Capacitance meter of 40 milli farad range

Thread Starter

vks_foe

Joined Jan 11, 2009
61
Can somebody pls suggest a handheld meter which can measure capacitance upto 40 milli farad? Also, is there any website where we can compare the meters (DMM, portable oscilloscope etc) by specs? It is very difficult to choose a meter even amongst the meters of one brand.
 

w2aew

Joined Jan 3, 2012
219
Can somebody pls suggest a handheld meter which can measure capacitance upto 40 milli farad? Also, is there any website where we can compare the meters (DMM, portable oscilloscope etc) by specs? It is very difficult to choose a meter even amongst the meters of one brand.
40 millifarads is an unusually large value of capacitance, not often encountered in electronics work. Thus, most handheld DMMs will not cover this range. You'll probably have better luck with a dedicated LCR meter, or a bench DMM. Or, with this large value capacitance, it wouldn't bee too hard to estimate the capacitance by measuring charge time via a resistor and power supply, or current source.
 

bountyhunter

Joined Sep 7, 2009
2,512

k7elp60

Joined Nov 4, 2008
562
Another solution would be to take a value in uF, measure it and then put it in series with the larger value, measure the total capacitance and then calculate what the larger value is.
 

Thread Starter

vks_foe

Joined Jan 11, 2009
61
Another solution would be to take a value in uF, measure it and then put it in series with the larger value, measure the total capacitance and then calculate what the larger value is.
Its a nice idea.. in theory.. Can there be any practical issues which may bring in any error ??
 

PackratKing

Joined Jul 13, 2008
847
Someone is not considering their scientific notation here...
milli-farad = 1/1000 farad
microfarad, 1/1,000,000 -- is the standard measure for a DMM... either that or it's me that ain't paying attention :D
 
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k7elp60

Joined Nov 4, 2008
562
Its a nice idea.. in theory.. Can there be any practical issues which may bring in any error ??
The only thing I can think of is the accuracy of the capacitance meter. I currently have a BK Precision LCR meter that measures up to 2000uF. It is model 875A(I have had over 10 years)I have used it to measure low value of capacitors in the pF range, by putting capacitors in parallel, and measuring inductors of low value by putting inductors in series with a higher known value.
 
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bountyhunter

Joined Sep 7, 2009
2,512
I didn't check that product, but just be aware that chinese meter specs etc can use "mF" to mean "microFarad", so it's worth double checking meter specs especially if the specs look a bit "Chinglish".
Agilent is not Chinese, it's a division of Hewlett packard and the range is what it says it is.
 

THE_RB

Joined Feb 11, 2008
5,438
Sorry I should have posted more clearly. My point was that if checking specs of products on ebay etc, where they have "Chinglish" specs etc to be aware that they can sometimes use "mF" to mean microfarad.

I did not really expect the Agilent product to be specced in Chinglish, it was a general warning about "mF". :)
 
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