LCR meter failure

[sonata149]

I was using one of these (admittedly cheap, blue) LCR meters when it suddenly went off I cant get it working again. The problem seems to be caused by the capacitor not being fully discharged because I saw a small spark when I connected the second test lead to the cap terminal.

The little instructions/notes there say that it is protected but I didn't see any fuse or anything of this sort. Do you think it's Kaput and throw it away.

Sorry if what I brought up may seem trivial compared to some of the high quality / high resolution meters I saw mentioned in this forum but it was a handy tool to get a rough check of capacitors' strength and value.

Thanks for your help.

[jtwrace]

The same happened to me three weeks ago. I threw it away and bought an Extech 380193 - Passive Component LCR Meter

[rmyauck]

It does say on the Anatech site that an undisharged cap will kill it. I think you can buy the chip which probably took the hit for low $ along with any other part for low $ too. I found info googling around.

I didn't buy one but am thinking about the ESR70 @ $132 or so. which is protected and can measure capacitance. They also have an analog metered one one the site with optional protection for just over $200. The say it measures ESR most accurately.

On the audiokarma site I found a couple of diy projects from about 5 yrs ago to build one very inexpensively. They both used analog meters and one was protected.