Mr Carlson's Capacitor Leakage Tester

The Cap Leak. Tester project must be shielded in a metal box. It is an essential requirement since the project is overly sensitive and as clearly explained on one of the videos (can’t remember which one) even the slightest movement of your hand or even feet will affect the measurement/testing giving you skewed results hence one of the probing leads needs to be shielded too!. Very important.

Now on the box options: Any home made or junk box should do the trick providing that is made of metal and not necessarily aluminum. It can be galvanized still, or brass or any DIY made still box etc. However, I would say that if you “really insist” on going rock bottom cheap by using a plastic box you’ll need to somehow have it shielded on the inside. One way of doing it (cheap)is to use a role of aluminum (sticky) tape. The so called “Dial Foil Tape”. The kind that is used on air ducts for the industrial air conditioning installations. If you’re in the UK (I suppose) you can get a roll at any Screwfix, Wilko, B&Q, HomeBase, Wickes stores, etc. Even Aldi has them (sometimes). Just an option. You decide.

Hello

Can the newest cap leakage / forecaster be built as a thru the hole component style in the metal enclosure?

I know it would be larger but not all of us have experience soldering the miniature surface mount components… yet.

Thanks!

@hls195759 Welcome. Possible? Probably. Practical? Not so much. The surface mount version was built, proven, and released. Don’t let that deter you from jumping in to smd. In most cases it is actually easier and faster. Additionally, if you are starting out, pick a smaller project to begin with. There are a bunch of basic builds to get the hang of smd compared to the leakage tester.

@hls195759 Hi, just so you know (in case you don’t just yet) MCL has first come up with a Thru Hole version of the same cap leak. tester that does pretty much the same thing, has the same functions on it and works the same way. The difference being that the thru hole has only one scale of 10 LEDs (one color only) and runs on 27V (3x 9V batteries) and the newer version has (still) 10 Led’s but they are bi-colour therefore using the second color as a second scale and runs on 29.5V instead of 27V and has a little more sensitivity.  So, there is your alternative. The plans and everything is available on “Patreon” but you have to search for it (on the videos list) since it was released quite some time (years) back. If my memory serves me, try videos: 40.41,42 and 43. Now, talking about the newest version, (the one you’ve enquired about) It is a fairly complex double sided board and I wouldn’t advise it as a first time SMD project. However, as “RedTekMan” has suggested (above) you can try the SMD “world” be start experimenting with small size projects and over time you’ll realise that is actually far less work, far less solder used, far smaller PCB  sizes, far quicker to build, and far less holes to be drilled per project etc. Once you get acquainted with it, is pretty easy. Good luck.

@ovi4 Thanks for the correction, it seems I am not as up to speed on the releases as I was. Hard to believe I joined 5 years ago, those early projects have left my memory. Although, I have not got all the tools to start making PCBs so I personally have no experience building anything on that level yet. I plan on picking up a laminator soon so hopefully I can change that. I do have a project on the bench that could really benefit from the curve tracer right now.

Well, good luck with your first projerct and the quicker the better. It is only hard until you break the ice. After that it should become second nature . 😉 👍