Hi guys, I have been looking at LCR meters for a while now and it is one piece of equipment that I am having a hard time pulling the trigger on. I have seen the DER EE DE-5000, the various hand held Agilent, and the full size Agilent (most likely HP as I have a somewhat limited budget) and I was wondering what is the best way to go in terms of accuracy, flexibility, data logging and longevity. I have been using a function generator and oscilloscope to measure ESR and have made a calculator tool that let's me put in a few of the values and I get the ESR of the capacitor.
I figure the full size ones are more accurate because they offer a wider frequency range to test with but I am unsure of what is actually needed and what is the best bang for the buck (I know it's probably the Der EE, but I would rather not).
I have been looking at the following models:
HP 4262A (the 4261A only goes up to 1KHz)
Agilent U1731C (Seems kind of pricey for a handheld tool that only goes up to 1KHz)
Agilent U1733C (Goes up to 100KHz, but costs around $100 more than the U1731C)
HP 4274A (5 1/2 digits, versus the ones above that are 3.5, the 4275A goes up to 10MHz but only goes down to 10KHz)
HP 4263B (Accurate, nice display, modern but it costs an arm and a leg and I would have to save up for a while to get one)
I know somebody out there knows enough about this stuff to help me out.
Okay, I know this topic is a bit old, but the HP 4263A is a cheaper than the 4263B you found too expensive. The differences between the A and B models are given on the Keysight website and seem pretty minor, to be honest.
I don't know if this link will work - it loads
very slowly for me:
https://www.keysight.com/main/editorial.jspx?cc=US&lc=eng&ckey=1498485&nid=-32776.536879695&id=1498485If not, search for the text "What are primary differences between the 4263A and 4263B?" (blame Keysight for missing out the word "the" before "primary" - not me)
but the shows that:
1) The 4263B can select from 3, 4 or 5 digits, but the 4263A can only display 5 digits. That is a pretty insignificant feature! I'm sure we can round that if we want.
2) The 4263B has current and voltage monitoring, but the 4263A does not.
3) The 4263B has a "show settings" feature, to display all the settings, whereas the 4263A does not.
4) The 4263B can display the open/short/load compensation values, but the 4263A can not. But the 4263A still does the compensation.
None of those differences would put me off the 4263A. I would certainly choose it over the Chinese meters people are talking about. Note the Chinese meters are not supplied with coaxial cables, but the 4TP connection on the HP meters should use coax, and the coax has to be a specific length (1 m).
I picked up a used HP 4263A in August 2018, that had Agilent calibration stickers on the screws, but no cal sticker on the front. I rather suspect that means it had been back for calibration, but not in the last 5 years. I only did a quick test, but a 100 ohm 0.005% resistor read 100.00 ohms, with a few nH of inductance!
The annoying thing about the 4263A and 4263B is their limited choice of test frequencies. (100, 120, 1000, 10000, and 100,000 Hz), with 20 kHz as an option.
I have a 4284A (20 Hz to 1 MHz), which sell for a lot of money. That has over 8000 test frequencies, but they are very poorly chosen. There is 20 Hz, and 20.01 Hz, but nothing between 750 kHz and 1 MHz. So it has some frequencies so close together to be useless, and others so far apart.
Dave.