Measuring the capacitance in an electronic circuit can be a very important step in diagnosing a piece of equipment for repair. Electronic equipment can fail for a large variety of reason such as worn out contacts, overheated components or wires and of course there is always the potential for physical damage caused by abrasion or impact from being dropped. To properly test any piece of electronics equipment you need a range of test equipment such as a digital multimeters and a capacitance meter. While there may be many causes for a piece of electronics equipment to fail, there is always a sense of urgency when it comes to getting it back up and running. Nowhere is this more noticeable than when you are working in a production facility and the production line will be down until you troubleshoot the problem and fix it.
This is where you need to grab your digital multimeters and your capacitance meter and get down to the basics of finding exactly what has caused the problem. Before you can start to use test equipment like a capacitance meter you need to have a basic understanding of not only how the circuitry works, but also how the meter works and what it is designed to do. The capacitance meter is used to measure the capacitance value of a capacitor, which is measured in a quantity of Farads such a microfarads (mF) or picofarads (pF) and using the latest in testers can even measure units as small as nanofarads (nF). You can also use a capacitance meter to measure other values in a circuit such as leakage, inductance and ESR or Equivalent Series Resistance.
Many of today's digital volt meters can test a capacitor by charging and discharging it using a known current to measure the rise in voltage, the slower the voltage rises the higher the capacitance is. Understanding how the capacitance meter works is just the beginning as you will also need to have a good understanding of how the circuit you are troubleshooting works. This generally includes knowing what the device you are working is supposed to do as well as understanding how each component in the device works. This means from the basic on/off switch all the way through the electrical circuits and down to component level.
If you do not have a good understanding of this, troubleshooting the device can be very difficult. Remember that you need to take a clear and logical approach to you troubleshooting, you cannot just grab your capacitance meter and start probing a circuit, at best it could take you hours to find the problem, at worst you could actually cause more damage than you are already dealing with. Follow a carefully laid out plan of action so that you can test each section of the device in the order which the operating process flows, for example start with the power switch and fuse before worrying about the digital display unit not lighting up. You should always use the best capacitance meter you can afford for testing purposes. At Tek-Inst you will find a wide selection of excellent electronic testing equipment for all of your troubleshooting needs. Not only do they have a huge selection but they offer free shipping on all orders over $300 to help you get the gear you need.
