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Best CHEAP LCR meter for small capacitors and inductors?
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mawyatt:

--- Quote from: nctnico on November 22, 2022, 02:59:58 pm ---
--- Quote from: ranchero on November 22, 2022, 05:24:35 am ---I periodically need to measure small capacitors (under 20pF, sometimes under 5pf) and small inductors (under 150NH).
I currently have DE-5000 which has 100kHz range and should theoretically measure these small L and C just fine. But readings on these small L and C are very unstable even though I'm using TL-21 adapter with very short leads (like 4cm).
Since it's more like a hobby I can't justify purchasing real good LCR meter (like PM6304).
Do you guys think any less expensive LCR meter (let's say, under $200) will do any better than DE-5000? I would be totally happy with 10%-15% tolerance on these small L and C.

Question#2 - what would be best setup to measure small SMD L and C (like 0402, 0603)? Currently I'm using small board with 2 pins, just soldering SMD elements to the board for measuring.

--- End quote ---
There is this XJW01 LCR bridge that is pretty cheap and does proper 4 wire measurements. In my experience it will measure small capacitors just fine. I have not tried inductors. Ideally you'd use an SMD test fixture but that alone will set you back around $200. But a board will also work as a test fixture. In such a setup I'd solder SMA connectors to the board and use short SMA to BNC cables to connect to the XJW01. I don't know what kind of board you are using now but if you have not done that already, you could design one yourself. A double sided board with traces that keep the measurement to be a 4-wire measurement as much as possible would be good and only costs a few dollars to order from JLCPCB, Seeed, etc.

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Those XJW01 LCR bridge look interesting, but only show a max frequency of 7.8KHz. Looks like some old-school design with many discrete thru-hole components, but should be fun to play with. Believe the DE-5000 also uses a bridge concept but with a custom chip pair. We've compared the DE-5000 with our two lab grade LCR meters over a wide range of Cs, Rs and a few Ls, the results were indeed impressive for a handheld low-cost instrument!!

Best,
nctnico:
I did some tests with my XJW01 but it's usefull range is from -say- 10pf or from 1uH. So not a fit for the requirements for the OP.
Vojtech:
Consider ET432, it has Kelvin clips, I am very satisfied with it.
mawyatt:
Just did a quick check with the DE-5000 measuring a 53mm length of solid #12 Cu wire, this should be ~41.7nH per calculations and we measured 43nH (100KHz) with TL-21 fixture. For ACR we get 0.002 ohms tho, and this is calculated as 281u ohms, with DMM6500 we get 271.7u ohms, so obviously below the DE-5000 resolution.

Also measured a 17.5 turn open wire inductor at 292nH (100KHz) with DE-5000 & TL-21, TH2830 with 292.737nH and IM3536 with 292.17nH.

BTW the core DE-5000 is a 4 wire Kelvin Type System, the TL-21 Fixture brings the each 2 Force/Sense wire sets to the Bottom of each Alligator Clip as shown below with the 2 wire inductors. This is a left over from a TL-21 we modified some time ago for a true Kelvin setup with long Kelvin leads and clips.

Anyway, just some measurement and hope this helps.

Best,
ranchero:
Just to clarify - I do have TL-22 tweezers, from my experience it doesn't do any better on small L and C comparing to TL-21. I do have Kelvin clip and I've seen video of modification to use them with DE-5000, just didn't have a chance to try it myself.
So far - reading this thread - I think, as few people suggested - I need to make small fixture without wires and try to use it directly on DE-5000.
 
Other question - is it normal to do calibration on DE-5000 every time you turn it on? It seems that values do change a bit after calibration.


--- Quote from: 2N3055 on November 22, 2022, 01:56:06 pm ---LCR Research LCR Pro1 Plus Smart LCR Tweezers

--- End quote ---

Specs are very promising. $300 - a bit more expensive than I would like them to be...But I will think about them, thank you.


--- Quote from: Vojtech on November 22, 2022, 06:53:06 pm ---Consider ET432, it has Kelvin clips, I am very satisfied with it.

--- End quote ---
Have you tried it with very small SMD L and C? Would you share your setup and results?
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