Peak lcr40 meter anygood?

[the great waldo]

Hi
Has anyone checked out one of these for measuring pickups ?

Peak Electronic Design Limited - Atlas LCR - Passive Component Analyser - Model LCR40

Cheers

Andrew

[Possum]

...

I don't think it would be good. For one thing it automatically selects the test frequency, you don't want that, you want to be able to read at all the test frequencies. Joe can probably tell why else its not a good one for pickups....

[Joe Gwinn]

Hi
Has anyone checked out one of these for measuring pickups ?

Peak Electronic Design Limited - Atlas LCR - Passive Component Analyser - Model LCR40

It won't work for pickups. Look on page 15 of the Users Guide.

For about the same price, you can buy the Extech, which is widely used and known to work.

[salvarsan]

It won't work for pickups. Look on page 15 of the Users Guide.

* For about the same price, you can buy the Extech, which is widely used and known to work.

What delightful words:
"Note that any inductor with a DC resistance of more than 1000 ohms will be identified as a resistor."

Further perusal reveals that you don't get a choice -- it won't display R, L, & C at the same time.
Looks like the Extech is the current standard for handheld inductance testers.
NB:
The UK device is $125 shipped to the USA.
The Extech, at ~$200, comes bundled with a optical serial cable and reader software.
-drh

[belwar]

The extech is fun.. and it looks like most makers here are starting to agree upon readings at 1khz too.

I cant get a straight answer from anyone on this, but im not sure why it is not possible to have an LCR meter with some form of sweepable frequency selector. Even the high end HP/Agilent meters use preset frequencies. could SOMEONE design something with a basic knob to set the frequency?

[Possum]

....

Yeah but it would probably be a $20,000 meter
I've been having a problem with my Extech. I'll hook it up and it will try to read then "FUSE" comes up on the readout. The copper slits where you insert capacitor leads, if I push a tooth pick in there and sort of sweep them out, then it will start reading again. Not sure whats going on with it, but very annoying.

[Joe Gwinn]

I've been having a problem with my Extech. I'll hook it up and it will try to read then "FUSE" comes up on the readout. The copper slits where you insert capacitor leads, if I push a tooth pick in there and sort of sweep them out, then it will start reading again. Not sure whats going on with it, but very annoying.

It's saying that it is not making good connection to the item being tested. Maybe the slit contacts are dirty. I'd scrub them with an orange stick whittled to fit and dipped in alcohol or naptha. Basically, this is how a watchmaker cleans bearing pivots.

[David King]

An "orange stick" -is this a special term of art that I've been missing?
What about a puff of DeOxIt-5?

[Scott S.]

Belwar,

The old school impedance bridge will allow you to use an external oscillator which you can set to any freq you like.

Search ebay for "impedance bridge", good brands are ESI and General Radio

[Berman]

Belwar
In my opinion are fixed frequencies used because of the extreme low distortion needed to get the right meterings and there are some standard frequencies used so that the values can be compaired to other peoples meterings.
A fixed Wien-Bridge oscillator can be adjusted to optimal low distortion and symety of the wave. These oscillators are standard in high quality testingequipment. The cheap onechip function-generators are classes bader then a well designed Wien-oscillator.

my two percent
Hermann

[Bill M]

An "orange stick" -is this a special term of art that I've been missing?
What about a puff of DeOxIt-5?

"Orange wood" sticks are/were commonly used in electronics for probing and cleaning solder joints on pc boards. I first started using them when I was in the Navy. I went to school for 1 month to learn nothing but soldering pc boards and the instructor used to inspect all of our solder joints under a microscope. Wasn't very fun.

[Mike Sulzer]

Belwar
In my opinion are fixed frequencies used because of the extreme low distortion needed to get the right meterings

That is a great argument for not doing it that way now that computer-based methods are available using random noise. The quality of the waveform is not critical and you get results over a wide range of frequencies simultaneously. The bridge and the Extech get you amplitude and phase of the impedance one frequency at a time. With an I-V circuit connected to a computer you get the same quantities, but plenty of frequencies. If you only want one or two frequencies the Extech is a lot faster, but using a bridge over a range of frequencies is slow.