On Wed, 30 Sep 2015, John Robertson wrote:
On 09/30/2015 5:22 PM, Tothwolf wrote:
I bought a kit from anatekcorp.com last year to replace my Dick Smith
version that spouted legs and was rather disappointed with how it had
been kitted up. A lot of the components were very low quality or did
not fit the board properly, so I substituted my own. Even the 9V
battery snap was made wrong (bad quality wire and the snap was made
backwards). Another oddity was the kit included two 18 pin dip sockets
instead of an 18 pin and a 16 pin (I used some 3M dual wipe sockets
that I had anyway).
One thing that really bothered me about the 'Blue ESR' variation
compared to the original Dick Smith version was the lack of banana
jacks, however I found some shrouded jacks which fit the blue Hammond
enclosure.
If there is any interest in the changes I made to my meter, I'll see
about digging up my notes/parts list and the photos I took during
assembly.
The new kit makers seem to be doing a good job on fitting the kits out
properly, had a little trouble with the first batch and they quickly
sent me missing parts. Heck, I remember problems I had with Dick Smith
kits back in the early 00s - missing circuit boards, wrong parts, etc.
However DS (and Anatek) ALWAYS made good on shortages.
It wasn't really a case of missing parts, just really poor quality parts
apparently purchased in bulk based on price and little else (which may
also be the reason why my kit had two 18 pin sockets in it). Some of the
parts also looked suspiciously like the really junk stuff you find from
the far-east eBay resellers. The capacitors they included did not match
the lead spacing on the board (cheaper off-brand 5mm dia, 2mm ls parts
instead of low profile 6.3mm dia 2.5mm ls), although I had no trouble at
all finding the correct low-profile parts from Mouser that the board
seemed to be designed for (IIRC, Nichicon SA and SR series electrolytics).
Even the trimmer resistors were the wrong format for the board, which I
replaced with some high quality Bourns parts that fit perfectly. Heck,
even the Omron button cap was selected based on price...a tiny square cap
intended to poke through a round hole? I used a larger round button cap
from Omron.
Plus Bob Parker is still helping folks with his kit, he has a great
support site in AU for these kits.
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~bobpar/esrmeter.htm (note the lack of
twitter or facebook links - "This web page is for grownups"!)
FYI the kit leads have banana sockets on them...so you can quick connect
the optional probes or use your own.
...yeah. About that...those leads and banana plugs are *terrible*.
Absolutely junk. [Not to mention if you plug the "banana plugs" they
include into the test probes they offer, there is no safety shroud at the
plug to probe connection.] The little short wires they included were
kinked, sticky, and were /never/ going to work out well. Maybe they would
be find for a hobbyist who uses the tool every once in awhile, but for
daily use? No way.
I also wanted to be able to use my Probe Master and Parrot Clip test leads
with it. The original Dick Smith version had banana jacks, although they
weren't shrouded and weren't standard 0.75" spacing, however the shrouded
jacks I added to my Blue ESR meter are standard 0.75" spacing, so I can
use double-banana plugs with them if I want to.
I took lots of photos and notes with the intent to write up a full
critical review of it, but I've just been too busy with other projects. My
personal opinion is the fit and finish of the Blue ESR meter out of the
box isn't up to par and they charge way too much for the kit to be
substituting in low quality components.
