Hello, does anyone know of a decent LCR meter that I can purchase for under $100.00? I would use it to help me find coil inductance for resonance circuits like tesla coils and wireless power transmission.

 

I have a cheap XJW01 kit which is a hobbyist LCR design out of china. Only an 8051 so 7.8kHz max. test frequency. Pretty much a copy of the HP LCR bridge design. 4-wire and works well.
https://www.aliexpress.com/w/wholesale-xjw01.html?spm=a2g0o.home.search.0

 

Thank you for responding to my inquiry.

 

Depends on what you need. For general purpose use the chinese tester is both cheap and pretty accurate for what it is.


Stepping up is... And darn good meter for its price!

My main LCR only meter is... And I bought it for far less!

All around use, go for the chinese cheepo. For good accuracy the 35$ meter is a steal. Better accuracy than that comes at a price... Yes, I own and use all 3. Not so much the Proster because I have more accurate bench meters. For true capacitor work I use the Extech but not that often. Learn to use them and the cheap stuff is good enough for 99.9% of what you need.

 

Also, I've heard good things about this meter which is in the same class as the Extech200 for a lot less.

 

Post #4 used my idea.

 

I've looked at the Proster LCR meter in the past, but have been concerned about the quality. I've never had an LCR meter so I'm a little cautious about which one I should get, but if you say that this will help me for most of my needs then I will consider purchasing it. Also, is the red one the same as the orange one?

 

I've seen ElectroBOOM use this one, except he got his from circuit specialists I think. Would this be a good one to consider?


https://www.amazon.com/ProsKit-MT-5...f2f-47aa-8cbd-bc722a90d572&pd_rd_i=B01D5YVFLA

 

My LCR meter is MS5308
$ 149.40 at https://aliexpress.ru/item/10050088...w.productlist.search_results.0.765a6459ZeoUtF

 

My old meter has been acting up so I bought the meter in post #8.

 

Thank you for your response Mr. Danko

 

I have had the Peak Atlas LCR40 for close to 20 years and has been very reliable.
It is still available but has been upgraded to the LCR45.
They are made in England and thus a tad more expensive than Chinese units and exceeds your $100 threshold.

 

Would I be able to measure the inductance of a tesla coil primary coil?

 

I asked a similar question a couple of weeks ago, most of the other guys here concluded that what I needed was a grid dip meter. These are something that HAMs use. I would still like to find out how to do this some other way besides this esoteric piece of equipment.

 

Hello,

@Wendy
QSLnet has a page about the grid dip meter:
https://www.qsl.net/yo4rlp/wshp/gdo.html
It can be used to determine the resonance frequency of a tuned circuit of a L and C.

Bertus

 

The TS and I were talking about finding the self resonate frequency of a coil. I don't remember where that pesky thread was, I have all the oscillator I might need to find it.

 

Would I be able to measure the inductance of a tesla coil primary coil?

Of course, you can measure it.
For example, I measured inductance of wire diameter 0.5 mm and length 100 mm:

$ 149.40 at https://aliexpress.ru/item/10050088...w.productlist.search_results.0.765a6459ZeoUtF
User manual

 

Wow, impressive.

 

Of course, you can measure it.
For example, I measured inductance of wire diameter 0.5 mm and length 100 mm:
View attachment 350590
$ 149.40 at https://aliexpress.ru/item/10050088...w.productlist.search_results.0.765a6459ZeoUtF
User manual

Man, that's priced at 400 bucks on Amazon, huge difference.

 

$290.00 from Ali Express.usa, tempting but too rich for my blood.