0x000A - DE-5000 ESR Meter Diode Replacement

[@wm0davis]

I just bought a DE-5000 and checked the battery compartment and found there is now a plastic shield around the battery contacts to prevent improper insertion of the battery. Thanks for the informative video.

[@CattoRayTube]

I have never seen a battery compartment that ambiguous before.

[@AlainHubert]

Thanks for this video. I've recently purchased this meter brand new, and opened it as soon as it arrived to check/replace that diode with a more powerful one that could withstand a few seconds of 9V battery short (500 mA current draw with a fresh alkaline). Upon inspection of the PCB, surprise! The pads are there, and the diode markings are on the PCB, but there was NO diode installed at the factory. So I simply installed/soldered one to protect the meter against accidental/momentary reversed polarity power from the battery. Now the meter is protected (as it should have been from the factory with a diode strong enough for real protection for a few seconds of distraction/dumbness 🤭😉).

[@tinkeringwithelectronics]

Great video, I'm going to put a warning label on mine! The difference in capacitance read boils down to the minimum 100hz frequency that the DE 5000 uses. My other capacitor meters look to work at 10 hz or less, and that does affect the readings. Try it an see, put a cap on the DE 5000 and raise the frequency, the capacitance reading goes down. Hope this helps.

[@garthhowe297]

Good to know... I just got one of these, and have not put the battery in yet ... glad I saw your video first!

[@JamesPotts]

Mine is arriving today, and by chance this video popped up in my feed today. 😀

[@bairfamilyfarm1336]

I've found it best to use desolder wick. Too many times I've had my desoldering pump jump and knock off another surface mount component.

[@TechTangents]

I've been fan of solder wick for a while. When I started working with TQFP type packages though I found you can't really use wick. I've had a lot chips with shorted pins from single strands of copper from wick.

[@Ramdileo_sys]

after watch @Tech Tangents By AkBkukU the last video about the RAM memory torture.. and final destruction of it.......... now this... 0:50 .... ??...... my reaction was like OH MY GOD!!! ..... and i am an atheist.... !!!

[@ljose007]

Great Tutorial. I inserted my 9v battery in the wrong way but no damage was done because the positive contact of the meter was recessed so there was no physical contact with the battery. Wouldn't it make more sense for them to have placed the diode in series with the battery as opposed to across it?

[@TechTangents]

If they had placed the diode in series then there would have been a voltage drop(and some power waste). It's possible they don't have any voltage overhead and couldn't handle the loss. The best solution would be an active circuit with FETs on the power input that will only let the correct polarity pass through. But that's the kind of difference between a $100 tool and a $500 tool.

[@JohnUsp]

@@TechTangents maybe a Schottky Diode, but the MOSFET is better.

[@fradd182]

Why was diode protection done that way? Wasnt it more logical to put in diode that can pass the current in proper polarity, and block it in reversed?

[@craigleemehan]

fradd I do not support this method, but... This method of reverse polarity protection is used when the voltage drop of the diode is too much. How can ~.7 V drop be too much? Under high current conditions (that this unit would never have) a diode drop is more than a diode drop because the bulk resistance of the semiconductor becomes significant. The proper way to do THIS particular circuit is to have a fuse between the battery and the reverse protection diode; this allows a replaceable fuse to blow when the mistake is made. This type of protection is commonly used in car stereos, at least in ancient times.

[@fradd182]

craigleemehan: thanks, im still processing what you have said, im not exactly a professional.

[@bairfamilyfarm1336]

In some cases the current draw backwards can be enough to short the diode ruining the meter. It would be fine like it is if there was a fuse right after the negative terminal. It would be safer to have the fuse blow after shorting the diode so the battery doesn't get hot and posdibly burst.

[@thecoinmagician]

They could have done that yes, but don't forget the diode will drop about 0.6 v , energy saving maybe .

[@AnonyDave]

This design would be fine if there were a fuse between the battery and everything. In that case, it'd basically be a crowbar protection design. Since they're so cheap as to skip the fuse, then having the diode in series with the circuit would be the preferred design - unless they depend on having 9V somewhere in the circuit...which would be silly because the difference between a new battery and a nearly flat one would be more than the drop across a diode.

[@speedplays6710]

They put the effort to put that little diode in there but they won't just put a normal plugin for the battery

[@camurgo]

Good thing I watched this video, thanks. I plan on buying this LCR meter. I'll watch out for the battery thing.

[@1badpete999]

A simple 9 volts battery connector mod with wire snaps would have you protected 100 % impossible with these cheap snapping wired connector male and female to reverse polarity !

[@zetadimensions]

I really enjoy the videos on this channel! Keep it up!

[@ΠάριςΑζής]

This instrument has a fine design. If you see the battery case, you will notice that the metal connection tab for the battery positive terminal is hidden behind a plastic window which has a smaller diameter than the window of the negative pole tab. In case of battery reversal the negative pole of the battery cannot touch the relevant tab because of its bigger diameter. So it is obvious that you have forced the battery to enter the case breaking the protective window made of two plastic tabs. Apart from that, there is a very clear drawing of the correct position of the battery at the bottom of the battery compartment. Therefore the fault of frying the instrument, sorry to say it but it is the naked truth, is all yours. Next to that, you referred to this instrument as an ESR measuring instrument (with ESR being only one of the parameters it can measure) and in your tests you were concentrated only in capacitance differences, saying nothing about ESR which is the most important criterion for judging electrolytic caps. And above all, you didn't tell us what the replacement diode you used is, to help us who own tha same instrument, in a similar case. Finally, your Fluke multimeter can measure accurately small ceramic caps, even using long probe cables. In order to do that, you need to have your cables interleaved, that is, the one cable must cansel the field created of the other one. In other words, they mast be twisted on each other like the UTP pairs of cables. If you use this technique your Fluke will be able to measure down to near zero pF, with reasonably long probe cables for convenient measurements. Greetings from Athens Greece!

[@TechTangents]

I went to double check. the window for covering the battery tabs does not extend all the way up the metal. It is only about half way making it very easy to connect the battery in the wrong direction without forcing it in. The area where I was first putting the battery in had very poor lighting and it was not easy to make out the markings in the battery compartment. There was no reason for it to be under the battery since the large plate lifts off to put the battery in. It could have easily fit anywhere else around the battery. It is ultimately my fault of course. But I would not call anything that makes it possible to so easily mistake the polarity a "fine design". Either fully shielding the the battery contacts and/or making the polarity indicators larger and more visible would have both considerably helped avoid this problem. Adding in the diode as a protection was nice though since it protected the meter. I believe I said at one point in the video(I haven't watched it in a long time) that I bought this meter to force myself to learn more about ESR. Since it broke immediately after coming out of the box I had not had a chance to familiarize myself with it and making ESR measurements. So I did not make any ESR measurements with it because I would not have known if I was doing it correctly or not(the menu is a little confusing in this meter, it took me a while to figure it out). In later videos I do show this meter being used for ESR measurements, but not in a video specifically about it. I can't find any probes with twisted cables like you have described and the Fluke manual makes no mention of it, can you link to an example of them? I put up the screenshot of the fluke's ranges in the manual to show that pF are really too low for it to measure. It doesn't have a native pF range even. The reason I put the capacitor directly into the probe connectors was to demonstrate that the probes themselves are not the problem at all. It is only the meter. I am 95% sure it is the test frequency the fluke uses that doesn't work correctly with small value capacitors. The capacitance feature of that meter is almost like a bonus feature as most DMMs do not have that ability. Thank you for the comments though, aside from the battery problem I do like this ESR meter and would recommend it. I have plans to do a video series on getting full sets of EE tools at $50, $250, and $500 budgets and I'll be going over this meter again in the $500 budget range.

[@ΠάριςΑζής]

@@TechTangents The truth is that I have never searched for buying ready made twisted pair probe cables for measuring small caps. Given that it is very easy to make a set by myself, this is what I finally did. I made a length of them at about half a meter, actually using three cables of different colour each, having in mind to use the not used one as an intermediate ground cable. Nevertheless, although this third one remains unconnected to ground up to this day, this set of twisted cables serves this purpose very fine. I have tested it even with cheap Chinese multimeters and found the taken measurements very reliable. It seems that you also must make this set in the same (diy) way. It's very easy and won't take you more than ten minutes to complete it. I hope my description is helpful.

[@octavmandru9219]

you lifted a pad while removing the diode ntz ntz ntz.

[@javierrincon6710]

Hello. there any way to add a protection with 2 diodes in the entrance to this meter as I have made with mesr-100? to give up. for you what you think best between this meter and mesr-100v2?

[@francescacosentino6975]

It also happened to me to put the battery badly. The De 5000 didn't turn on anymore and I didn't understand why. When I realized it I swapped the battery and everything worked as before. Then I came across this video and opened the de 5000 to see if the diode had blown. In my DE 5000 the diode "D5" is not there at all. And I have proof that by reversing the battery the only thing that happens is that it does not turn on. The precision of the measurements is the same as before. Maybe they made a change in the equipment and now battery reversal is no longer a problem

[@francescacosentino6975]

Looking better in the battery compartment, as someone else has already said, even inserting the battery backwards in the new DE 5000 the battery does not make contact if inserted backwards and therefore what happened to me happens: the device does not turn on but any damage. The diode is no longer there simply because it is not needed

[@joemanfred5738]

best channel ever

[@glenndoiron9317]

Pretty sure that the diode was not intended to protect against battery reversal. It would be a TVS diode, designed to clamp any voltage spikes when you insert the battery.

[@GovernmentFails]

Great video! Just be careful you wouldn't want to seem too competent, Druaga might get a complex.

[@Acecool]

You're supposed to discharge caps before using this meter... Additionally, you can calibrate the leads by holding CAL, open will show, keep the wires unconnected and press cal... wait 30 seconds... press cal if passes... Short - connect the wires, press cal, hold for 30 seconds, if pass, press cal and done..... As for caps, mine is off by 1000% on 100% of caps I've tried so far... I'm trying to talk with DER or the retailer to see what the hell is wrong because it is bothering me.

[@TheEPROM9]

I would fix this one of two ways, ether move the diode to be inline with the power or put a fuse with the diode so at least whe it lets the power though the fuse would blow & save the rest of the cicuit.

[@waydav1s]

I just opened up my new De-5000. There is NO diode at all in the spot! WTF! Now I'll put one in because there are erasers on pencils. THANKS!

[@hullinstruments]

waydav1s Same with the meter I just received. I’m wondering why they decided to remove this from their design? There must be a reason? Maybe if the diode shorts, it will continue to pass current through and blow the entire meter? Would love to hear your input and experience with this meter. Thanks for your time

[@robonkenhout7965]

I just bought one also, had to study the 9V for polarity. Don't use them much these days. Poor design to blow a diode so easily.

[@okikohaku2]

Hey AkBkukU, honest question - how do you feel about being called Druaga2?

[@TechTangents]

I had started being called druaga2 after making some guest appearances on druaga1's channel. I jokingly used it in a parody of the typical druaga1 intro for the Windows NT video but mentioned I go by AkBKukU. I didn't intend to adopt it as a misnomer. I do prefer to be referred to as AkBKukU.

[@nullplan01]

Instead of new diodes, why not invest in a 9V battery holder? They don't clip on the wrong way round.

[@NotSkeletor]

How do you propose that would fit inside the back of the meter?

[@ovalwingnut]

I'll take two dozen of those diodes.... just saying :O)

[@Ramdileo_sys]

after watch @Tech Tangents By AkBkukU the last video about the RAM memory torture.. and final destruction of it.......... now this... 0:50 .... ??...... my reaction was like OH MY GOD!!! ..... and i am an atheist.... !!!