🔴 Peak Electronic Design ESR70 Gold Review - No.950

[@IanScottJohnston]

Funnily enough I was looking at the ZEN50 the other day.....as it's capable of testing up to 50Vdc zener diodes which is something I seem to be doing more n more lately during my repairs. The Scottish wallet is firmly bolted shut at the moment though....:-)

[@allthegearnoidea6752]

LOL!

[@OrbiterElectronics]

Great review, thanks Scott.. I got all the Peak meters too.. & love'em 👍

[@GadgetUK164]

Great review! I swear by these Atlus Peak meters - I trust the Peak more than my other meters tbh! It has on more than one occasion found caps that kinda looked OK on my other meters, but were going out of spec. I guess it probably comes down to the frequency used to test. My ESR70 is the previous model I think - and it does sometimes take a number of seconds on large caps! I love the simple design of these - and the different coloured shells, gotta collect em all lol =D I have the LCR tester (yellow I think), and the semiconductor tester. Need to go see what others there are I think!

[@messageobliquespe100]

I’ve the ESR+ ESR70 It looks like additional text added to the “Gold” version information you showed - re the unit ignores Reactance in the measurement of ESR (mentioned from 25mins). Wonder if it’s safe to assume this is a “new” feature of this ESR series unit 🤔 New Gold Features: Improved LCD with better backlight. 10x faster capacitance measurement for large capacitors. Enhanced user options system. New triple-slope measurement system to vastly reduce the influence of parallel resistance and/or leakage current on capacitance measurements. Much wider capacitance measurement range now 0.3uF to 90,000uF (was 1uF to 22,000uF).

[@allthegearnoidea6752]

The pointed probes are nice to work on PCBs with I recommend them.

[@SeanBZA]

Good enough to tell you if the capacitor is good, definitely bad or just a little bit on the iffy side. I tend to err on the iffy side, close to the edge of the band I will replace them, because they will only get worse from there on, but often you can just use it as a go no go test instead, as that makes it a lot better. Nice upgrade, I got one of the older ones, which run of a A23 coin cell pack, much lower capacity than the AAA cell, but no boost converter to pump up the voltage to operate. At least those cells do not leak easily, unlike the Durahell you have there, which are so prone to leakage these days that the brand owner no longer has that repair or replace guarantee on then for equipment damage. Not a matter of if they will leak, but when, either before you buy them, before the best before date or just after, though the last few batches I had all pretty much never made it to there anyway, all leaked either just before, to being failed in storage before opening.

[@OrbiterElectronics]

Definitely agree with your Duracell points there Sean, they seem worse than virtually all the other brands over the last few years. And by few years.. I mean about the last 10 :)

[@SeanBZA]

@@OrbiterElectronics Expected as the brand is merely relying on recognition, slapping the label on whatever cheap cells they can get, in order to milk the brand still further. No difference between them and the cheaper no name cells, or store brand, they come from the same small group of factories, and no guarantee there is the same cell in each batch. Construction cut down to the bare minimum to meet the specification, at least for the first few lots, then the game to see just how badly the part can be before the brand holder complains. The different stores get a different cell as well, the cheap bulk seller will get the cheapest cells possible, perhaps the big contract buyer who pays more might get the better batch.

[@PeakAtlas]

Hi Sean. We've been very pleased with our OEM Duracell cells over the years. I agree that Duracell have gained a mixed reputation and that's something we have carefully looked at. We haven't seen any instances of leak damage in normal use. Even if Durcall themselves don't offer the famous repair-or-replace guarantee anymore, we certainly do. So if any customer has a Peak unit that has sufferred from leak damage in the 24 month warranty period then we'll sort that out for you.

[@SeanBZA]

@@PeakAtlas If you are buying as OEM then you will get cells from one of the better subcontractors, who actually has quality control, and a higher unit price. Would love to find who is the supplier of batteries to Reckitt Beneckiser, as those batteries, white sleeve with only a batch code, are so far the only leakproof battery I ever met. They do not leak, even 5 years past expiry, left in the Airwick Freshmatic units, and stone flat. Got a good number of them because they had a special for a year or two where a new unit, with 2 refills, was cheaper than the 2 refill pack (Gillette model of sales), so I was buying 3 a month for work, just for the refills, and ewasting the units, but keeping the cells from them.

[@raindropsrising7662]

Awesome review. Just ordered Peak's ESR Gold meter. Can't wait to get it. Key explanation of the testing accuracy at the end of the video convinced me totally. Thanks for your time putting this video together.

[@jedi-mic]

Could you put a small resistor across the capacity and divine it by half to get your ESR accurate reading between your meters?

[@TheRadiogeek]

Would you try to run this unit on some rechargeable AAA batteries and see if it functions okay on the lower 1.2 volts of a rechargeable battery? Thanks 👍

[@PeakAtlas]

Hi TheRadiogeek. Yes, the ESR70 will happily run from a NiMh or NiCd 1.2V cell. In fact it is also happy with the AA Lithium-Iron-Disulphide (yep "Iron") which can be as high as 1.8V when brand new. The input voltage range of the boost regulator in the ESR70 is very wide indeed. Battery voltage will not influence performance at all (until it's below the low-battery warning threshold), the cell voltage is switchmode boosted and further regulated with an LDO, the the test conditions are very very stable.

[@TheRadiogeek]

@@PeakAtlas Thank you for the information on the battery voltages. I like to use NiMh batteries when I can in test equipment because they don't leak like the alkaline batteries do. 👍

[@hallpet45]

About time they sent u one,for review..😊

[@somebodyx]

To measure ESR without capacitance range OL situations for DER-EE use its Rs mode & 100kHz. You get more digits of resolution as well.

[@leybraith3561]

Looks fantastic but I would be really, really worried about having an AAA battery so intimately close to the circuitry. One leak and you've got a dead Peak. I've had one Duracell leak while still showing 1.46 volts open circuit! (It's possible it was a really well forged 'Fake' as I have no record of where it came from). Nowadays EVERY? brand of AAA or AA seems to have the occasional battery that leaks annoyingly quickly (i.e. after a couple of years of negligible use). Bizarrely I am now seeing a few that eventually leak while still in the packet. Maybe the latest method for programmed failure?? Dave at EEVblog has been trying to work out which brands are better at not leaking. Wonder how it's going? Personally I'd be happy if the (£84.00/AUD$150) Peak had a slightly bigger case so that the battery could be in its own compartment. (I realize Peak are doing a beautiful job at matching case shape and size across their products)

[@IanScottJohnston]

Totally agree. It's a beautiful design, but yes the battery should really be in a fenced off area. I guess some ultra thin heatshrink sleeving over the battery including the ends (as much as possible) would help keep us sleep at night.

[@PeakAtlas]

Hi Ley, thanks for the message. We have not seen any problems with battery leakage and we've used OEM Duracell cells for several years now (many 10's of thousands). The capacity is good and no leakage reported in normal conditions. It's worth noting too that if anyone has any leak damage in their Peak product within our 2 year warranty period then we'll repair or replace the instrument free of charge. Even after the 2 year warranty period we will support customers with a very economic fixed-price repair service. One more point here, all our products will automatically switch off after a period of inactivity (typically 1 min), so there is virtually no consumption when the unit is not in use. Cells are vastly more likely to leak if current is being drawn (like in a radio or flashlight thatr's been left on).

[@IanScottJohnston]

@@PeakAtlas very satisfying to have a manufacturer, especially from the UK (would have been better if it was Scotland LOL!) respond to a post on KZbin. AAA+++

[@SeanBZA]

@@PeakAtlas You need to send one ZEN50 to Ian to review as well, even though he is a Scotsman he does make some very interesting kit.

[@TheDefpom]

I agree

[@cholomanaba]

Hi there, regards from Ecuador, SouthAmerica. I am widely concerned about the ESR table that comes with the unit, since it shows insanely high values compared to generic tables (specially for the 4.7 uF to 22 uF capacitors).... Have you ever found a capacitor of 4.7 uF at 10V measuring ESR of 30 ohms and consider it good? It has me confused.

[@johnflower8648]

There is a multiple case available for these instruments.

[@gordonwedman3179]

A man who has one watch always knows what time it is while a man with two watches is never sure. Seems to apply to capacitor testers as well. (Actually I have two Casio Atomic watches and they both show the same time)

[@TheDigitalAura]

I'd like to see metal threaded inserts, as goodness only knows how long that plastic will last after multiple battery changes.

[@TheDefpom]

You can get complete replacement case sets for these too!

[@TheDigitalAura]

@@TheDefpom That's nice. I still think brass inserts would be better though and seeing a Duracell locked inside made my skin crawl. A leak waiting to happen, no? Do you know if it will happily run at 1.2v on an NMH rechargeable? It would also be great to see what it outputs during load on the scope.

[@TheDefpom]

@@TheDigitalAura yes I do agree that brass screw inserts would have been nicer to see, the battery had OEM marked on it, which made me wonder if it is a higher quality cell then the other junk they make.

[@PeakAtlas]

@@TheDigitalAura Thanks for the message, Yes, I agree, brass inserts for the screw fixings would be nice and we're looking into this. The screws that we use however are designed specifically for use with ABS plastics, and with a reasonable amount of care are unlikely to strip the fixing posts. If you have any enclosure problems within the 24 month warranty period then we'll happily replace the enclosure for you. After the waranty period you can still buy new enclosures to refresh your unit. Oh, and yes, it will run fine with a 1.2V NiMh cell. On the subject of cells, the OEM Duracell that we supply with the unit has proved to be very reliable. We use a large number of them, so we know that they haven't been on the shelf for a long time. Their shelf life is typically 5 years. Operational life in the ESR70 is typically 1500 ops.

[@t1d100]

Thank you, for the video. Good information.

[@rosi6144]

nice review. Can you test motor run/start capacitors with the peak esr meter?

[@messageobliquespe100]

I used on a refrigerator run start capacitor rated at 4uF 450VAC & it worked - if that helps

[@QsTechService1]

I have this same meter I also have the DCA55 semiconductor I purchased these meters years ago Pretty expensive Looks like they dropped in price Pretty good meters Unfortunately the clip wire broke So I just used the 2 probes .. I actually mod Is the meters to run off of 9 V batteries I found the ESR not to be accurates sometimes What's crazy is they did reengineer Off the battery I hated the 12 V little battery always drained

[@SeanBZA]

Not surprising because the A23 is only around 150mAh, but the AAA is 1Ah capacity, and even with the boost converter loss will come out ahead, especially as the microcontroller can sleep most of the time, and only run off the cell voltage. A23 you needed a voltage regulator for it, which always drew a tiny bit of current.

[@QsTechService1]

@@SeanBZA good to know thanks

[@QsTechService1]

@@SeanBZA good to know thanks

[@QsTechService1]

@Milwaukee Mac Repair I see you changed your name lol Let me know next time you're in Racine I still owe you lunch From those tamales you hooked it up

[@PeakAtlas]

Hi Qs Tech Service. The migration from the 12V (GP23/MN21/A23) style battery to the AAA cell has been a popular move for us. The AAA has a larger energy capacity, is easier to find and generally lower cost. It also has higher current driving capability, so that's why we've been able to introduce extra features such as higher current capacitance measurement (for faster testing) and also a backlight. The downside of the AAA cell is that we need to implement a boost converter in addition to extra filtering and an LDO regulator stage to ensure that rails are nice and quiet, so that increases our build cost a little. We've never claimed to be low cost, all our products are designed and built in the UK (even the plastic mouldings are made here in the UK), so our costs will never be as low as China etc.

[@tandoganpolat7151]

I have Kawai CN31 piano. It gives no sound. I have checked the capacitors on sound amplifier of my digital piano and got the following results in ESR levels. I used the peak ATLAS ESR70 gold. 10000 uF 25V - ESR 0.01 ohm - uF reading 8811uF 2200 uF 25V - ESR 0.02 ohm- uF reading 2015uF 470 uF 10V - ESR 0.20 ohm- uF reading 479uF 100 uF 25V - ESR 0.43 ohm- uF reading 98uF 47 uF 16V - ESR 0.64 ohm- uF reading 50uF 10 uF 16V - ESR 1.01 ohm- uF reading 11uF 1 uF 50V - ESR 1.10 ohm- uF reading 0.98uF I am especially suspicious about theIr results for 10 micro and 1 micro F. They should be around 8 and 5 respectively. Do these results mean that I need to change the 10 micro and 1 micro D capacitors? Thanks for your replies. Tan

[@edwardrogers-wright1604]

This model works off a 1.5v battery whilst the others work off 12v (which is difficult to obtain in my region). Are all newer models off 1.5v?

[@TheDefpom]

Yes I believe all current ones use a 1.5v cell

[@TheEmbeddedHobbyist]

I always get confused when you say Peak, I built a custom ATE rig way too many years ago, but the test fixtures were made by "peak" production in the UK. So every time you say "Peak" it lights up a few old brain cells.

[@tofu3802]

Another good interesting video, as always. Good with in circuit testing. Good device. Thank you.

[@andymouse]

Simple solution, only have one meter !... cheers.

[@messageobliquespe100]

Hi to the cat 😂 although you said you zeroed them - assume you did do the probe compensation on the Peak ESR 🤔 required good repeatable readings & particularly for low values of ESR

[@chris-ip4pk]

How do you know if the esr is good.i don't get it

[@TheDefpom]

It depends on a lot of factors, rated voltage, size, capacitance, it is not a precise thing really, unless you want to look up the manufacturers specification for that particular cap to find what it is rated to be, a "gut feel" is usually good enough, based on experience, plus if the cap is completely failed it is very clear that is the case.

[@y_x2]

Using not differientiel probe is not very good for low resistance measurement. ESR varie a lot with frequency.

[@rosi6144]

Many thanks DEFPOM. This was what I've been looking for at 9:39. Thought of buying the Der EE DE5000. Not buying it anymore. I'm going to buy the Peak ESR70+ and the peak LCR45. With the LCR45 i can quickly test if capacitance, inductance and resistance are in spec. With the ESR70 i can quickly check for bad capacitors. Defpom, do you happen to know what the difference is between the ESR70 0old and the ESR70+? Many thanks in advance. Hope to hear from you

[@FullMoons-pb8pz]

Hi I need your help. I have checked the capacitors on my digital piano and got the following results in ESR levels. I used the peak ATLAS ESR70 gold. 10000 uF 25V - ESR 0.01 ohm 2200 uF 25V - ESR 0.02 ohm 470 uF 10V - ESR 0.20 ohm 100 uF 25V - ESR 0.43 ohm 47 uF 16V - ESR 0.64 ohm 10 uF 16V - ESR 1.01 ohm 1 uF 50V - ESR 1.10 ohm I am especially suspicious about ther results for 10 micro and 1 micro F. They should be around 8 and 5 respectively. Do these results mean that I need to change the 10 micro and 1 micro D capacitors? Thanks for your replies. Tan

[@TheDefpom]

Smaller lower voltage caps have higher ESE, those all look pretty normal to me, you also need to pay attention to the capacitance it reads too, it is normal to see it as much as 20% out, any more than that is usually a sign of it starting to fail.

[@FullMoons-pb8pz]

@@TheDefpom I have another question. I have also checked voltages from each capacitors. Some of them does not show any voltage. Does this mean that they are faulty? Needed to be changed?

[@axyetbdajte2]

Отличный прибор . Качество на высоте ! Отличный компаньон LCR40 .

[@thomasw6169]

You definetely need a Network analyzer !

[@VoeViking]

All very nice but way too expensive.

[@James_Bowie]

When it comes to capacitors, I don't waste my time putzing around with measurements. If I suspect it's no good then I bin it. And 9.9 times out of 10 I'm on the money.

[@juliusvalentinas]

Next time test Miron63 the only instant measurement in circuit tester, but nobody will send you one for free, even then you must do homework to make the best of it, as author builds them on a budget, and RCA gold plated japanese stuff costs allot, not because it's quality stuff, but because sheep tolerate this.

[@juliusvalentinas]

I wanted to give you a link but shittube does now allow links to be posted.

[@billhill839]

Couldn't understand half of what you said.

[@TheDefpom]

I will speak slower, how about now?

[@billhill839]

@@TheDefpom Yes, thats better.