LCR Meter Recommendations

[Uncle Erik]

My cheap LCR meter just went in the trash. I thought a cheapie would be OK, but readings wandered in both directions for a few minutes. It would eventually give a shaky reading around where it should have been, then would say that it had no reading. Fresh batteries, fussing with the clips, etc. got me nowhere.

Alright, I'm willing to spend $200-$300 on a decent LCR meter. Maybe a little more if I have to.

Does anyone have experience with a non-flaky and accurate LCR meter? I was all set to knock off a crossover project tonight. If anyone knows of a good meter, I've got a credit card in hand.

 

[ericj]

Wow, you're way out of my price range.

A few years ago i bought a used Wavetek LCR-55 on ebay for $40ish.

It's been good, except the little flap that allows it to stand up on the bench is broken, and the front-panel trimpot for zeroing probe resistance in the 20-ohms range is toast. Capacitance and inductance features as well as the diode and transistor testers - and the ohm meter works fine in all ranges other than the 20-ohms range - and can of course read less than 20 ohms in the 200-ohm range, it's just not useful for determining if a connection is 0.5 ohms or 0.7 ohms.

 

[tangent]

I've been happy with the B+K Precision 878 we have at work. It just seems to work, no fuss.

It's been replaced with the 878A, and there's now an 879. There's also a lower-end 875. Can't tell you anything about any of those.

 

[olblueyez]

Agilent HP 4261A LCR Meter - eBay (item 320325315888 end time Dec-21-08 17:00:20 PST)

 

[peranders]

Nice but a bit expensive maybe?
HAMEG: HM8118

 

[digger945]

Ain't the HP Agilent line supposed to be the cat's pajamas when it comes to test/measurement equipment?

 

[olblueyez]

Quote:

Originally Posted by digger945 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Ain't the HP Agilent line supposed to be the cat's pajamas when it comes to test/measurement equipment?

Hey, isnt Erik always the one touting "Get it used"!

 

[digger945]

Yep, from music to you name it. I wonder if he buys used underwear?
I bet that HP meter cost way up there new.
I was wondering if he ever purchased a meter given the date of the OP.

 

[peranders]

5340 USD for a
Agilent | 4263B LCR Meter, 100 Hz to 100 kHz

 

[deltaydeltax]

The eBay HP one looked pretty nice. It also has Kelvin connection ability. Here at work, I have a really cheap hand held which is only capable of testing at 1kHz.

 

[linuxworks]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tangent /img/forum/go_quote.gif I've been happy with the B+K Precision 878 we have at work. It just seems to work, no fuss.

878 owner/user here, too.

only gripe is you have to remove the whole back to change the 9v batt.

I bought mine about 10 yrs ago and while I don't use it every day, it has lasted pretty well.

here it is showing the CORRECT value of an R which seems to have doubled in value over the years!

its a nice meter*. not too expensive and accurate enough for home user (or better).


*out of tolerance carbon R not included

 

[yuckymucky]

Quote:

Originally Posted by peranders /img/forum/go_quote.gif 5340 USD for a Agilent | 4263B LCR Meter, 100 Hz to 100 kHz

We have one of those in the lab at work and it is really nice, however you will have to read the book at bit to figure out all the options and they are quite expensive. Other then those two downfalls it is a great unit.

I just picked up a Fluke 289 for personal/side job use so I am thinking that most of the stuff I need to use that can do, however those B&K handhelds look pretty nice.

 

[tangent]

I'm not aware of any standard DMM with an L feature. That's the only reason we got the B+K 878 at work. Also, these LCR meters do a lot better job with caps than most standard DMMs: wider capacitance ranges, more test frequencies, and at the high end, the option of ESR and complex Z testing.

 

[atulbhagwat]

Pl check this at $225+ Shipment. Details available at LCR Meter ‎(LCR METER‎) . It is with 100Hz to 25 Khz with best of functions.