[sdiy] How do you find the cause of a short ?

[Steve Ridley]

> Most capacitor ESR meters can read low resistance - although they
> usually do not have an audio tone as an output.


Wouldn't an ESR meter also show supply decoupling caps as a low resistance?


This might be a cheap alternative - although I haven't tried it myself: 

http://www.aeroelectric.com/articles/LowOhmsAdapter_3.pdf


You could even stick a jack across the DVM input and feed it into a VCO to give 
an audible indication.



BTW, one thing ESR meters are very useful for is checking for blown devices in 
switching supplies etc where you often have a transformer winding across the
device. At DC (i.e. with a DVM) it shows as a short, but most ESR meters work 
at relatively high frequency they'll show the winding as a higher resistance.
Usual warning - if you don't know what you're doing with a SMPSU, don't even
think about taking the lid off etc. Funerals are expensive.


Steve