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Best CHEAP LCR meter for small capacitors and inductors?

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TimFox:
For a while, IET (successor to General Radio) offered their DE-6000, which appears to be a rebadged DER meter with tighter specs.
It is no longer available from IET, and was in the same package as the DE-5000, but a nicer color.
https://www.ietlabs.com/pdf/Datasheets/DE-6000.pdf
IET's data sheet for their (also discontinued) DE-5000 (in yellow):
https://www.ietlabs.com/pdf/Datasheets/DE_5000.pdf
Slightly better specs on the more expensive 6000:  at 1 kHz and the 200 nF FS range, the 6000 spec'ed 0.2% and 2 digits, while the 5000 was 0.3% and two digits.
When it was available, I recommended the IET DE-6000 to a colleague because it was available with a traceable calibration, which his job required.

MathWizard:
LCR tweezers sound nice. But yeah if the good ones are starting around $300, I'm in no rush.

I have a cheap Mastech LCR metter but it has Kelvin probes. But it's not the best at measuring large caps like +1000uF. I can't remember it's rating, but some times it seems to do it just fine, but other times, it just never gets a reading, even at lower frequencies too.

I don't really need another LCR meter, but I would like a better 1, but I'd love the self-contained chopstick ones too. The case of the mastech meter is really big, but it's mostly hollow. But well it does have a nice huge screen tho.

tautech:

--- Quote from: MathWizard on January 19, 2023, 05:01:58 pm ---LCR tweezers sound nice. But yeah if the good ones are starting around $300, I'm in no rush.

--- End quote ---
Maybe you missed the development of these at half the cost of the big boys:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/design-a-new-precision-lcr-tweezers/

mawyatt:
As mentioned earlier, this setup for SMD with the DE-5000, a modified TL-21, and a cheap SMD fixture works extremely well, and is highly repeatable. We get results that agree quite well with our IM3536 & TH2830 lab grade Bench LCR Meters. The DE-5000 does have True 4 wire Kelvin type capability, with separate Guard Ground which are utilized in this setup, and a likely reason for the performance .

Highly recommend setup for those interested in quality SMD measurements, quick, accurate (compared to lab bench quality LCR meters), repeatable, that we prefer over tweezers.

Edit: BTW the reading here was from a quality Venkel 0603 4.7pF COG cap that measured 4.71pF on 12/23/22. Also, the modified TL-21 and SMD fixture were connected, plugged into the DE-5000, and the DE-5000 wasn't even recalibrated for this quick measurement :-+


Of course YMMV.

Best,

vinlove:
I bought this Chinese LCR meter from eBay about 10 years ago.  It is still working OK.  It was cheap, but now I cannot remember exactly how much I paid for it.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B096MJZ6ZL/ref=sspa_dk_detail_7?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B096MJZ6ZL&pd_rd_w=8mC9s&content-id=amzn1.sym.15c0cc83-c6c5-4d44-aa3d-0de17a9f3682&pf_rd_p=15c0cc83-c6c5-4d44-aa3d-0de17a9f3682&pf_rd_r=SY4C0ES1R53NC7H64422&pd_rd_wg=qeS0x&pd_rd_r=8fe0b2d6-72d5-46f4-a213-8e0fb633ee2a&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWw

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