instructables

Simple Autorange Capacitor Tester / Capacitance Meter With Arduino and by

Hand

by stoppi71

Hello! * a multimeter for voltage measurement

For this physics-unit you need: * an arduino nano

* a power supply with 0-12V * a 16x2 I²C display

* one or more capacitors * 1 / 4W resistors with 220, 10k, 4.7M and 1Gohms 1
gohms resistor
* one or more charging resistors
* dupont wire
* a stopwatch

Simple Autorange Capacitor Tester / Capacitance Meter With Arduino and by Hand: Page 1
Simple Autorange Capacitor Tester / Capacitance Meter With Arduino and by Hand: Page 2
Step 1: General Information About Capacitors
Capacitors play a very important role in electronics.
They are used to store charges, as a filter, integrator,
etc. But mathematically, there is a lot in capacitors.
So you can practice exponential functions with
capacitors and they. work out. If an initially uncharged
capacitor is connected via a resistor to a voltage
source, then charges flow continuously to the
capacitor. With the increasing charge Q, according to
the formula Q = C * U (C = capacitance of the
capacitor), the voltage U across the capacitor also
increases. However, the charging current is
decreasing more and more as the rapidly charged
capacitor is becoming more and more difficult to fill
with charges. The voltage U (t) on the capacitor
obeys the following formula:
U (t) = U0 * (1-exp (-k * t))
U0 is the voltage of the power supply, t is the time
Simple Autorange Capacitor Tester / Capacitance Meter With Arduino and by Hand: Page 3
and k is a measure of the speed of the charging
process. Which sizes does k depend on? The larger
the storage capacity (that is, the capacitance C of the
capacitor), the slower it fills with charges and the
slower the voltage increases. The larger C, the
smaller k. The resistance between capacitor and
power supply also limits charge transport. A larger
resistance R causes a smaller current I and therefore
fewer charges per second flowing to the capacitor.
The larger R, the smaller k. The correct relationship
between k and R or C is:
k = 1 / (R * C).
The voltage U (t) at the capacitor thus increases
according to the formula U (t) = U0 * (1-exp (-t / (R *
C)))
Step 2: The Measurements
Students should enter the voltage U at time t in a
table and then draw the exponential function. If the
voltage increases too fast, you'll have to increase the
resistance R. On the other side if the voltage changes
too slow, decrease R.
If one knows U0, the resistance R and the voltage U
(t) after a certain time t, then the capacitance C of the
capacitor can be calculated from this. For this one
would have to logarithm the equation and after some
transformations we get: C = -t / (R * ln (1 - U (t) / U0))
Example: U0 = 10V, R = 100 kohms, t = 7 seconds,
U(7 sec) = 3.54V. Then C results in a value of C =
160 F.
Simple Autorange Capacitor Tester / Capacitance Meter With Arduino and by Hand: Page 4
But there is a second, simple method to determine
the capacity C. Namely, the voltage U (t) after t = R *
C is exactly 63.2% of U0.
U (t) = U0 * (1-exp (-R * C / (R * C)) = U0 * (1-exp (-
1)) = U0 * 0.632
What does this mean? Students must determine the
time t after which the voltage U (t) is exactly 63.2% of
U0. Specifically, for the example above, the time is
sought after which the voltage across the capacitor is
10V * 0.632 = 6.3V. This is the case after 16
seconds. This value is now inserted into the equation
t = R * C: 16 = 100000 * C. This yields the result: C =
160 F.
Step 3: The Arduino
At the end of the exercise, the capacity can also be
determined with an Arduino. This calculates the
capacity C exactly according to the method of earlier.
It charges the capacitor via a known resistor R with
5V and determines the time after which the voltage at
the capacitor = 5V * 0.632 = 3.16V. For the Arduino
digital-to-analog converter, 5V equals 1023.
Therefore, you just have to wait until the value of the
analog input is 1023 * 3.16 / 5 = 647. With this time,
the capacity C can be calculated. So that capacitors
Simple Autorange Capacitor Tester / Capacitance Meter With Arduino and by Hand: Page 5
with very different capacitance can be measured, 3
different charging resistors are used. First, a low
resistance is used to determine the charging time up
to 647. If this is too short, ie if the capacitance of the
capacitor is too small, the next higher charging
resistance is selected. If this is also too small a 1
Gohms resistance follows at the end of the
measurement. The value for C is then displayed on
the display with the correct unit (µF, nF or pF).
Simple Autorange Capacitor Tester / Capacitance Meter With Arduino and by Hand: Page 6
 Download
https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/FXW/FA28/JVWNMFXW/FXWFA28JVWNMFXW.ino
…

Step 4: Conclusions

What do students learn in this unit? You will learn I would be very happy if you would vote for me in the
about capacitors, their capacitance C, exponential classroom science contest. Thanks a lot for this!
functions, logarithm, percentage calculations and the
Arduino. I think a lot. If you are interested in my other physics projects,
here is my youtube channel:
This unit is suitable for students aged 16-17 years. https://www.youtube.com/user/stopperl16/videos
You must have already gone through the exponential
function and the logarithm in mathematics. Have fun
trying it in your class and Eureka!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OLT3xtZxsU

Simple Autorange Capacitor Tester / Capacitance Meter With Arduino and by Hand: Page 7