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BK Precision 879B LCR Meter Repair


Posted on January 3rd, by Shaun Merrigan in Electronics, Test Equipment. Comments Off on BK Precision 879B LCR Meter Repair

The BK Precision 879B is a good quality, dual display 40,000 count LCR (inductance, capacitance, resistance) meter with 0.1% basic accuracy. It was first manufactured in 2010 and is still available (2021) for around $420 Cdn. I purchased mine several years ago and find it very convenient and easy to use.

BK Precision 879B

Things I like about the 879B:

  • Open/short calibration completes very quickly as opposed to the DE 5000
  • Decent quality Kelvin clips and smd tweezers
  • 40,000 counts for extra accuracy
  • Very good accuracy when compared to my HP4263A
  • Long battery life
  • Easy to use menu system and quick setup

A common problem with these units is the lack of robust input protection. What this means is that if you forget to discharge a sufficiently large capacitor and attempt to test it, you will damage the front end of the meter which will then refuse to function and display an error: ERR02. There is a good description of this problem and solution on the EEVBLOG Forum.

Of course, in a moment of distraction I managed to damage the input by doing just that and encountered the ERR02 code. The following components needed to be replaced in order to repair the meter:

  • F200, 04661.25NRHF (Input Fuse smd)
  • U603, TPS60400DBVR (negative switching voltage regulator)
U603, F200 Locations
Fuse F200 Replaced
Regulator U603 Replaced

Replacing these two components cleared the error and the meter was repaired. I decided to measure several of my standard capacitors as a check.

1.0uF Standard Capacitor (within 0.04%)
100nF Standard Capacitor (within 0.13%)
1nF Standard Capacitor (within 0.16%)

Having done the repair, I will be much more conscious about discharging capacitors prior to testing them.

Thanks for reading.





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