The "470" on inductor means 47 uH, It's a scientific notation -- 47 x 10^0, much like the one used in SMD resistors, i.e. 224 means 22 x 10^4 = 220000 Ohm.
Nice mod with the regulator. Measuring inductance is something I don't have a meter for. I'll have to keep your video in mind should I decide I need one. Thanks!
Oh, I think this one will still do a pretty good job of measuring capacitors while still in the circuit. It would not really tell me the exact value but close enough for me to tell if it's bad or not. Thank you for the reply!
It feels good to know that you are fully equipped to recycle and evaluate circuit elements. When I throw away electronic devices, I felt that my trash is full of money and my pocket is full of trash. Take this piece of advice from a recycler: Purchase rolls (or sheets) of labels of all sizes and label all the parts after you measure them. If you add information about what device they came out of, then you give them market value. As you know, if you can describe it, you can sell it on eBay.Thks
nice lil mod with a very nice metal plate cut out. Looks like a perfect fit. I guess if u prefer voltage flexibility it's good, but u end up using a wee bit more power. I was going to buy this as well, but i recently bought mine a week ago and waiting to receive the LC200-A, which is the one with a case. Figure for 10 more bucks, i get a power brick, a case so i can use a battery and don't worry about shorting it or twisting the wire.
I just bought one of LC100-A. The small capacitance measurements were about 20%~30% lower than actual (after Zero set), the large capacitance readings were 3%~4% lower than actual, and I don't have a good means to judge the inductance readings but they seems reasonable. Not sure if mine is defective in anyway.
Thanks so much for this excellent product video. Interesting that this has been around for seven years and I guess somewhat indicative of its utility and value. While I've been involved with digital electronics for some time, I've never had occasion to get into inductance and AC signals in general, and this device will enable me to perform some demonstrations and experiments to get a better understanding of inductance and how it is utilized in circuit design. Your video is just what I needed, so thanks again !
I made and sold identical items to stores. I recycled glass and made planters, I recycled spark plugs and made pipes, I built and sold a lot of picture frames for a long time. These days I am trying to build things with new parts without making parts. I post first prototypes on TH-cam and continue to improve and search for parts. I understand basic electricity and studied lots of theories (analog and digital) but had little circuit building practice. I recycled and fixed lots of machines.
Oh I see. I do sort my components a to a certain extent. Like all the small capacitors go in a bin all the PNP and NPN transistors go in there own bins and resistors go in another. But it would just take to long to sort all the 10µf caps in one bin. I mean it would be very convenient to get parts out but the bin would take up a lot of space. What sort of things do you make? It sounds like you do a little with electronics?
That's funny, I use pretty much the exact same Motorola cell phone charger to power my LC100-A. I also have a USB to barrel jack adapter that came with a frequency counter, but it's just easier to use the cell charger in the mini USB plug. Have you noticed that with some capacitors, between the high and low capacitance setting, one is accurate while the other is wildly different? It happens with caps that are in the overlap range between low and high, making it hard to tell whether the cap is shot or actually good.
Nice neat mod to this, but I would put a little hot glue on the two caps just as a bit of stress releaf. You could if you wanted to go the extra distance use a opamp to compare the input voltage and a relay to bypass the regulator if the input voltage is too low, but personally I would not bother ;).
Yes I think he bought the same as me and also since many capacitor higher then 1uf normally have all indication so unless it's critical for the circuit to have exactly that capacitance I'm quite happy with mine I only use it for my hand wound coil :P
Testing with a capacitance meter can be misleading, for example, although the capacitance value may be within tolerance, the ESR can be high. ESR is a very important parameter to measure when testing a capacitor. So you may overlook a bad cap thinking it is good when troubleshooting. ESR stands for equivalent series resistance and is hands down the best way to test capacitors.
I have the same one. With the high cap mode. Although I'm not sure how many mf, might not be as much. More range than I use though, Just checked a 2200µf and got 2.36mf. Biggest cap I have is 3300µf. I got a lot from your video. Had forgotten to connect the leads for zeroing lc. Wasn't saving either :) Really liked the power tests and regulator, Very nice mod. You get a freq on lowCx, but not high. Freq will vary reading, if you are using dif freq, you can calculate the diference from test freq.
Display doing strange things just because when you change voltage you effectively change contrast of lcd, there may be a trimmer pot somewhere on a pcb to set contrast.
Thanks for the tip! Some rare components I could try to sell but I this because I enjoy it not for the money. If I really wanted money at this age I could get a job. I mean I collect copper, aluminium, and gold because that is easy and it's worth the time but I'm not really willing to sell capacitors because it might only be a $0.20 component when new. One I take out of something might only last for a year more. The only way it might be worth it was if I was to sell a box of 100 used caps.
Thanks for a good explanation & modifications. May I recommend putting the whole thin into a plastic or metal box? It will look good & protect the board & components:)
Anyone know where to get the firmware for this meter? I have one I've repaired and got working but the firmware is gone. Can anyone upload the firmware file from their own meter? You can use the Foca PIC to download the firmware to your PC and to upload software to many other devices.
I just ordered a 4070L for 18.50 from ebay, its properly housed in a cute casing like a multimeter and runs from 9 volt battery, really need one of these to measure inductances from coils of wire
+Makerj101 , The 4070L is way less accurate and won't even get close to the range of this cheaper and and weird looking, BUT ACCURATE device! Gotta True RMS multimeter (th PROTEK 506) that measures whatever one would imagine, but in shorten ranges than any special device can. This is the special LC metering device and I'm gonna buy one because I need to measure small inductances and large capacitors.
hi Mongrel, how can you type "2200µF" from computer keyboard - instead of copypaste like I can do? the "micro" notation, I can't found it on my keyboard.
I ordered two of these LC100A meters but the first one did not work, it did not oscillate and could not measure any inductance/capacitance. So I ordered another one from a different seller. This one worked but it could only measure high value capacitance and inductance: everything below 10 pF or 50 uH was indicated as 0.000 uH. Since I wind my own toroids I need an accurate one. Is the LC200 any better or are they all cheap clones that will not work most of the time?
Tony Pachino Oh I don;t know about one that measures all of those. The good ones that do everything are generally quit pricey. Plus if you burn it out you loose everything. But with having separate volt and cap meters you will still have a cap meter if you fry your volt meter. So I like having separate meters for different uses. But that's just my opinion. The ones in the video are the only ones I know of that have an ok price and have a good range of uses. Good luck!
Makerj101 what do you say about this one? Thank you. www.ebay.com/itm/Mega328-Transistor-Tester-Diode-Triode-Capacitance-ESR-Meter-MOS-PNP-NPN-M328-/171305716456?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27e29dcae8
I know! Although if it did come with a manual it would probably not be of much use. Manuals that are translated from Chinese are not the best. ;-) Thank you!
Thanks for the review - good job - I ordered one as other reviews and this one seem to indicate it's pretty accurate. I also ordered the Transistor Tester (as a kit) based on Atmega chip from China as well. Between the two I should be covered. I like the plate heat sink - why not ;)
Well I ordered one off eBay but be careful as some of these are real crap. The one I got had the leads coming from the left side of the board. The first problem I had was the alligator clips were not soldered on (just crimped) and readings were very intermittent. So I fixed that. The next problem was the micro USB connector which has no stress relief on it's connection and pealed off the board when I plugged in a USB cable. Fine, still have a 5v jack. Tested some Inductors - flaky readings but after awhile I got some decent readings. Next tested some capacitors - everything was 1 to 5 picoFarads! In my opinion total CRAP - Save your $20-25 and buy a real LC meter. Wish I had, oh well, I'll salvage what I can (Screen, standoffs, etc...) and scrap the rest.
Digger D If you didn't get the same thing that was advertised then contact the eBay seller. I've done that many times when I've gotten bad products from eBay. The sellers will generally do anything in their power to stop you from giving them a bad review on their eBay page. I've had my money refunded on faulty items, replacements sent for free, and partial refunds. It's really hit or miss with buying things on eBay because stuff is so cheap and you just don't know. But you can have a better experience if you: Make sure the seller has lots of good reviews before you buy, and if you'd product it faulty or you don't get what was advertised them write to them. Hope that helps.
I bought this from Chip World and they were extremely difficult to deal with - I was going to return it but the cost exceeded the price. So it's parts for something else. I won't deal with Chip World again though and I buy a lot of stuff on eBay from China - most are pretty good. I've been through the process several times but never had the problems I had with those clowns.
Anybody got a schematic for this Zhenzheng MingHe LC100A meter? I have inherited a faulty one, but I am mainly curious as to why there are effectively 3 comparators in the circuit. I'm pretty sure one (half a LM393) is the oscillator, and the LM311 probably uses the time constant RC=0.632*Vcmax method of determining the values of polar capacitors. What does the other half of the 393 do? Tracing the connections on SMT is not at all easy for my eyes!
I have almost the same, has only the buttons in reverse direction, does NOT work on pF and uH/mH reason the comparator does not oscillating, I see 0 Hz and yours give 10 Hz on the test button and as such I can not measure, it looks also that the Lm311 is a fake, and even the LM393 somebody here does now? maybe I do miss something. Measuring uF does work fine. I have watch your movie carefully, and I am now shure the both comparators are fake, she have dots in pin 1 yours have not, and originally TI has als not. I have the LC100-A
Makerj101 Thanks for the info man,i was suspecting to be a stm8...its a cheaper version of atmega and identical to it.I bought a similar meter but based on atmega328,it has more functions built in.
ESR means effective series resistance. There is no such thing as a perfect capacitor & there will be resistance in the leads & the capacitor itself. You can measure ESR with an ESR meter - don't think this beastie does this - I built one from a kit in an electronics magazine.
+Glenn Leishman hmmm... That I do not know. It uses an adriano type processor. So it's possible. You would probably have to write computer software to display the values if it does support that.
+Makerj101 I finally received an original LC100-A (with green LCD and leads on the right) and it works great. Very happy. Thanks for your video! Buyers beware of cheap clones, they cost about the same as the original but do not work properly.
They hand solder the smds instead of hot air. Terrible job. Could somebody please give a look at the unit they have and tell me what the value of C7 is? its missing on the board. Its the big smd on the edge.
The "470" on inductor means 47 uH, It's a scientific notation -- 47 x 10^0, much like the one used in SMD resistors, i.e. 224 means 22 x 10^4 = 220000 Ohm.
Nice mod with the regulator. Measuring inductance is something I don't have a meter for. I'll have to keep your video in mind should I decide I need one. Thanks!
Well done covering everything on this unit
Full of detail. Congratulations my man.very good job. That video was exactly what I was looking for.
Oh, I think this one will still do a pretty good job of measuring capacitors while still in the circuit. It would not really tell me the exact value but close enough for me to tell if it's bad or not. Thank you for the reply!
Tengo ese medidor pero no puedo ahora medir instancias grandes. Miente¡¿ por ejemplo : una de 1.41hy dice 946mhy?
It feels good to know that you are fully equipped to recycle and evaluate circuit elements. When I throw away electronic devices, I felt that my trash is full of money and my pocket is full of trash. Take this piece of advice from a recycler: Purchase rolls (or sheets) of labels of all sizes and label all the parts after you measure them. If you add information about what device they came out of, then you give them market value. As you know, if you can describe it, you can sell it on eBay.Thks
nice lil mod with a very nice metal plate cut out. Looks like a perfect fit. I guess if u prefer voltage flexibility it's good, but u end up using a wee bit more power. I was going to buy this as well, but i recently bought mine a week ago and waiting to receive the LC200-A, which is the one with a case. Figure for 10 more bucks, i get a power brick, a case so i can use a battery and don't worry about shorting it or twisting the wire.
I just bought one of LC100-A. The small capacitance measurements were about 20%~30% lower than actual (after Zero set), the large capacitance readings were 3%~4% lower than actual, and I don't have a good means to judge the inductance readings but they seems reasonable. Not sure if mine is defective in anyway.
Bit of an older video for you, but perfect timing for me. Just got one of these. Thanks.
Thanks so much for this excellent product video. Interesting that this has been around for seven years and I guess somewhat indicative of its utility and value. While I've been involved with digital electronics for some time, I've never had occasion to get into inductance and AC signals in general, and this device will enable me to perform some demonstrations and experiments to get a better understanding of inductance and how it is utilized in circuit design. Your video is just what I needed, so thanks again !
I made and sold identical items to stores. I recycled glass and made planters, I recycled spark plugs and made pipes, I built and sold a lot of picture frames for a long time. These days I am trying to build things with new parts without making parts. I post first prototypes on TH-cam and continue to improve and search for parts. I understand basic electricity and studied lots of theories (analog and digital) but had little circuit building practice. I recycled and fixed lots of machines.
Oh I see. I do sort my components a to a certain extent. Like all the small capacitors go in a bin all the PNP and NPN transistors go in there own bins and resistors go in another. But it would just take to long to sort all the 10µf caps in one bin. I mean it would be very convenient to get parts out but the bin would take up a lot of space. What sort of things do you make? It sounds like you do a little with electronics?
That's funny, I use pretty much the exact same Motorola cell phone charger to power my LC100-A. I also have a USB to barrel jack adapter that came with a frequency counter, but it's just easier to use the cell charger in the mini USB plug.
Have you noticed that with some capacitors, between the high and low capacitance setting, one is accurate while the other is wildly different? It happens with caps that are in the overlap range between low and high, making it hard to tell whether the cap is shot or actually good.
Nice neat mod to this, but I would put a little hot glue on the two caps just as a bit of stress releaf. You could if you wanted to go the extra distance use a opamp to compare the input voltage and a relay to bypass the regulator if the input voltage is too low, but personally I would not bother ;).
idiolore Good idea! But yeah I think I'll skip! It works good enough with the modification! Thank you!
Yes I think he bought the same as me and also since many capacitor higher then 1uf normally have all indication so unless it's critical for the circuit to have exactly that capacitance I'm quite happy with mine I only use it for my hand wound coil :P
Testing with a capacitance meter can be misleading, for example, although the capacitance value may be within tolerance, the ESR can be high. ESR is a very important parameter to measure when testing a capacitor. So you may overlook a bad cap thinking it is good when troubleshooting. ESR stands for equivalent series resistance and is hands down the best way to test capacitors.
I have the same one. With the high cap mode. Although I'm not sure how many mf, might not be as much. More range than I use though, Just checked a 2200µf and got 2.36mf. Biggest cap I have is 3300µf. I got a lot from your video. Had forgotten to connect the leads for zeroing lc. Wasn't saving either :) Really liked the power tests and regulator, Very nice mod. You get a freq on lowCx, but not high. Freq will vary reading, if you are using dif freq, you can calculate the diference from test freq.
I never new that. Would measuring the resistance across it with a normal meter tell me anything?
Nice video, I just wish you tested small inductors, like a 1uh or 0.5uh, just to verify the specs given by the manufacturer.
Display doing strange things just because when you change voltage you effectively change contrast of lcd, there may be a trimmer pot somewhere on a pcb to set contrast.
Interesting! I'll take a look for that trimmer pot! Thank you!
MrJohhhnnnyyy प
Hi, did you tested those or you just reading the specs, i mean did you compare them
Thanks for the tip! Some rare components I could try to sell but I this because I enjoy it not for the money. If I really wanted money at this age I could get a job. I mean I collect copper, aluminium, and gold because that is easy and it's worth the time but I'm not really willing to sell capacitors because it might only be a $0.20 component when new. One I take out of something might only last for a year more. The only way it might be worth it was if I was to sell a box of 100 used caps.
Thanks for a good explanation & modifications. May I recommend putting the whole thin into a plastic or metal box? It will look good & protect the board & components:)
Anyone know where to get the firmware for this meter? I have one I've repaired and got working but the firmware is gone. Can anyone upload the firmware file from their own meter? You can use the Foca PIC to download the firmware to your PC and to upload software to many other devices.
How does this meter perform in the very low capacitor range: So let's say from 10 pF to 300 pF. Is it accurate in this range? How did you test that?
I just ordered a 4070L for 18.50 from ebay, its properly housed in a cute casing like a multimeter and runs from 9 volt battery, really need one of these to measure inductances from coils of wire
fidel catsro Cool!
+Makerj101 ,
The 4070L is way less accurate and won't even get close to the range of this cheaper and and weird looking, BUT ACCURATE device!
Gotta True RMS multimeter (th PROTEK 506) that measures whatever one would imagine, but in shorten ranges than any special device can. This is the special LC metering device and I'm gonna buy one because I need to measure small inductances and large capacitors.
+driveparty Nice looks like a good meter!
+driveparty its working well, all boxed nicely in a blue little box
Excellent! Well done video and great audio! I am going to order me one and do the 5 volt mod like you did. Thanks, Karl
I think MongrelShark also has that model.
Thanks! Make a review video of it when you get it!
hi Mongrel, how can you type "2200µF" from computer keyboard - instead of copypaste like I can do? the "micro" notation, I can't found it on my keyboard.
I ordered two of these LC100A meters but the first one did not work, it did not oscillate and could not measure any inductance/capacitance. So I ordered another one from a different seller. This one worked but it could only measure high value capacitance and inductance: everything below 10 pF or 50 uH was indicated as 0.000 uH. Since I wind my own toroids I need an accurate one. Is the LC200 any better or are they all cheap clones that will not work most of the time?
Can you recommend what will be the best choice of meter like this on eBay that measure: Transistors, Capacitors, Inductance, LCR, Resistor?
Tony Pachino Oh I don;t know about one that measures all of those. The good ones that do everything are generally quit pricey. Plus if you burn it out you loose everything. But with having separate volt and cap meters you will still have a cap meter if you fry your volt meter. So I like having separate meters for different uses. But that's just my opinion. The ones in the video are the only ones I know of that have an ok price and have a good range of uses. Good luck!
Makerj101
what do you say about this one? Thank you.
www.ebay.com/itm/Mega328-Transistor-Tester-Diode-Triode-Capacitance-ESR-Meter-MOS-PNP-NPN-M328-/171305716456?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27e29dcae8
Tony Pachino That one doesn't look bad! And $15 is not bad either. Go for it! Good luck!
Nice, but why this shaking and swimming cam? Makes dizzy...
I know! Although if it did come with a manual it would probably not be of much use. Manuals that are translated from Chinese are not the best. ;-) Thank you!
Thanks for the review - good job - I ordered one as other reviews and this one seem to indicate it's pretty accurate. I also ordered the Transistor Tester (as a kit) based on Atmega chip from China as well. Between the two I should be covered. I like the plate heat sink - why not ;)
Well I ordered one off eBay but be careful as some of these are real crap. The one I got had the leads coming from the left side of the board. The first problem I had was the alligator clips were not soldered on (just crimped) and readings were very intermittent. So I fixed that. The next problem was the micro USB connector which has no stress relief on it's connection and pealed off the board when I plugged in a USB cable. Fine, still have a 5v jack. Tested some Inductors - flaky readings but after awhile I got some decent readings. Next tested some capacitors - everything was 1 to 5 picoFarads! In my opinion total CRAP - Save your $20-25 and buy a real LC meter. Wish I had, oh well, I'll salvage what I can (Screen, standoffs, etc...) and scrap the rest.
I wish mine worked like the one in the video - functionality not nearly the same or as smooth. Pretty obvious the firmware is different in mine too.
Digger D If you didn't get the same thing that was advertised then contact the eBay seller. I've done that many times when I've gotten bad products from eBay. The sellers will generally do anything in their power to stop you from giving them a bad review on their eBay page. I've had my money refunded on faulty items, replacements sent for free, and partial refunds. It's really hit or miss with buying things on eBay because stuff is so cheap and you just don't know. But you can have a better experience if you: Make sure the seller has lots of good reviews before you buy, and if you'd product it faulty or you don't get what was advertised them write to them. Hope that helps.
I bought this from Chip World and they were extremely difficult to deal with - I was going to return it but the cost exceeded the price. So it's parts for something else. I won't deal with Chip World again though and I buy a lot of stuff on eBay from China - most are pretty good. I've been through the process several times but never had the problems I had with those clowns.
Digger D Ah I see. I never heard of Chip World before. Keep experimenting!
you ended up with a copy version.
Nice video, apreciated
Anybody got a schematic for this Zhenzheng MingHe LC100A meter? I have inherited a faulty one, but I am mainly curious as to why there are effectively 3 comparators in the circuit. I'm pretty sure one (half a LM393) is the oscillator, and the LM311 probably uses the time constant RC=0.632*Vcmax method of determining the values of polar capacitors. What does the other half of the 393 do? Tracing the connections on SMT is not at all easy for my eyes!
It can actually measure up to 119mF.
I have almost the same, has only the buttons in reverse direction, does NOT work on pF and uH/mH reason the comparator does not oscillating, I see 0 Hz and yours give 10 Hz on the test button and as such I can not measure, it looks also that the Lm311 is a fake, and even the LM393 somebody here does now? maybe I do miss something. Measuring uF does work fine.
I have watch your movie carefully, and I am now shure the both comparators are fake, she have dots in pin 1 yours have not, and originally TI has als not.
I have the LC100-A
hy Makerj101,whats is the chip that is based on?Atmega?thx!
I don't know! I'll have to take a look sometime! But yeah it's probably some kind of micro controller.
It is a STM8S103K3T6C micro controller. I'm guessing it's similar to the Atmega but I'm not really sure.
Makerj101 Thanks for the info man,i was suspecting to be a stm8...its a cheaper version of atmega and identical to it.I bought a similar meter but based on atmega328,it has more functions built in.
ady0187 I see! Cool!
What is ESR? Thank you!
ESR means effective series resistance. There is no such thing as a perfect capacitor & there will be resistance in the leads & the capacitor itself. You can measure ESR with an ESR meter - don't think this beastie does this - I built one from a kit in an electronics magazine.
Is there a way to get readings out of this unit into a PC or an analogue input device?
+Glenn Leishman hmmm... That I do not know. It uses an adriano type processor. So it's possible. You would probably have to write computer software to display the values if it does support that.
Could it use on coaxial cable? RG-11 or RG-213
+Makerj101 I finally received an original LC100-A (with green LCD and leads on the right) and it works great. Very happy. Thanks for your video! Buyers beware of cheap clones, they cost about the same as the original but do not work properly.
Hold down Alt, and press 230 on numpad, release Alt, and a µ will appear :)
They hand solder the smds instead of hot air. Terrible job. Could somebody please give a look at the unit they have and tell me what the value of C7 is? its missing on the board. Its the big smd on the edge.
Nice! Keep it up!
Interesting... thanks!
Got the model just under it I have no High and Low capacitance on mine but I'ts work very good for what i need it XD
Thanks!
@mongrel: thx. It works, even on my laptop!
µ µ µ
10x
far too many Umms