Hungarian LC-ESR meter

Or LCM3, as they call it in Hungary.

(Trying to figure it out... First impressions…)

I designed the PCB for components I had in my junkbox, and added few extra LC
filters for better stability. I used mostly components recommended by the author in
his article – polypropylene and film capacitors, inductors with stable core and low
impedance, tantalum capacitors with low ESR (checked them using another ESR
meter).

On first boot meter shows for short time information about the author, initial
frequency and frequency after calibration (with recommended inductor about
100uH and capacitor 1000pF initial frequency was 501 kHz). After that, relay is
clicking, and display shows in second line frequency with connected calibration
capacitor – about 360 kHz. (IMHO, very useful info – can help to pinpoint problems
during troubleshooting).

I replaced switches as in original to buttons – one without fixation (left on the photo
above), and one with fixation for L/C mode switching.

Left button, as it turned out, is multifunctional and used for calibration and some
adjustments. All functions of that button are still to be discovered.

For calibration you have to press and hold left button till message like R= 0238 Ohm
appears, and after that, release the button. Message “Switch to Meas.” appears on
LCD (switch to measure mode), and calibration is done, confirmed by message

”С->0” or “L->0” depending on selected mode.

For calibration, in mode C probes must be left open, in mode L – closed.

Default switch position of L/C switch on first boot must be C, otherwise

corresponding error message will appear.
In L mode, meter can detect even 0.01 uH, so even simple wire jumper can be
detected.

It impresses that the meter can measure well inductors with very low value
This is marked (“color-striped”) inductor 0,47uH.
Inductor 10uH.
22 uH
Another 22uH inductor +/- 10%
Larger inductors – 1mH (1000uH).
Beginning from some value (probably 3,3mH and up) along with inductance meter
also shows parasitic capacitance of the inductor’s coil.

Which is very useful, if you need to find better inductor among similar inductors with
same value.

This is how it shows marked inductor of 5mH.

This is 30 mH inductor (another meter showed it as 29mH, too).
Now how meter measures very small capacitors.

This is the capacitor with lowest value I could find – marked as 1 pf.

Pretty stable results.

Next one marked as 1.5pF
3 pF
Middle range capacitors.

0,01 uF.
Larger capacitors – 1uF (+/-5%).
2,2uF
2х2,2uF=4,4 uF

I haven’t tried to measure more than that value yet.

Now meter measures capacitors in ESR mode.

After closing probes for calibration in ESR mode for 1-2 second following info
appears

This is voltage applied to capacitor under test (pretty low – 58.3 mv), и ESR
frequency (85.7 KHz).
Even pretty small value capacitors meter measures pretty well.

m8 is obviously range (internal for CPU calculations).

0,68 uF

Letter changed to m4.

100 uF usual aluminium capacitor.

Symbol after “ESR” shows cap’s leakage – more the “glass” is “filled up”, the worse
the leakage of the capacitor.
1200 uF.

Well, I would prefer meter showed 1110 uF instead of unusual 1,11mF.

But that’s OK.

2200 uF
22000 uF х 6,3v (largest value capacitor I could find)
Now the most interesting – how the meter can detect defective capacitors!

Not so long ago I de-soldered this capacitor out of my Philips DVD player’s power
supply (1000uF, 16v), looked absolutely normal. But it was definitely defective
capacitor, GO ESR meter showed ESR of about 3,6 Ohms.

So I replaced that capacitor and save it for further experiments.

ESR value of this bad capacitor is more than 30 times than value of normal capacitor
of the same type! Note: “glass” is “full” – meaning capacitor has excessive leakage.
Now about R measurements

This is how meter shows resistor of 2,2 Ohm value

So, there is some difference and pretty big – about 10%,

Resistor of maximum value meter can measure (30 Ohms +/-5% )

P.S.
After all that, I tried to change values of some components to improve meter’s
characteristics.

So, I changed inductor from 100 uH to 68uH to increase frequency of

oscillation. Frequency became about 603 kHz, and ESR frequency changed to
103kHz. Seems to measurements of C and L somewhat improved.
Now about R measurements I had some problems before.
This resistor 1 Ohm (+/-1%)
Much better!

Voltage applied to capacitor under test lowered (now it is about 46mv), may
be it somehow affected results?
Resistor 10 Ohms (+/- 1%)

Pretty good for very simple meter as this one.

Precision under 1 Ohm is not as good (about 10% less than it should be), but in
general, the meter is pretty decent and leaves pretty good impression.