Can anybody suggest a good inductance meter?

[rockgardenlove]

Any ideas?

[jonathan perez]

http://www.elexp.com/tst_1005.htm

[rockgardenlove]

Ouch...pricy. 

[jonathan perez]

really? i cant find a cheaper one. i got that link from arielfx.

someone posted another one on here, but i cant find it...

either way, my affair is getting me that for christmas. 

[rockgardenlove]

Heh, pricy for me.  I've been looking around, and it's about all I could find.  Thanks.

I have concluded that my affair (well, mother    ) is also getting me one of those.

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

I can't believe it....... a DIY RC meter http://electronics-diy.com/lc_meter.php
BUT BUT it only goes to 100mH

Is it worth making a DIY inductance meter?? Opinions? (the hard part of any DIY measuring equipment is that its accuracy is somehow going to be limited by one or more of the components... it usually isn't trivial when you get below 1%.)

[rockgardenlove]

Very cool!  Could it be modded some way?

I have no idea how these sorts of things work.

[Seljer]

though that multimeter really is rather cheap for its features, espescially compared to those multiple×$100 high end ones
(and I don't think starting with microcontrollers and that stuff would be a whole lot cheaper than $50)


though the way its explained on that site ( look up http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LC_circuit ) you could do it by yourself, taking a capacitor of know value, recording the osciallations into your sound card, figuring out the frequency then doing the math to get the inductance

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

Seljer is right, it looks like it isn't going to be cheaper to build the DIY meter than buying a DDM with inductance! (where have I heard that before.. never mind!)

[joelap]

Midway, I'm looking at the specs for that Multimeter you posted, and while I've got a Fluke 179, the Fluke doesnt do inductance.  The description says Inductance: 2mH, 20mH, 200mH, 2H, 20H, +/- 5% accuracy @ 200Hz. .... wth does that mean?  Will it only measure those inductances, or will it measure from 2mH up to 20H?  seems odd really... or are those the manual settings or something?

After what I paid for my fluke, that doesnt seem so bad price-wise.  50 dollars plus a few add ons?  IIRC I paid around 150 or so for my fluke, maybe more!

[Iojan]

Look at http://www.hamradioindia.org/circuits/fcl.php 

[jonathan perez]

Midway, I'm looking at the specs for that Multimeter you posted, and while I've got a Fluke 179, the Fluke doesnt do inductance.  The description says Inductance: 2mH, 20mH, 200mH, 2H, 20H, +/- 5% accuracy @ 200Hz. .... wth does that mean?  Will it only measure those inductances, or will it measure from 2mH up to 20H?  seems odd really... or are those the manual settings or something?

After what I paid for my fluke, that doesnt seem so bad price-wise.  50 dollars plus a few add ons?  IIRC I paid around 150 or so for my fluke, maybe more!

i would assume that it ranges in between those numbers. for example 20-200mH, and 200mH-2H.

[rockgardenlove]

It must be between...but I'll email and check for sure before I order one.

[jonathan perez]

arielfx uses it, so i guess?   

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

The description says Inductance: 2mH, 20mH, 200mH, 2H, 20H, +/- 5% accuracy @ 200Hz. .... wth does that mean?  Will it only measure those inductances, or will it measure from 2mH up to 20H?  seems odd really... or are those the manual settings or something?

It means the ranges (probably set manually) are 0 to 2mH, 0 to 20mH etc.
And the test signal it uses is 200Hz (a cored inductor changes inductance with frequency somewhat, because losses in the core vary with frequency).
And as you can see, it will get you close (in my opinion close enough for rock and roll) but not REALLY close. And it probably can't compensate for internal resistance of the inductr winding, so that's more error right there.
Ad while I'm here, I suspect that a "low end" Fluke is pretty well the same as a low end anythng else. It seems the thing to do, is to exploit a once-famous brand name until there is no value left. (eg Philips).

[rockgardenlove]

Has anybody else tried to order from these guys?  They're not getting back to me.