ESR meter and ....the fairy tales of the cap-kits...

[Etienne MacGyver]

you can use a multimeter to check the charge of a cap, after that you can start to worry how to discharge it  

EDIT:

Maybe this helps a bit:
http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/captest.htm#ctsdc

[Q*ris]

Does that means I should have a whole range of resistors handy...

[Etienne MacGyver]

No i dont think so, i think if there is charge in a cap, and you connect a lamp like you said, then the most of the juice is out
to be very sure, put a insulated screwdriver between the terminals and short it.

[Q*ris]

Will try, thanks for the tips!

[Belike]

Will try, thanks for the tips!

Take care Chris, don't blow yourself up!

[Etienne MacGyver]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=aQXy99SGuFg&NR=1

[level42]

Excellent way to destroy your caps......

[Etienne MacGyver]

Yeah, it was to show that there can be a pretty big force in a cap with just 20 volts.

you can ofcourse just connect the multimeter and wait for it to reach zero.
you see in the vid that the voltage is dropping by just waiting with the meter connected.

i always just desolder them without shorting them
most of the caps are drained in circuit anyway

and i dont think that there is anybody that stupid to desolder it with the board connected and/or plugged in and/or in operation 

[Q*ris]

That's the thing: I want to be able to measure them without desoldering them.
I contacted Mike, the guy who sells the Russian meter (thanks Dre for the address) and the auto discharge feature is not ready yet on his meter.

[level42]

Chris, as long as you havent powered up the PCB where the caps are  on for a while (a day or so) you wont have any left charges, except for really big caps like the main filter cap on a monitor chassis PCB or like Atari's Big Blue and caps like that...

Caps do discharge over time and the smaller ones are discharge rather quickly....

[Q*ris]

Good info, thanks!

[Belike]

Chris, as long as you havent powered up the PCB where the caps are  on for a while (a day or so) you wont have any left charges, except for really big caps like the main filter cap on a monitor chassis PCB or like Atari's Big Blue and caps like that...

Caps do discharge over time and the smaller ones are discharge rather quickly....

Confirmed, I tested hundreds of pcb and chassis caps with mine and never indicated that the discharge function is active.

[Etienne MacGyver]

More fun with caps right here 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoWMF3VkI6U&feature=context&context=G2642cb1RVAAAAAAAAAA