakan esr yang memakai IC smicht trigger boros baterai

i would replace the mA meter with a precision 1 ohm resister and measure mV across it. You can then take that through op amps to get the reading you desire.

I always enjoy your video's they are very informative and clear, do you take requests? All you need to know about Buck converter? Thanks!

Hi Richard I have learned so much from your videos well done mate. Keep it going you are doing well . Just for experiments a decade resistance box might help explain what’s going on ( help with them dodgy Pots . All the best Steve

You have one of these cheap Chinese component testers that measure ESR. Have you compared it with your circuit?

As a hobbyist with only a moderate amount of technical knowledge, I’m curious why you went to the trouble of matching the 51k resistor exactly. I would imagine a deviation of less than 10% would hardly matter when it’s in series with a pot that’s 2000% bigger. Does it set some critical minimum resistance?

Heya nice esr meter diy

Anyone know when part 2 on the ESR meter is coming ?

Do somebody knows which software was used for the schematic at 0:55?

I have a question about the mesr 100 i have was checking a circuit and had 400v capacitors and looked at the chart on thr mesr 100 meter and it is blank above a certain value. i have read the manual and it's not clear what the maximum size capacitors and voltage that can be tested. I have googled this and not had any luck finding the information. needles to say if the value is not on the meter chart i wouldn't use the mesr 100 to test it

Sir what its inductor value?

Terima kasih skemanya, untuk induktornya berapa ukuran nilainya. Berapa uH

Can I use this equivalent series resistance meter to measure my thetans? Curious Scientologists want to know. (The picture on the Wikipedia page for "equivalent series resistance meter" looks like one of their meters.)

I think the first thing to do is see what the oscillator is doing, we want something around the industry standard which is roughly 100KHz, I'm not a design guy either but it's so 'Flaky' right from the off I would need to see that to gain any confidence in it before moving on...cheers.

Why do you care about getting exactly 51K Ohms resistor when that resistor is in series with a 1M variable resistor and is only a small fraction of the resistance of the variable resistor? If you undersized the 51K to the next closest E6-series standard value (47K) or if even you use just your single available 33K resistor, the circuit will work just fine except that the potentiometer will end up being set a fraction of a turn different from if you had used an "exact" 51K

That doesn't look hard to build. i honestly expected a more complicated circuit.. 😊 P.S. Richard if you don't have a particular resistor you can always use a little trim pot and glue it at the residence you need..

Hi, what is the name of the blue tool you use? its simmilar to something ive seen befor for twisting metal pins on plate covers like RF boxes but cant put my finger on the name of it.

Hi their,Hope this works for smd caps right?

May I know the frequency of this ESR oscillator? quite a simple circuit.

Whats the point of testing Capacitors when you know they need to be changed anyway?

well, certainly not cheap on your time , but if you have a lot anyway.

From where are you?

´Super 😻😻😻 😻😻😻 💯💯💯 👍👍👍👍👍👍

What about thermal drift?

$1 or $25.99 after inflation.

You can do better than that circuit . The ones with sub 300 mv output & input protection ! Try the oscillator > DUT > amp > voltage detector . Note The 5 jbt one needs matched parts or a mod so you can balance it !

why don't you explain what is ESR firstly ?

Hi, I WOULD LIKE to follow more your channel and have tried so many times! But for me, as Italian, I find your "dialect" (I dunno how to call it better) your speaking language so AWFUL that force me to stop viewing and try elsewere. This is he fourth time I try to follow you in this video (as well in others) but can't go further than half an hour. You may say: "it's my laguage!", but you tend to "bend" the words so much that i.e. when you say "...if you can abandon...", I heard "if you got bend..."😑😑😑 I think your channel DESERVES not 100k+ viewers but MILLION if only you could go over your accent and spak at least in plain (more american?) understandable english language!!!! This is an appreciation to your efforts to spread you knowledge, NOT to criticize!

Maybe you could find the time to fix that annoing webcam, it has been flickering for a very long time.. Dont you care?