I finally got round to making my capacitor ESR tester this week after finding a nice simple 5 transistor version. Unfortunately, for me, the design was only SMD so, I decided to replicate his schematic in Eagle PCB using a through hole component design. I will not be going into much detail regarding ESR or Equivalent Series Resistance Meters as, there is already plenty of other sources of information on the subject. Yet, every tinkering knows capacitors are guilty of a lot of sins in electronics. Capacitors love to throw red herrings! They can appear physically fine (no bulge), show good capacitance and hide in circuit, standing to attention like the Queens Guards hiding shorts and high resistance under their big hats. This is where the ESR tester can be a saviour, with the ability to test for "out of specification" high resistance, within the capacitor. They can also be used to test "in circuit", without the need to remove every capacitor in the circuit.

     Simple XR2206 Function Generator
     Function Generator XR2206
     Oscilloscope ESR Tester
     Digital AC Voltmeter
     Capacitor ESR Meter
     RF Inductance Meter
     DS18S20 Dual Temperature Meter
     Accurate LC Meter based on PIC16F84A
     ESR METER: Equivalent Series Resistance Capacitor Tester
     Special Edition Accurate LC Meter with Green Backlight LCD

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