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Products => Test Equipment => Topic started by: karderis on March 28, 2013, 05:40:44 pm

Title: LCR
Post by: karderis on March 28, 2013, 05:40:44 pm

 Hello everybody

I am really interesting to invest some money for a good LCR meter. I own a Peak LCR which is nice but it has the problem to wait for 5 sec before you can get the result on your screen. Now in the case of SMD components in circuit that is loosing of time. As I 've noticed Agilent's LCR meter is promoted thouroughly but it seems that it's not the best choice or better say value for money. Does someone has a better LCR to propose me in this group of price (Agilent). Thanks :D

Title: Re: LCR
Post by: robrenz on March 28, 2013, 06:06:13 pm

I suggest the IET Labs DE-5000  It is around $335.00   I have had one for about 2 years and am very happy with its performance.

Search the forum for "LCR" and you will find lots of other meters and opinions

Title: Re: LCR
Post by: karderis on March 28, 2013, 06:12:31 pm

Thanks a lot robrenz!

I 'll take it into consideration ;)

Title: Re: LCR
Post by: smashedProton on March 28, 2013, 06:41:19 pm

Why do electronics engineers use handheld tools?  A lab lcr meter will be more useful ib my opinion.  Are they more expensive?

www.GarrettBaldwin.com

Title: Re: LCR
Post by: robrenz on March 28, 2013, 07:44:47 pm

IMO the accuracy of the better hand held LCR meters is more than sufficient for the vast majority of measurements needed  in the average lab. Some more expensive bench meters are not more accurate anyhow.  How often do you realy need better than 0.3 to 1.0 % accuracy on capacitance or inductance?

Title: Re: LCR
Post by: free_electron on March 28, 2013, 08:01:42 pm

what do you want to do with the lcr meter ?
do you understand the problems involved in accurately measuring l/c for an application ?
what are you designing that you need this kind of instrument ? are you a cap manufacturer , coil manufacturer ? or are you designing high efficiency switchers where you do need to know the behavior of the capacitor / inductor ?

a lot of lcr meters are bought that are 'not fit for purpose'.

i am working on a switch mode converter right now.... i can't even measure the capacitors behavior. the convertor runs at 1.2 MHz and my lcr meter cannot drive that far ( tops out at 100Khz ... ) so i need to trust the datasheets of the component manufacturer to pick the right part in terms of capaitance/bias influence , temperature influence and SRF...