LCR meter recommendation

[the_anomaly]

Does anyone have a recommendation for an LCR meter?  Bench or handheld but I slightly prefer bench.  Primarily used for measuring inductance in the uH or sub uH range. 

[Da_Stier]

Hi,

the best one I ever used was a HP4263B at my university.
However they are insanely overpriced even when broken.

I got myself a Deree DE5000 and I'm very happy with it.
It has proper Kelvin connections and a wide range of functionality.
I did some testing / comparing with other meters (including the HP) and was pretty surprised by its accuracy.


Greetings,
Michael

[Max]

Hi,


I had to take a similar discussion some time ago and went for an HP4274A. It's a big, old unit but very handy to use. Every function has it's own button, no nested menus, well-readable, large 7-segment display, a range (1pF to 1F with 0.1% resolution) that's larger than the range of many more recent units and the speed is fantastic (~10 measurements per second or ~1 per second in HiRes mode). It also supports biasing the part (useful for electrolytic and ceramic capacitors which are voltage dependent). There's an option for integrated biasing but all devices support external biasing up to 200V.

You can get them "broken" for about 300$ (paid 330$ for mine plus shipping). However, many "broken" units aren't broken. The reason is that the unit shows "Error 4" if no cables are attached. Most sellers don't know that; they'll power it on, see Error 4, and sell it as broken. Of course, you can be unlucky and have a unit where Error 4 comes from actual damage. Service manuals with troubleshooting are available.
For 300$ there're not a lot of new LCR meters that are better than this - except for the size. You really need to have a lot of space for this thing.

I was lucky, I got a very clean, though slightly scratched unit and am happy with it. If you do get one, replace the infamous RIFA cap... it WILL exploded eventually.


Kind regards,
Max

[Mads Barnkob]

Many years ago I just go by with one of the blue cheap Chinese LCR meters, but after Dave reviewed the DE-5000 LCR meter, I figured it was time for an upgrade. It has served me well ever since.

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Hi,

the best one I ever used was a HP4263B at my university.
However they are insanely overpriced even when broken.

I got myself a Deree DE5000 and I'm very happy with it.
It has proper Kelvin connections and a wide range of functionality.
I did some testing / comparing with other meters (including the HP) and was pretty surprised by its accuracy.

I tested the DE-5000 up against my broken and taped together blue Chinese LCR meter and was surprised that the cheap one was quite accurate as well!

[TMaxElectronics]

This one is also an option:

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Costs around 300$ with shipping and some customs fees.

[the_anomaly]

Thank you all!  My current meter was very cheap and struggled to give consistent values.  I went with the DE-5000 in the end but the other options looked just as well. 

[TMaxElectronics]

Hope nobody minds me hijacking this thread

Has anybody got some recommendations for mid range LCR Meters? Something in the 400-1000€ range with kelvin probing clamps (or whatever the 4wire crock clips are called) at least as an option. I've really only found the GWInstec LCR-6002 but that is on the hogh end price wise and the clamps are extra.

Is there even such a thing on the market right now?

Oh and also how useful/necessary are the different frequency options?

Thanks

[Max]

For up to 1000 bucks you can get the HP4274 refurbished - at least I saw a couple such offers when searching for it myself. It is definitely more than entry-level. With that budget you‘ll probably find some newer HP/Agilent LCR meters (f.ex. the 4263A/B), too. Except if you require it to be new.
Also note that while the 4263 is much more compact, it requires more clicking through menus to configure it whereas the 4274 has just a button or knob for everything you need.
On the even higher end - likely not possible to find with your budget - would be the 4284.

The frequency is important; the main reason being that you can‘t measure 1pF accurately at 100Hz - and you can‘t measure 1000uF accurately at 1MHz.
The HP4274 can measure at 100, 120, 400 1k, 4k, 10k, 40k, 100kHz and (option, rare to find but maybe easy to make) one custom frequency. There‘s a high frequency version, the HP4275 that goes from 100k to 10M (I think). Same basic accuracy of .1% but a different measuring range.

Kelvin clips and test fixtures are either available on ebay (crazy expensive), or you get compatible ones from Tonghui. Speaking of which, they seem to have decently spec‘ed LCR meters in your price range, too. But I don‘t know how good they are.


Kind regards,
Max