Small Inductance meter

[wdariusw]

Hi friends,

I'm doing some repair works, and there are lot of smd parts, like capacitors, resistors and inductors. I have MASTECH MS8910 for C and R components, but i can't find properly meter for L. I know that one of inductors (0603 SMD) is 82nH . But i do not know other inductors values. How can I measure that small inductors ? Really need help, thanks !

 

[Arouse1973]

Remove the components and use an LCR meter. Or inductance meter.
Adam

 

[Minder]

I picked up a nice multi range LC meter on ebay $15.00 pp.ebay 141459720141
M.

 

[hevans1944]

You want to measure nanohenry values for 0603 SMD? Why even bother to try? Why should the inductance value have changed since manufacture? It will not be easy to measure SMD inductors with a few tens of nanohenrys inductance. The task is virtually impossible "in-circuit," and almost impossible out of circuit with a properly calibrated test fixture. An inexpensive hand-held LCR meter, such as the Model 879B from B&K Precision, claims to measure down to 10 nH resolution. Read all about it's specifications on this datasheet. Or you can spend thousands of dollars more for an Agilent laboratory-grade LCR meter, such as this one.

BTW, measuring the values of components is a piss-poor way to "troubleshoot" anything. Use diagnostic tools such as voltmeters, oscilloscopes, signal generators, logic probes, logic analyzers, whatever it takes to narrow down your search to a defective sub-system, module, circuit, and ultimately one or more components that will have failed or are out of tolerance. Only then do you need to bring out the big guns and start making measurements of component values. At that point I would just substitute known good components for suspected bad components. If that fixes the problem, you can go on to test the "bad" components to try to find out what went wrong. I have never heard of an SMD inductor failing without visible circuit board damage. By then, trying to measure the inductance is a waste of time: replace the component, repair the board, and find out why it failed.

 

[HellasTechn]

Hi friends,

I'm doing some repair works, and there are lot of smd parts, like capacitors, resistors and inductors. I have MASTECH MS8910 for C and R components, but i can't find properly meter for L. I know that one of inductors (0603 SMD) is 82nH . But i do not know other inductors values. How can I measure that small inductors ? Really need help, thanks !

You may also find an ESR meter (the one sold on e-bay) very usefull. It can calculate resistance, capacitance, inductance, esr, test transistors, diodes and more.
Theese are really cheap and worth the monay.


Here is the link of the one i bought :

http://www.ebay.com/itm/121332952511?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

 

[ADRT]

There is a procedure to do this with a signal generator and an O-scope. Not sure how well this works with very small inductors though and obviously you would need an O-scope and signal generator. If you don't already have these then not a very economical option as they can be quite pricy.

http://www.dos4ever.com/inductor/inductor.html

 

[wdariusw]

I have o-scope, but do not have signal generator. Better will buy RCL meter. In my work there are lot of C and L smd elements, that i need to measure as precise as possible. MASTECH MS8910 i think is acceptable tool for C components, but somethimes when inductances is very small (less than 5pF) MASTECH shows incorrect values. As I said, inductances are small too. 60 - 1000nF . I think that this one ( http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-LCR-T4-...875?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20ef558993 ) will not help to me at all with Inductance: 0.01mH - 20H range. One of the best (in my opinion) i found in ebay is http://www.ebay.com/itm/AE20204-LC-...=LH_DefaultDomain_77&var=&hash=item3cbc3b5f53 . It is worth the money ?

 

[HellasTechn]

I but somethimes when inductances is very small (less than 5pF) MASTECH shows incorrect values. As I said, inductances are small too. 60 - 1000nF .

I think you mean Capacitance not Inductance right ?

 

[HellasTechn]

I think that this one ( http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-LCR-T4-...875?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20ef558993 ) will not help to me at all with Inductance: 0.01mH - 20H range. One of the best (in my opinion) i found in ebay is http://www.ebay.com/itm/AE20204-LC-...=LH_DefaultDomain_77&var=&hash=item3cbc3b5f53 . It is worth the money ?

I think the price is good !

 

[wdariusw]

Yes, sorry, capacitance Price is good i think, but or ESR meter is good... Only video from youtube

. Interresting or it would come disassembled, or assembled. And what it will show for nH values..

 

[wdariusw]

Found two more... http://www.aliexpress.com/item/LC30...-Meter-High-Precision-L-F-Test/738257897.html and http://www.ebay.com/itm/LC200A-Indu...127?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c467f6fe7 . I think second would be great for me, if it will measure +- accurate nH values..

 

[Colin Mitchell]

There are many LCR testers and they come assembled for about $15 to $20. It will measure 1p and 2p and very small inductances (1uH) by a very clever trick.

 

[wdariusw]

Bought this one http://www.ebay.com/itm/121441841127?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

 

[hevans1944]

Found two more... http://www.aliexpress.com/item/LC30...-Meter-High-Precision-L-F-Test/738257897.html and http://www.ebay.com/itm/LC200A-Indu...127?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c467f6fe7 . I think second would be great for me, if it will measure +- accurate nH values..

The LC301 with Kelvin probes is your "best bet" for measuring nano-henry inductors in SMD packages. At what frequencies are these nano-henry components being used? A ten nano-henry inductor has a reactance of 0.06 ohms at one megahertz. None of these LCR meters even attempts to measure inductance at that high a frequency. So good luck with that.

 

[HellasTechn]

The ESR meter i posted about uses a 8 Mhz cyistal. Should be more accurate right ?