Is the capacitance reader functionality useful in DIY projects?
It's certainly useful when you have a cap with 'mystery' markings. (dont expect it to be reliable if you try to measur a cap while it is connected into a circuit though).
RS made a handy little cap meter once also (size of a multimeter, wiht range buttons down the side).
Wise words from Paul, I agree. I think I must buy or make myself some kind of cap meter. I think it could be useful when you have some caps in your junkbox whose value you are not so sure about. And matching some caps for filters could be cool...
For me it's been useful. I found out that I had some caps that were way outside tolerance, so I don't use them any more.
Also great for the aforementioned "mystery caps."
But I get a lot of my components from oddball surplus NOS sources. For someone else, a cap meter might not be of much use.
It's certainly something I use much less often than I use DC voltage, resistance, and hfe (Fuzz Facers gotta have the hfe:-).