Some of the best things are free, or coulda had a V8: tale of my Heathkit C-3

[Electronic M]

Years back I got this Heathkit model C-3 capacitor and resistor tester for free from the owner of a anti-Q shop I used to visit regularly. He got a kick out of the fact that a teen like me knew how to fix vintage radios, and wanted me to have it.



But the funny part is that I have never used it untill now, because I did not have the instructions for it, and could never get to recaping it.
Well I finally recaped it last night, and it is perhaps the coolest piece of test equipment I own! It is beyond cool to be able to see the condition of a cap that is being replaced or was replaced compared to a new one! I was surprised how few caps it had, recaping it was childs play compared to the average vintage TV. Makes me feel stupid for waiting so long to recap it!

I managed to figure it out for the most part. I did not bother to try resistance checks, but did determine how to check capacitance (which I found to be only moderately acurate), and check for leakage (sort of). When the "power factor" switch is turned down till the switch cilcks it tests it tests the leakage of paper and mica caps, and tests lytics when turned up past the click, but turning the "power factor" knob through it's higher range has no effect on the leakage reading(this confuses me).
I pose these folowing questions to those familiar this and other eye type cap checkers. What does the "power factor" knob do exactly? And what other relavant user instructions have I yet to figure out through my intuition?

Here are some pictures of the unit.





Tom C.

[bandersen]

Cool. It looks similar to my Knight.


Knight R/C tester by bandersen, on Flickr

[jeyurkon]

In case you don't have the Schematic.

Power Factor should be zero for perfect capacitors. It's an indication of the internal series resistance. It's measured at 60HZ and is the ratio of the real power to apparent power. The current should be 90 degrees out of phase with the voltage for a capacitor. Internal resistance changes that and you start to dissipate real power as the phase shifts from 90 degrees towards zero.

I might have been a little sloppy in my explanation.

[Electronic M]

you've come closer than anyone so far (here or on ARF) in explaining powerfactor to me so I can understand.

Tom C.

[bandersen]

You might enjoy this YouTube video on checking the power factor of electrolytics by the "old goat" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0UJdNJmGJM

[jeyurkon]

Good video! Better than a manual.

[Electronic M]

Now I understand how to use the power factor control!

Thanks.

Tom C.