AE20204 High Precision LC Meter Kit

[calin]

Does anyone has any more info on this kit ? seems pretty decent to me ... too good to be true actually

http://www.ebay.com/itm/261114894644

[jnd]

The board is actually quite small and simple, looks like cheap carbon resistors everywhere, probably some Arduino-like AVR. Only 5 ranges and I guess you can't change the frequency, the mcu picks what's best for the range. I bet there are more projects like this but with accessible source.

When you pick all the options and include shipping it gets close to $100.

[calin]

I think I will not be very interested by the box and power supply ... i have enough around my bench .

I did found a bunch of these projects around the web. What made me look was the claimed accuracy <0.5% !!!!
Or I am reading that one wrong

On the other side for home use an UT612 @ around 150-160 does not seems to be a bad deal.

[FenderBender]

http://aade.com/lcmeter.htm

[grenert]

The AADE meter is great, but take note that it is not intended for caps beyond around a microfarad or so.

[amspire]

These sort of meters can be useful when you do not need much accuracy, but for many capacitors, and perhaps a majority of inductors, readings cannot be accurate unless you are measuring at a known frequency and you are measuring the real and imaginary components of the impedance.

For inductors, do not expect better then 5% with this kind of meter.  This style of meter can get 1% or better for capacitors that are very low loss and low inductance, but for other capacitors, the accuracy will be a lot worse.

If you notice they do not actually quote an accuracy at all - they just say the reference cap is 0.5% tolerence.

If you need more accuracy, get a proper LCR meter with selectable test frequencies.

Richard.

[JackOfVA]

I did an extensive review of an AADE LC meter a couple years ago, including comparing its measurement of a variety of inductors against my HP test gear.

http://www.cliftonlaboratories.com/Documents/AADE%20Reveiw.pdf

It's a decent instrument considering the price. You have no control over the measurement frequency, which is, in any event, in the few hundred KHz range at most. That is a problem for some applications and inductor types, but for many common jobs, it's perfectly adequate.

[calin]

Yes, an proper LCR meter is probably a decen way to look at things. Relatively decent meters are in the 2-300 $ range and the kits are also almost there .

Better save by not drinking few Starbuks next week and get an proper meter. Even if not having the correct amount of caffeine in my system may cause undesirable effects in my brain

BTW, nice review of the AADE kit !! .. tx guys.

[kripton2035]

I already posted in this forum but in case you dont take a look here you will have free schematics to build your own lc or lcr meter.
regards,

http://kripton2035.free.fr/lcr-repository.html