The multimeter is a electronic device that helps to measure capacitance, voltage, continuity, resistance and more. So in this article I’m sharing How to check capacitance using multimeter easily. This article will help people who are beginners in electronics projects.
Warning : The capacitor can store electrical energy, so don’t touch any high valued capacitor pins directly it may cause electric shock. Please remove the power then short the capacitor pins using a resistor to discharge, after charge completely discharged then start to do testing.
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How to safely discharge capacitor
- Safe discharge of a capacitor is the main thing while you are going to test its capacitance. The primary step of capacitor discharge is done by removing the capacitor from the circuit board. The step by step of process is given below.
- Using your digital multimeter to verify that all power to the circuit is OFF. If the capacitor is working in AC circuit then turn the multimeter dial to AC voltage measuring and check it properly.
- After that you need to visually check the capacitor damaged or not. Most of the capacitor may show bulged, cracked characters if it damaged. If it damaged replace it with a new one with same capacitance value and voltage.
- If the capacitor is damaged then replace with new capacitor after measuring the capacitance using multimeter.
- If the capacitor is visually ok and the power is disconnected, then you need to completely discharge the capacitor voltage by connecting a 20K ohms 5 Watt resistor on the both pins of capacitor ( short circuit the capacitor )
- While short circuiting may some spark will appear, it is common for all of the electronic components while short circuiting.
- After successful discharging of capacitor is measured correctly using multimeter by checking the voltage stored in side the capacitor. For the correct measurement capacitor need to remove from the circuit board.
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Check capacitance value after safe discharging
Connect the multimeter test leads to the capacitor terminals. Keep the test leads stay connected for a while to get accurate capacitance value. Then the multimeter will automatically select the proper capacitance reading on the display. If the capacitance value is higher than the measurement range means the capacitor is faulty.
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Some additional information about capacitor you must know
- The life of the capacitor varies with the manufacturing company and the materials used in it.
- If the capacitor is damaged then it may act like the open circuit, This will damage the entire circuit section or blow up the connected fuse and damage the nearest electronic components.
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