Question to other AADE LC meter owners

[SmallWalrus]

Hi all,

I have just ordered for myself a kit for AADE's LC meter, and was reading through the instruction manual to get a hang of what's involved to get it together.

One thing I noticed as I was going through the parts list is that the design consisted of a pair of 2 capacitors, C2a and C2b, of which the total capacitance is vital to the operation of this thing.

I was actually considering swopping the capacitors out for some higher quality ones Wimas, but I guess I won't be able to do it now.

I don't like a tool that I don't understand how it works, it seems like the meter will potentially go "off" calibration after some time (http://www.cliftonlaboratories.com/aade_l_c_iib_meter_review.htm), and since I am assuming Neil is also a fairly old gentleman, it might leave me with a meter that I am unable to troubleshoot or recalibrate in the future!

Does anyone know the mystery behind the values of C2a and C2b? How are their values determined?

[T4P]

*referring to the majority on diystompboxes*
Why is everyone so arse-filled to the face to change any caps straight away to Wima's ?
Does it guarantee instant performance increase ? NO !
You don't know how the circuit works and you don't know how ESR affects , why would people want to change to wima's ?
So don't unnecessarily immediately grab a wima cap !
Prove me in ways a wima cap is better then the equivalent , other then ESR obviousity .

[wkb]

*referring to the majority on diystompboxes*
Why is everyone so arse-filled to the face to change any caps straight away to Wima's ?
Does it guarantee instant performance increase ? NO !
You don't know how the circuit works and you don't know how ESR affects , why would people want to change to wima's ?
So don't unnecessarily immediately grab a wima cap !
Prove me in ways a wima cap is better then the equivalent , other then ESR obviousity .

That, and I find it kinda 'typical' at best to compare a high-end bench meter with the AADE DIY unit.  You can probably buy like 20 to 100 AADE units for the price of that HP kit.  Of for the price of one of those reference caps shown in that report.

Use it for what it is intended and you are OK.  I homegrew an AADE-like LC meter myself, and it works OK enough.

If you are into metrology go work at NIST and steer clear of DIY meters like this