Cap Checker

[Sonik Wiz]

I have a DMM that has a capacity function.

Yup, I've got a DMM with a capacitor function as well. I think that's fairly common. It comes in handy for quick checking of the Farads & matching sets of capacitors. But it doesn't check ESR & doesn't do it in circuit.

Hey, how about a rousing discussion of Dielectric Absorption & Dissipation Factor? No type of electronic component is perfect but it seems capacitors are the most rascally.

 

[Gimme 4]

Yup, I've got a DMM with a capacitor function as well. I think that's fairly common. It comes in handy for quick checking of the Farads & matching sets of capacitors. But it doesn't check ESR & doesn't do it in circuit.

Hey, how about a rousing discussion of Dielectric Absorption & Dissipation Factor? No type of electronic component is perfect but it seems capacitors are the most rascally.

I'll be standing by to learn something on that!

 

[Sal1950]

I have a picture taken by my father similar to your avatar of me putting together a Heathkit clock radio when I was 11.

Wish I had some pic's from way back.
I lived very close to Allied Radio on Western Ave in Chicago and was always hounding my dad to take me there tire kicking. I built a whole bunch of Knight Kit's back in the late 50s, early 60s.
Those were the days.

 

[Sal1950]

I did save this all these years.
Check out the phone number, HAymarket 1-6800 LOL

 

[Gimme 4]

Wow! I've still got the first Allied catalog I sent in the card for, 1959! And several more years plus Lafayette, and Burstein-Applebee catalogs. It's neat someone has made all the old Radio Shack catalogs available to peruse online too, back when they sold brands like Garrard, Sherwood, KLH...

 

[Sonik Wiz]

I did save this all these years.
Check out the phone number, HAymarket 1-6800 LOL
View attachment 79564

Beautiful! Built more Knght Kits than I did Heathkits, fer sure. I never visited Allied but my wife & her family is from Chicago. So once upon a time we visited Olson Electronics in the 'burbs. Big fun!

Growing up in Kansas City we had the home grown Burstein Applebee, and about 4 locations at that. The ideal weekend for this teen geek was a trip to BA. My parents always loved music & had a big Telefunken Hi-Fi console, but it was mono. I was reading about this new thing called stereo & was very interested. So one trip to BA & I purchased a transistor OTL amplifier (chassis only) with built in RIAA pre-amp and a Shure V15 something phono cart. Yup, in the 60's around here if you wanted stereo sound, you had to build it yourself.

 

[Gimme 4]

Wish I had some pic's from way back.
I lived very close to Allied Radio on Western Ave in Chicago and was always hounding my dad to take me there tire kicking. I built a whole bunch of Knight Kit's back in the late 50s, early 60s.
Those were the days.

If I had lived within 10 miles of that place I would have been riding my bicycle there!

There was an Olson Electronics store that was on Hillcrest across from SMU, about 5 miles one way from my house. I made that trip several times, Texas heat and all. (Probably why heat doesn't bother me to this day.) Also a Hillcrest Hi Fi store that sold mostly high end equipment (McIntosh, Marantz, Revox etc) Ah yes...

 

[Gimme 4]

Growing up in Kansas City we had the home grown Burstein Applebee, and about 4 locations at that.

BA had a store here, in Town East Mall in Mesquite. First place I heard a two speaker with sub-woofer setup, made by JBL. Sub had a cool glass top on it.


Ah.. here it is. The JBL L212 Took a bit of hunting to find a picture.

(Hey they had capacitors in them!)

 

[ar surround]

Hey Gimme4,
I have the same ESR meter as you do & in a kit version also. I used it in checking Electrolytic caps from my AR-9 speakers.
I've got the blue one... Also, a fun build in kit form. Very useful instrument!

Imbobman, I'm curious to know how your old electrolytic caps measured in the AR-9. I sent the discarded caps from my AR-90 and AR-9 speakers to a friend for measurement. Here were the results of those old electrolytics below. (Upper range drivers only) Note that 350% difference on the 6uF Callins caps!

 

[Doug G.]

One of my Heathkits I built is an IT-2250 auto ranging capacitor meter and it has always worked well. It doesn't do ESR but it does do leakage.

I used to regularly ride my bike to the little local electronics supply place here just in case...you know...I needed something. It wasn't even really a retail place, more wholesale. I don't know if the guy thought I was crazy or not but I didn't care.

Doug

 

[Gimme 4]

One of my Heathkits I built is an IT-2250 auto ranging capacitor meter and it has always worked well. It doesn't do ESR but it does do leakage.

I used to regularly ride my bike to the little local electronics supply place here just in case...you know...I needed something. It wasn't even really a retail place, more wholesale. I don't know if the guy thought I was crazy or not but I didn't care.

Doug

Now you remind me of something else. There was "Wholesale Electronics" on Ross Ave. in downtown Dallas. I would ride the bus there. They wouldn't sell to the public but would sell to "hams" so I "borrowed" my friend's father's call sign to buy stuff there. (W5AGP, "All Good People".) They would certainly look at me funny, probably knew him because he was a big shot with Western Union, but I got what I was there for. Capacitors included! They had all the tools of the trade out where you could look and hold, and parts galore.

 

[Owen Smith]

And now you can't buy any of this stuff retail, anywhere. At least not that I'm aware of in the UK.

In my teens in Yorkshire in the UK I used to go in to Huddersfield on the bus or with my mum and I'd always end up in either the local hifi shop or Mrs Taylor's shop. She was in her 70s or 80s in the early 1980s, and her shop window still had a sign saying "accumulators charged". I didn't even know what that meant. Copious different valves (tubes) were on display as in stock. If you wanted a multi turn variable capacitor for your crystal radio, Mrs Taylor's was the only place you were likely to get one in Huddersfield.

My parents still live in the Huddersfield area. I went back to the shop in the early 2000s and the entire street was derelict ready to be pulled down to build a new shopping mall. These were Victorian stone built properties, decent stuff that didn't deserve to be pulled down. Sure enough Mrs Taylor's signs were still there in the shop front, she'd hung on to the end. God knows how old she would have been by then to keep the place open. Did she make a profit? Did she care? It's all gone now, covered by the Kingsgate Centre. I'd far rather have her shop back. Brought tears to my eyes seeing the place derelict.

Oh yes, and Mrs Taylor sold capacitors.

 

[Doug G.]

Back in 1962, when I got my first set of Treble-O-Lectric trains (made in England), in the instruction manual, they described the different ways you could power them. You could use their transformer + rectifier unit combined with their speed controller, or you could use their battery control unit with three 4 volt batteries, or you could use their power control unit which was the transformer, rectifier, and speed controller all in one box, or you could use an accumulator with a fuse inline.

I had no clue what an accumulator was but found out later they are the equivalent of what we call car batteries over here.

I have a large collection of Treble-O-Lectric, these days, including all of their control units. The 4 volt batteries are very expensive, IF you can find them

Doug

 

[Imbobman]

Imbobman, I'm curious to know how your old electrolytic caps measured in the AR-9. I sent the discarded caps from my AR-90 and AR-9 speakers to a friend for measurement. Here were the results of those old electrolytics below. (Upper range drivers only) Note that 350% difference on the 6uF Callins caps!

View attachment 79570

Hi AR Surround,
Your results were really interesting. I like the chart you have.
I think the original electrolytic caps were ±10% tolerance capacitance. At 10% a lot of yours were out of tolerance.
I looked at my old caps & didn't see a tolerance printed on the cap.
I had to go find my paper notes to see my actual readings I measured.
Most were still within tolerance. I measured for esr, I think they were good but don't recall exactly. ESR actual reading are low.
AR used very high quality caps.When it was all said & done, they sound pretty much the same. But now I didn't have to be concerned about 35+ year old caps going bad.
I took a photo of my notes I had. Hope it's readable.

 

[Gimme 4]

.... three 4 volt batteries ...

Doug

Don't recall ever seeing a 4 Volt battery.

 

[Gimme 4]

deleted

 

[Doug G.]

Don't recall ever seeing a 4 Volt battery.

These were/are rectangular and are about 3" X 4" X 1" and the controller, which is really just a plastic "cap" which fits over three of the batteries put side-to-side. The threaded connectors then stick up through holes in the controller and are fastened with thumb screws.

Also, my avatar is hard to determine what it is. It's a picture of a little girl playing a record player exactly like the one I had when I was about 2 years old. I remember my dad having to glue the three spindly reproducer supports back together after I broke one or more of them. Two year olds - what ya gonna do?

Doug

 

[Gimme 4]

These were/are rectangular and are about 3" X 4" X 1" and the controller, which is really just a plastic "cap" which fits over three of the batteries put side-to-side. The threaded connectors then stick up through holes in the controller and are fastened with thumb screws.

Also, my avatar is hard to determine what it is. It's a picture of a little girl playing a record player exactly like the one I had when I was about 2 years old. I remember my dad having to glue the three spindly reproducer supports back together after I broke one or more of them. Two year olds - what ya gonna do?

View attachment 79595

Doug

Yep it was hard to tell all right! I see her clearly now that I know what I'm lookin' at.

I assumed batteries, dry cells, were multiples of 1.5 V per cell. Learn sump'n new every day!

 

[Doug G.]

Great picture of you your dad took, BTW. I still have the Weller my dad bought in the, it had to have been in the late fifties, and it looks just like the one in your picture. I also have another, newer one my parents gave me as a gift in the early seventies. Same thing, just a little more streamlined looking.

Both have been dropped and both still work, even when soldering capacitors OR cap. checkers!

Doug

 

[Gimme 4]

Great picture of you your dad took, BTW. I still have the Weller my dad bought in the, it had to have been in the late fifties, and it looks just like the one in your picture. I also have another, newer one my parents gave me as a gift in the early seventies. Same thing, just a little more streamlined looking.

Both have been dropped and both still work, even when soldering capacitors OR cap. checkers!

Doug

I still have the one in that picture. One chip out of it's housing. The original scan is larger, and not watermarked of course. Don't want anyone using it for their avatar!