Great Gadget or Gimmick?

[Halo]

Okay - I confess, I don't know a lot about monitors. All the technical blurb on the links is wasted on me. But if this little number will simply tell me if the capacitors on my chassis are shot or not, that's good enough for me.

If anyone that knows about such things could take a cursory glance and give it a thumbs up or a steer clear, it'd be most appreciated.

Thanks

TJ

http://www.satcure-focus.com/design/page8.htm
http://www.awiz.com/cwinfo.htm

[MonitorGuru]

I've never used one, but i've heard a few things about them. I don't think they're a gimmick, but I also dont want to plunk down $200 shipped for one either.

Perhaps Ken can shed his knowledge on this.

[Ken Layton]

Ah yes, the old Capacitor Wizard. IT SUCKS! Several years ago I bought both the Howard Electronics CapWizard and the Electronic Design Specialist CapAnalyzer 88A.

I found the CapAnalyzer 88A is much superior to the CapWizard. I just simply did not like the CapWizard and it would sometimes miss bad caps. You also had to discharge each cap before testing or you'd damage the meter. I ended up giving it away.

Nowadays you couldn't pay me to part with my CapAnalyzer 88A. It's great! Worth every penny. Tests in circuit very accuately and most of the time there's no need at all to unsolder a cap to test it. This unit has an easy to read red (BAD), yellow (QUESTIONABLE or MARGINAL), and green (GOOD) scale on the front. I can tell a bad cap at a glance and it speeds up monitor and power supply repair. It has a tweezer style probe for easy one-handed testing and is especially good on PC boards. This is my number one test instrument I use on monitor repair!

You can find out more on the CapAnalyzer 88A at the manufacturer's website: www.eds-inc.com/products.html    You can also purchase straight from them or one of the big electronics companies like MCM Electronics (www.mcminone.com) as MCM's stock number 72-6508 ($179.00).

[Halo]

Thanks both for the feedback!

Thanks Ken again for being a life (and money) saver! One CapAnalyzer on the way

Tony

[Ken Layton]

When your CapAnalyzer88 shows up you should practice on some brand new capacitors of various values so you'll get an idea of what good ones read like on the scale.

When you test caps in circuit you usually use the 'slider' adjustment set to "50" for most caps. If you test the output capacitors in a switching power supply set the slider almost down to "0" because of the low resistance in that stage.

Always remember that any capacitor meter should be used for testing UNENERGIZED equipment. If testing caps in a monitor, always manually discharge the giant filter capacitor with a screwdriver, jumper wire, or needle nose pliers across it's terminals to prevent damaging your meter.

Any cap that shows in the red part of the scale is BAD. Any cap that shows in the yellow zone is probably bad/marginal, however if the cap shows in the first single square of the yellow zone it's probably ok. If the cap shows anywhere in the green zone it's GOOD!

[SoundDoc]

I've been meaning to pick up a CapAnalyzer88 for some time now, but just don't work on large Caps enough to justify it.

I was going to suggest my personal favorite cap meter, the L/C Meter IIB, but then I realized the range of caps I usually work with is a lot lower than most found in monitors Its the hands down best meter I've found yet for small caps and Tants. http://www.aade.com/lcmeter.htm
It runs .001uHy to 100 mHy, and .010pf to 1uF caps, and picks up bad caps that my B&K missed left right and centre.
sd

[Ken Layton]

The meter you mention would be no good on monitors and power supplies as they use capacitors of 1 uf and higher. Besides, on monitors and power supplies you're going to have bad electrolytic capacitor not ceramic disc types.

I am going out today to fix a monitor and I'll be bringing my trusty CapAnalyzer88 with me.