1 - Electronic Design Specialists, Inc.
Contents
1. April 25 2008 10 L RoHS Product category 8 and 9 exclusions Medical devices and monitoring and control instruments comprise RoHS Category 8 and Category 9 products respectively The EU recognizes that these products are manufactured in small numbers and generally have a long product life Further these products are often used in mission critical applications where their failure can reasonably be expected to be extremely disruptive if not catastrophic Since the long term effects of lead free solder a primary ROHS objective cannot be known for a period of at least five years following the directive s application to the remaining eight categories the EU has established at least a temporary moratorium for Category 8 and 9 products The EDS CapAnalyzer 88A Series II units made after 2007 use parts that are ROHS compliant but may use conventional solder for reliability In an effort to gain more insight the EU commissioned a study to assess when and if the ROHS directive should be applied to Category 8 and 9 products Released in July 2006 the Review of Directive 2002 95 EC ROHS Categories 8 and 9 Final Report recommended that Category 8 and 9 products remain exempt from the RoHS directive until 2012 or 2018 depending upon specific product sub categories and applications 112. EDS 88A CapAnalyzer Series II In Circuit Electrolytic Capacitor DCR ESR Tester ELEL THIN DES BS DALE Ss I E nn OT Pon neces A Se OCR NORMAL POCA LOY me OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS and OWNER S MANUAL Electronic Design Specialists Inc 21621 Reflection Lane For Technical Assistance Boca Raton FL 33428 parts or FAQs go to 561 487 6103 www eds inc com TROUBLESHOOTING CAPACITOR RELATED PROBLEMS using the CapAnalyzer 88A ATTENTION THIS UNIT IS DESIGNED TO CHECK ELECTROLYTIC CAPACITORS IN OR OUT OF CIRCUIT WITH POWER DISCONNECTED FROM THE CIRCUIT UNDER TEST IF THE UNIT UNDER TEST IS POWERED UP THE POWER WILL BACKFEED INTO YOUR CAPANALYZER AND DESTROY BOTH UNITS DO NOT ATTEMPT TO BEND THE POMONA TWEEZER PROBE ENDS THEY WILL SNAP OFF Troubleshooting and locating defective electrolytic capacitors has been a thorn in the side of all technicians for many years The CapAnalyzer 88A will help solve problems caused by electrolytics in audio video power supply and system control circuits This manual will also show how to locate these bad capacitors easily without having to unsolder and test or cut up the pc board and without needing the service manual by using specialized test equipment specifically designed to make you more productive Although you will have to unlearn your old fashioned slower methods those who will be progressive enough to learn these tricks will have much more time on their hands to spend wi
3. ard track EDS test equipment owners use the LeakSeeker EDS 82 series to locate shorted or even leaky components with resistance readings from zero to as high as 150 ohms The LeakSeeker is a dedicated instrument with only one purpose to identify the exact place on a pc board where a given reference resistance is at the lowest reading The LeakSeeker automatically calibrates itself to the defective component as soon as it s test lead is touched anywhere along the pc board track that shows the short or low reading under 150 ohms Then as the tech touches pads along the track the Leakseeker beeps higher or lower depending on whether the tech is getting closer or further from the defect This instrument recalibrates itself automatically as you get closer to the defect The current version is the EDS 82B HD which also works with multi layer boards with ground and power planes LOW BATTERY WARNING The CapAnalyzer 88A uses four alkaline AAA batteries 6 VDC Although continuous operating time is several hours most users will only need to replace the batteries at three to six month periods We advise to measure a few capacitors then turn off the CapAnalyzer when you find and replace the bad cap If left on without being used a three minute warning timer will chirp three times every three minutes At 5 1 volts the LOW BATTERY indicator will illuminate The unit will still operate for some time on a low battery until voltage falls to 4 9 vol
4. ays ESR on a 20 segment LED bar scale It includes a low capacitance one handed tweezer test probe and beeps from one to five beeps depending on the ESR reading of the cap Because it is microprocessor controlled it has more features and is much more accurate than the older designs Possibly its best attribute is a three colored chart on the front panel that shows typical ESR readings of good fair and bad caps depending on their capacitance There have been cheap Oriental copies made for years so always make sure your CapAnalyzer has our Boca Raton address on the model label All CapAnalyzers made after 2001 are series II units even though the front labels don t show series II The CapAnalyzer 88A claims 100 accuracy in circuit because of its testing parameters The frequency is variable and high enough to make the cap s actual capacity insignificant so it measures only the ESR The high test frequency also helps isolate the cap under test from the rest of the circuit via the high inductance of the pc board copper foil This frequency is also high enough to ignore any coils over 5 uH ESR testing is done with a calibrated low resistance at the test point which allows it to compensate for normal circuit resistance Both DCR and ESR measurements are under 50 millivolts so that no active devices are turned on Therefore only the component at the test point will rerspond However because it checks DCR first it will alert the technician immediately i
5. d less resistance as the frequency across it increases Some inexpensive cap meters utilize this fact by measuring a cap s impedance at a fixed frequency such as 1KHz and translating the reading to capacity In reality checking a cap at 1KHz only works if the cap is being used in a circuit that also utilizes 1 KHz Television and VGA monitor video circuits use frequencies into the megahertz and in PWM power supplies frequencies of 1OOKHz and higher are commonly used It makes more sense to forget about capacitance altogether and use our knowledge that high frequency ESR increases with age and as a cap dries up Several ESR cap checkers have appeared throughout the years The originator was a simple meter that used SOKHz and a simple mechanical meter A more recent meter is a slightly improved version still using an old fashioned mechanical meter but running at a more accurate 100KHz However these meters have their limitations they cannot check for leaky or shorted caps and the technician must individually discharge each cap before testing Also the cheap test probes add their own capacitance and readings varied depending on the position that the technician held the probes and whether or not he or she was sweating The most widely used in circuit ESR DCR tester is the CapAnalyzer 88 series by EDS This unique meter uses a test frequency higher than most others automatically discharges the cap under test checks for lbwDCR then checks and displ
6. f the cap or anything else in that circuit is shorted or leaky before it checks ESR This test parameter DCR OHMS SET ALERT is user adjustable from zero to 500 ohms USING THE CapAnalyzer 88A to CHECK ELECTROLYTICS When the CapAnalyzer 88A is first turned on after a second of internal calibration checks it will briefly check all leds multi tone beeper and the battery then it will flash the OVER led slowly to indicate ready The DCR OHMS slider set alert is normally set to about 150 ohms as shown in the figure To test an electrolytic simply hold the tweezer test probe across the cap leads polarity does not matter The CapAnalyzer will chirp once to let you know that you have a good connection and the DISCHARGING led will turn on for a fraction of a second The first test is the DCR test and the CapAnalyzer will show either a NORMAL or LOW led depending on the setting of the DCR OHMS SET ALERT slider If the slider is set to 50 ohms the CapAnalyzer will sound an alarm and light the DCR LOW led if the DC resistance is lower than 50 ohms Most circuits will never show this low normally however in some circuits the circuit s resistance might be lower or higher In these cases you may set the slider for as low a DC resistance as you expect the circuit resistance to be normally For example on a high power industrial motor controller supply where the supply must power a 15 ohm motor you could set the slider to 10 ohms The CapAnalyzer wo
7. g large electrolytics that may have a serious charge stored If you damage your unit it will appear to try to test a cap as soon as it is turned on You can easily repair it yourself go to the website for this and other important information QUICK InstaESR TEST Normally the CapAnalyzer discharges the cap then tests for DCR then measures ESR as we have shown In many cases you might already know for sure that there are no shorted capacitors and might wish to save some time by eliminating the full test and just want to quickly check the ESR To put the CapAnalyzer 88A in this special InstaKSR test turn the unit on while shorting the probes ends together Instead of the multi tone song the CapAnalyzer will only beep twice and be ready for testing Keep in mind that a shorted cap will show a low ESR so we recommend to use only the full test This feature also uses less power and will result in much longer battery life SHORTED CAPACITORS A shorted capacitor can cause several individual problems at one time That s because it can cause a supply voltage to be low or missing The cap you have just checked that shows shorted might be shorted or then again it might be ok Because various circuits feeding from the same supply have their own capacitors the shorted reading will be the same further down the pcb track across another capacitor Finding the one shorted capacitor can be difficult because most DVMs will measure the same short resis
8. n feedback or low audio In the system control supply it can cause intermittent functions and microcontroller confusion shutdown even a blank display In the video circuits it can cause incorrect colors distortion even a fully scrambled picture Usually the problem will be less noticeable if the unit is left on for some time That s because a dried up capacitor will usually decrease its ESR with higher temperature Other consumer electronic components can also have these problems but with a different culprit surface mounted capacitors Most camcorders VCRs and big screen TVs now use surface mounted electrolytic capacitors in modules In VCRs they are usually in the sound MPX decoder module In big screen TVs they can be in the sound module and in the video PIP and video convergence circuits as well In camcorders they are everywhere usually showing up as varying speeds if they are in the servo circuits color or sync problems if in the video and low distorted or missing audio if in the audio circuits Most technicians already know these symptoms and have an idea where on the board to start The first step is visual observation vacuum all debris off of the board and look for dark areas under each cap for bulging tops and for splitting vinyl covers On surface mount caps look for the solder connections under the cap to have a cloudy look After replacing the obviously defective caps it is important to clean the board with a stripper s
9. of the cap The CapAnalyzer 88A has been designed to chirp once if the ESR is less than one ohm Two chirps from one to two ohms three chirps from two to three ohms four chirps from four to eight ohms and five chirps from 8 to 20 ohms The handy three color chart on the front panel shows typical ESR readings so if a 2 2 uF cap chirps three times and shows 3 00 ohms ESR the chart shows that this is in the green good If you ever used the original CapAnalyzer 88 or 88A you might have discovered the unusual case where the CapAnalyzer chirped five times and there was no reading at all this usually indicated a good bi polar capacitor found in some TVs which show less than zero CapAnalyzer 88A Series IT units will correctly show the actual ESR As arule some caps can show in the yellow area and may still work adequately It is up to the technician to make the decision on whether to replace these questionable caps or not However any caps that show ESR in the red areas are out of spec and must be replaced For capacitors that check as shorted see the SHORTED CAPACITORS section Low voltage surface mounted caps are usually very poor in quality and even new ones may show in the yellow areas Most quality oriented service companies replace surface mount caps with conventional caps as long as they will fit assuming the technician has the skill to cut the leads very short and solder them in without melting everything in sight Note that if an elect
10. olvent and to check all local feedthroughs as these type of capacitors leak an acidic electrolyte that loves copper After visual observation and replacement of the obvious offenders it will be necessary to measure the rest of the caps The problem of measuring each capacitor is more difficult than measuring resistors which can be measured in circuit quite easily with any cheap DVM That is because any circuit that encompasses an electrolytic already has some DC resistance and some capacitance from other parts of the circuit Some capacitor checkers claim to work in circuit but since they actually measure circuit capacitance and resistance they give such erroneous readings that caps usually have to be unsoldered and re measured out of circuit anyway In fact even some of the most expensive capacitor meters over 2000 will not always measure capacitors accurately in circuit Some meters measure the capacitance at two different frequencies and show it as two different readings Most ESR meters will show a partially or fully shorted cap as perfect Speaking of ESR meters their designers already know that the trick to locating bad capacitors in circuit is not to measure capacity at all Years of testing by many technicians and engineers has shown that as a capacitor ages its Equivalent Series Resistance increases What is ESR Without going through the math a perfect capacitance will measure as an open circuit at DC and will show less an
11. rolytic capacitor is in such bad condition to be over 20 ohms ESR the CapAnalyzer will treat it as an open circuit and will not even try to test it The OVER indicator will continue to flash Replace these caps as they are bad no matter what their capacity is If you wish to double check the test probe short the probe contacts together while turning on the unit to activate the InstaESR mode and the CapAnalyzer will do a self test the top LED should be lit steady Wiggle the test cable at each end to check for frayed strands You can also check calibration at any time with a 10 ohm resistor set the DCR OHMS alert to zero and measure across the resistor the 10 ohm ESR led should illuminate And always make sure the tweezer tips are kept clean or accuracy will suffer In some cases you may find capacitors that are physically leaking yet they check as perfect Although the cap is leaking it has not leaked enough electrolyte to render it defective and will still operate perfectly in the circuit for a while If you wish to avoid callbacks replace them anyway NOTE Although the CapAnalyzer automatically discharges capacitors before testing remember that there are limits If the capacitor is large enough and there is enough voltage stored to blow the ends off of the test probes you will have to replace the probes as well as the discharge diodes and resistors in the discharging circuit of the instrument Therefore use common sense when measurin
12. sumes complete responsibility in using this product and is expected to conduct their operating procedure in a safe and professional manner ELECTRONIC DESI S39 FP Ekt A Lb G FT EH 21621 Reflection Lane Boca Raton FL 33428 561 487 6103 Declaration of Conformity for European Union C The product listed on this Declaration of Conformity has been tested and verified to comply with the essential requirements of the Electromagnetic Compatibility Directive 2004 108 EC of 15 December 2004 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States Relating to Electromagnetic Compatibility EMC Standards to which conformity is declared EN 55011 2007 Industrial scientific and medical ISM radio frequency equipment Electromagnetic disturbance characteristics Limits and methods of measurement EN 61326 1997 A1 1998 A2 2001 A3 2003 Electrical equipment for measurement control and laboratory use EMC requirements Manufacturer Electronic Design Specialists Inc 21621 Reflection Ln Boca Raton FL 33428 European Contact Eurocoin Ltd Fortune House Moxon Street Barnet Herts GB ENSSTS UK Description of Equipment Product Name CapAnalyzer 88A series IT Model Number EDS 88A Designed and built in the U S A Electronic Design Specialists Inc hereby declares that the equipment specified above conforms to the protection requirements of the above named Directive s and Standards David T Miga CET President EDS Inc
13. tance at every capacitor That s because most ohmmeters don t have enough resolution 0 001 ohm to add or subtract the pc board track resistance from the actual shorted cap s resistance to judge where the short might be Some technicians find these capacitors by cutting the pc board tracks in various places and measuring the resistances on each side of the cuts When in the area they believe the short to be in they unsolder all suspicious pads and keep measuring until the one shorted part is found This is not only time consuming but makes a mess of the board Forget to repair just one cut or one solder connection and the unit will be inoperable Another method used by some techs is to supply a current limited voltage source to the shorted supply and measure the low DC voltages at different points with a sensitive millivoltmeter The lowest reading is the location of the short This works to some degree except that the current has to be high enough to get a reading and maybe high enough to burn up the board under test especially if the board uses very thin lands Another alternative is to use a four or five digit DVM with milliohm scale which has the resolution of 0 001 ohm required to measure all of the caps to ground and choose the one with the lowest reading to ground This only works if the cap is shorted If the cap is only partially shorted say over 9 99 ohms resolution drops to a useless 10 milliohms or about a 5 inch length of pc bo
14. th their family and friends There are several ways a capacitor can fail High temperatures usually cause electrolytics to dry up In high frequency circuits such as digital pulse width power supplies the capacitors tend to leak In low voltage circuits such as system control and low voltage supplies capacitors tend to short partially or completely Therefore the technician must first check all electrolytics for DCR DC Resistance shorts or leakage then check for physically leaky or dried up capacitors by measuring high frequency ESR Equivalent Series Resistance These methods will not require a soldering iron a service manual or any cutting tools It will require some logical reasoning good eyesight and some specialized equipment your 29 DVM won t help you find the tough dogs With the CapAnalyzer 88A and the LeakSeeker 82B hours can turn into minutes and repairs that were once considered no fixers can now be profitable DRIED UP and PHYSICALLY LEAKY CAPACITORS As a capacitor dries up internally it can become electrically leaky As the cap dries up it can cause strange problems in the particular circuit it is in For example in the TV s vertical section it can cause vertical overlap insufficient vertical too much overscan or non linear scanning If the cap is in the power supply jail bars or hairy interference may ride on the video and power semiconductors can keep failing In the audio section it can cause distortio
15. ts with a slight reduction in accuracy Below 4 9 volts the unit may ignore shorted capacitors so a good test if you are not sure is to short the probe tips and see if the DCR LOW led comes on and the alert sounds as it should Do not attempt to use any external voltage source more than 6VDC If you need to keep the CapAnalyzer on continuously you may send your unit to EDS and a power jack and specially modified external adapter will be supplied Alternatively you can install the AC adapter easily yourself with a drill and soldering iron the adapter kit is on the order page If you need help or assistance you may call for technical assistance at 561 487 6103 Also we recommend that you check out the CapAnalyzer owners technical assistance page on our website at http www eds inc com eds88 html for any last minute updates FAQs and modifications Replacement tweezer probes are on the web page order form 60 DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE EDS Inc guarantees that the user may return this product to original place of purchase for a full refund within 60 days of receipt under the following conditions The product must be undamaged and returned in the same condition as received and with the original packing material A copy of the bill of sale is required You must call the reseller for return authorization You are responsible for return shipping charges and for providing correct insurance coverage Units received damaged will be returned to yo
16. u or repaired and any costs deducted from the refund Any broken or missing probes or hardware will be deducted from the refund Original shipping costs will be refunded only if the unit has a factory defect All EDS products are unique and some effort is required to un learn old habits and to learn to use an unfamiliar new device You are expected to use this product for at least six weeks and to read and follow the directions in the owners manual If you are confused about any instructions in the manual or need any assistance please call EDS for assistance and make an honest effort to learn to use the product If the product proves to be too difficult for you to learn please make comments or suggestions to help us improve the product or revise the owners manual THREE YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY EDS Inc warrants this product to be free from factory defects for a period of three years from date of purchase A copy of the original bill of sale is required for any claims The customer will call for return authorization and mail the unit to EDS for repair or replacement This warranty does not include any damage caused by shipping abuse lightning over voltage or incorrect testing procedures Test probes or any other wires or cables are not covered under this warranty EDS shall not be responsible for any action or consequential damages caused by the user and assumes no responsibility for liability due to the actions of the user The user operator as
17. uld treat any DC resistance above 10 ohms as normal and warn you if measured DC resistance is lower than 10 ohms In fact you can set the DCR SET ALERT anywhere from a fraction of an ohm by setting the slider all the way down to 0 to as high as 500 ohms DCR Be advised that if you have the slider set higher than 100 ohms and try to measure a very large electrolytic the charging time to test the electrolytic may exceed the DCR test period and you may get a false DCR LOW or the CapAnalyzer may try testing the cap over and over because of conflicting test results Therefore use 50 ohms as a guideline when measuring most medium to large electrolytics and use the values higher than 100 ohms when measuring small tantalum and surface mounted capacitors Surface mounted tantalums can become leaky by as high as 500 ohms Try this now set the DCR OHMS slider all the way down to zero and touch the probe ends to a 10 ohm resistor The CapAnalyzer will pass the DCR test and show the ESR as 10 ohms Try the test again with the slider set anywhere above 10 and the DCR LOW led will come on and the alert will sound continuously The ESR test will not be done since the DC resistance is lower than the setting and the capacitor is considered to be shorted Now check a capacitor As you touch and hold the probe across the cap the unit will chirp once to indicate testing has started will pass the DCR test then will chirp one or more times depending on the ESR
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