XJW01 LCR Meter Review Demonstration and Calibration

[@paulpaulzadeh6172]

Hi Tony, I did a lot of measuring with my BODE 100 analyser , on passive parts , many different capacitor, one time I bought 1000 pieces tantal capacitor, according to manufacture +/- 20 % tolerance 10uF, none of them were + 20% , all of them were -20% . Manufacture screen them . For example 10uF +/- 20 are all 8uf, manufacture like kemet or AVX , sell them as 12uF +/- 10 % with higher price ! As engineers you think you have 10uF , I worked in RUAG as design engineer for space satellite, we make WCA ( worst case analys) on all passive parts and all transistor for higher beta , hfe, , resistor is better , but capacitor you defiantly need Bode 100 analyser , with that you can even measuring loop , phase margin and gain margin of amplifier.

[@sorcererstan]

Best explanation I've seen for the what's and why's of phase angle, D, and Q and why to use different frequencies when testing

[@Wicker83]

Tony....I usually don't comment, but DANG!, this video is exceptional! I think now I'll keep my very Large Heavy Expensive HP LCR Meter ......Thank You For all you Do!

[@myradiovideos]

Thanks, demo of a $60 meter helped me better understand my B&K 880 LRC meter... 🙂

[@adamwolfram6126]

Fantastic video, Tony! As usual, I learned more than was advertised in the title. Thank you!!!

[@martinfairweather700]

Excellent video Tony, thank you. I have two of these units and couldn’t find much documentation about it. I did buy for £3 a .pdf of English instructions from Steve who is in your comments with his link. I really appreciate both of your hard work and time doing this for the hobbyists and professionals.

[@adamwolfram6126]

My sister is giving me one of these for Christmas. I look forward to using it! Thanks for the demonstration, Tony!

[@dcrews8732]

Thanks for your excellent explanation of the meter and calibration steps. You explained the theory very well and clear!

[@Kurt1968]

Very informative and well done Tony! You just got a new subscriber! Thanks!

[@rolfts5762]

:-) ..Paused watching just to comment(and making myself a cup coffee this thursday morning here in scandinavia/norway) ..Fantastic video's you make Tony, I like them very much (and would guess many other does too). You have very good knowledge, good international-humble'nes(just calling it like that, as I would wish that could be some kind of standard among all-we-people on this spaceShipTellus, maybe after some years/decade) , short note; good technical carma. >This video is super-interesting, learning new things that haven't been thinking of before. Again thanks for sharing XrayT. //br, from norway.

[@19janiboy96]

His channel has become one of my favorites

[@FluxCondenser]

Another great video, thanks, Tony. I find that for posting corrections, pinning a comment to the top of the discussion works better than putting it in the description. As you say, many people never read the description, but if someone is going to post “you screwed up” hopefully they’ll see your pinned comment first ;-)

[@williamstevens7090]

Thanks for the lesson on Kelvin leads. So clearly explained, demonstrated :)

[@richardredcastle7911]

I tried to keep peace, joy and happiness in the back of my mind while relearning about multimeters and electrolytic capacitors......I failed! LOL! P.S I always look forward to and enjoy your video's.

[@jutukka]

Best video I have seen for a long time. 👍 At that price, that meter seems pretty good. How I wish this kind of equipment would have been available at that price many years ago.

[@KissAnalog]

nice thorough job!

[@jdmccorful]

Since I have fallen in with old tube am/fm mono radios , I will take a pass on instrument. Enjoyed what you showed and demonstrated. The cup is always half full for me . You give a great deal to think about. Thanks.

[@georgejobin1744]

Great review tony I learned alot thanks

[@terenceho6818]

Hi Tony, I learned a lot from the video and I really appreciate it. Since my graphics card is broken, I bought this LCR meter to measure the capacitance and ESR of the on-board capacitors. The capacitor are 330uF Panasonic conductive solid polymer capacitor. I pulled out these used capacitor from the board and measure them. The problem is that when I measure these used capacitor with this LCR meter, the readings I get at 100Hz and 1kHz seem to be normal. However, at 7.8kHz, the meter gave different readings depending on the connection of the probes. As you know each probe has two cables, and in theory they are the same. Suppose I plug cable A into the terminal Hp and cable B into terminal Hc, the reading shown on the meter was 70uF for the used 330uF capacitor. When I plug cable A into Hc and cable B into Hp. For the same used 300uF capacitor, the reading was 1000uF. I did the same test on a brand new 330uF capacitor by swapping the cables between Hp and Hc, the reading on the meter were same at 340uF. Can you tell me why the cable connection will affect the reading of the meter? I never calibrate the device or restore factory settings. I just set the probe open and short to zero. Do you think the cables which used at the factory calibration will affect my measurement results?

[@alterator]

Thanks a lot 19:00 Great video and the best explanation plenty of things that I needed. Thank you one more time from Russia

[@roymercer6967]

Very well done sir. The one thing you left out is series and parallel measurements. I would very much like to hear an explanation from you in regard.

[@michaelwolak3098]

Hi Tony I ordered one of these before your video and found your video absolutely fabulous yes I will have to troll the web for an instruction manual Mike

[@19janiboy96]

Hey Tony I've learnt so much from you :) I started building synthesizers and I currently set up my workshop that I've wanted for literally of half my life. :) This LCR Meter is just what I need because I building a clone of SONTEC MEP-250x. I need to match some caps for each frequency band of that EQ.

[@deankq4adj125]

Excellent video and explanation of the measurements.

[@dimmog]

Love my HP / Agilent / Keysight U1733C LCR meter

[@acuben65]

Thanks, I use one and I find it quite easy and accurate. User must always pay attention to fully discharge capacitors before measuring them….

[@codezero6023]

Wow, good explanation about the issues with reactive circuits at different frequencies. People like Bob Carver and Nelson Pass are not idiots when it comes to amp designs. It takes a lot of work just to get phasing right from 20Hz-20Khz. This is also why high end amp designers have issues with Class D amps - reactive components are needed to remove high frequency artifacts.

[@vasyapupkin6735]

Thank you.Its amazing explanation

[@grahamchiz6076]

Great Video. Explained a lot to me. I'm looking to get a LCR Meter but know little about them. Thinking of getting a Ruoshui 4090C goes to 100KHz. But the cost is going up by the day! I'm only a hobby dabbler so one of these could do what I want. Many thanks. Graham, from Bundaberg.

[@astaltsev]

Thank you, Tony. Have been watching a lot of your videos, first time comment. My guess is "CLR" on the button label doesn't stand for "clear". It's just "C - L - R " as in switching between test modes, as you described. I agree it's confusing.

[@t1d100]

Great info. Thank you.

[@fredflintstone8048]

I have to admit that I rarely read the description of a video unless there's some pertinent info that the content creator refers to during the video that I'm interested in. Usually the descriptions are links to products or various forms of ebegging.

[@PeterMilanovski]

Tony, I just got mine but I purchased the new version of it, it appears to be slightly smaller, it's black, has no screw's on the face or the back panels only on the ends, it uses USB C to power it or if you choose the battery version the USB C is used to both charge and power if necessary... The button colours have changed and the display screen is now blue, they have moved away from through hole and instead chose SMD... Only one problem with mine is that they forgot to mark the unit for which cable plug's into which jack! The seller gave me a link to download the manual which appears to be based on your model but there's no mention of which cable goes where, I had to open it up and trace out what's what which wasn't to hard... But having an internal battery which can be replaced or even upgraded to a larger size if more run time is needed is really great! Thankfully it doesn't have the standard Chinese auto off feature... This is one of those tools that you have to use often to really get a good understanding of what to make of it's measurements, so in saying that, I would love to see you use it on an amplifier restoration, showing the before and after of the capacitors in the power supply, the decoupling and bypass capacitors, I know that the disapation needs to be low and the quality needs to be high but some of my capacitors show ESR a bit high even if the other figures are good... But seeing someone else use it who knows what they are doing with something like this would be invaluable knowledge... I really want to master this thing...

[@steve6375]

The cable supplied seems to end in a USb Type A plug. So how do you power it? Does it still need 12V?

[@PeterMilanovski]

@@steve6375 not sure, mine has a built in lithium battery and is charged by USB C...

[@rachmatmaulana8310]

Thank for all explanation, i understand now, how to read this...

[@---fc8jp]

Спасибо! Очень детальный обзор. Хорошая работа. В инструкцию по этому прибору нужно разместить ссылку на ваше видео ))

[@embeddedsemrade]

Thank you for the video 😊

[@scrappy7571]

Thanks Tony, spent a few hours researching options. This one should be good for audio repairs. Price is low enough, just have to wait a month for it to get here from china. Oh, and thanks for explaining the kelvin leads.

[@scrappy7571]

Meter arrived, finally!! Had to watch this few times, thanks for posting. Too bad no user manual included.

[@panagiotisgavriil8808]

Thank you very much, your video was very good. Unfortunately mine is not working properly now. I followed the alignment process and notice the following. Placing the resistance 40 ohms shows 42 ohms and angle θ 45. I press the two buttons and the change is small + -2 degrees.to the next step with resistance 1000 ohms again the same ,and above 10000 ohms ihave count 4 MOHM +. Do you have any idea what is wrong. Thank you very much for everything you offer

[@bucketlistbeginner]

Another great show! Thanks for taking the time to go through things. I just retired and am going to get back into electronics, if you get a chance id love to see a tube preamp with an RIAA phono and a couple line choices. Im looking into building a PP tube amp with 4 kt77 output maybe something around 35to 40 watts keep up the great shows

[@seanobrien7169]

There seems to be a lot of people desiring a simple preamp. I built the SE KT88 that Mark over at the Blueglow channel did a popular build series on. I was waiting for his tube preamp but now he is talking about a SS phono stage. So I did some searching and came up with an interesting schematic that appears to be closely based on the popular and simple RCA receiving manual schematic. If you are interested just Google "6 tube preamp" and you will find the wkinsler site in the top hits. I omitted a lot of his schematic and simplified it to just 3 inputs with one being the RIAA phono circuit. I omitted his other decompression formats and the ceramic phono input, this totally takes out the 6EU7 making it a 5 tube preamp. I also omitted his recording jack circuit. It ends up being a simple schematic and is a beautiful companion to the SE KT88. I cannot comment on performance yet as it is not finished, but just an idea. I am just getting back into all this myself so I am far from being any kind of an expert...

[@questionmark9684]

Hi Tony I didn't see you discharge the capacitors before measuring, especially the large electrolytic ones... does the meter discharge them? Is the meter safe with charges caps? Also, the probes do not seem to be twisted and shielded despite the coax connectors. Could this influence the 7.8 kHz readings? Please tell us where to find those beautiful probes that you have on the 197! Thank you for another great video. I truly appreciate it! Cheers Mark

[@R.AudioElectronics]

Great video Tony. My question would be concerning the voltage. Does this meter test under max or various voltages?

[@1959Berre]

I wonder if it features the ATMEGA328.

[@adamwolfram6126]

Are those Arcotronics C4G capacitors the same as the C4G series sold under the brand name Kemet?

[@sharepointpro479]

Excellent Material as Usual!!! Tony I like those Kelvin Clips you have in your 197, where did you get them please??

[@idiotwithasolderingiron]

Would you be able to tell me the value of the zeiner diodes for the frontend. the ones the send in the pack i cannot find. I just so happen to blow them in mine.

[@stphinkle]

I am wondering if an internal battery (Possibly inside one of the chips), or an EEPROM, or a capacitor inside your older LCR meter that holds the calibration data has gone dead.

[@MrBucbeo]

Thanks!

[@MisterBigwolf]

You can use "CLR" button to go back to main screen instead of turn whole device on/off

[@dhpbear2]

28:42 - I would think this meter would have an electrolytic setting. How does it know not to send pure AC which would result in the cap being hit with reverse-polarity voltage 50% of the time? Could this be why the ESR is so high vs the film capacitor? This sounds like a good topic for a future video! Do most capacitor testers out there output pure AC without regard if the capacitor-under-test is polarized?

[@schorse1000]

It doesn't hurt the cap since it's such a low test voltage.

[@dhpbear2]

@@schorse1000 It wouldn't hurt the cap, but wouldn't it result in a faulty reading?

[@user-dq6jh3vh1b]

I enjoyed watching your video through the translator's KZbin👍 Good material👍 Are you continuing to use this XJW01 LCR or have you got rid of it?

[@standishgeezer]

Excellent video Tony, lots of learning in there as well as a great demonstration of the unit. Perhaps I missed it, but I didn't notice ant test of really low capacitance values (picofarads). Can this device measure down in the pf range? EDIT: Just noticed the sales blurb says it reads down to 0.1pf (wonder if that's true?).

[@xraytonyb]

If you are only concerned about the capacitance value, this meter will measure down to the picofarad range. Unfortunately, the limited test frequency will not allow you to test loss tangent at RF frequencies.

[@LeeNelson71]

CLR = Capacitance Inductance Resistance. It's an anagram for LCR.

[@embeddedsemrade]

I am using a resistor of 1 Ohms in R mode. The value is the same in parallel and series mode 992.5mOhms. however the RLC shows a value of Xs=8.3 mOhm and120 Ohms in parallel mode, do you have any explanation of this measurement ? Thank you for your help

[@jameslane4206]

Great video.Tony.I know you have a sencore zmeter. I have a sencore LC102 I really love. Do you know the frequency they test at and does it change automatically for different caps? Thanks Jimmy

[@questionmark9684]

Hi James and Tony, Yes! I would love to hear your thoughts about the Sencore v. this instrument. Also, did you consider the DE-5000 as a a option for cheap LCR measurements? It goes to 100kHz but I know nothing about it. And what would you use for HF purposes? Cheers Mark

[@PeterMilanovski]

I was holding my breath and kept checking the progress bar as it was getting closer to the end of the video and I thought that you weren't going to test a higher capacity capacitor! I have found that a lot of capacitor testers can't read beyond 470uF even that common value can't be read by some tester's! I have known about the existence of this meter on eBay for some time now but it looked a bit too complicated for me! And it's price in AU doll hair's kept it out of the 'purchase on impulse and see what happens' so I never got one and took it out of my always full watch list to make room for other stuff, the basket it doing double duty as a watch list also LoL, I want and need everything but my wallet dictates otherwise LoL... The fact that you have done this video, it's sparked my interest in this again, the only question that I still have is, does it read in circuit? I have the MESR 100 which can read in circuit and from memory it also does 100khz but now I have to go back and check which other frequencies it also has, before this video I didn't know about the relationship between the measurement frequency and the device under test! I think that a lot of people probably thought like I did and take it as it's a bigger number so it must be better! But now it makes perfect sense! And the reason why the MESR 100 can do the 100khz test, because at 100khz it basically takes out other components out of the equation (most times) which is a handy tip to know, especially if you understand how components behave at 100khz, you can easily see if something is skewing the results or if the capacitor is actually bad! I have seen other people using the MESR 100 and they sometimes still have to pull the capacitor out of circuit only to find out that it was good and they just said that something in the circuit was skewing the results but they didn't know why! Well now I know why but I just have to learn what combination of components will skew it so that I know what to expect, that way I can skip it and test other capacitors and if nothing else shows up, then I pull it out and check it out of circuit! Unless it's a really old piece of equipment and it was a budget model which in that case I would just replace all the capacitors lol.. But this was definitely an excellent video! I just wanted to know if it's easier to use than it looked and if it could handle the higher capacities but I got more than I bargained for! Thanks Tony!

[@zulumax1]

I notice many budget capacitor meters do not state the frequency at which they test. I am using a Excelvan M6013 and it does not state the frequency used under test. I have a separate ESR meter MESR-100 and it uses the typical 100kHz.

[@martinfairweather700]

100KHz? You mean 100Hz?

[@zulumax1]

@@martinfairweather700 Equivalent Series Resistance "in circuit" tester. 100K square wave is what they use at less than 0.2 volts so not to bias any semiconductors to the on state.

[@terencekaye9948]

If anyone's bought one of these can you tell me what the smallest size Capacitor value this can measure Is,, pF's? I'm interesting in buying one but I need a capacitance tester that will test fairly small size capacitors. Thank you.

[@xraytonyb]

When properly calibrated and zeroed out, I have tested a 2pF NP0 capacitor accurately, although at that range, even your fingers being near the probes will affect the reading.

[@questionmark9684]

Hi Tony, Perhaps a dumb question, but when you are calibrating the power factor of your reference resistors, how do you know that they are not inductive to some minute degree? Thank you

[@borayurt66]

A valid question. Those resistors are most probably metal film type %1 resistors. So, they shouldn't have any significant inductance. Wire wound ones are a totally different story. I tend to stay away from them whenever possible.

[@questionmark9684]

@@borayurt66 Hi Bora, Yes, sounds reasonable. Anyway, given that 1% resistors aren't exactly a standard, any inductive error would be insignificant, relatively speaking. Cheers Mark

[@stevec5000]

On my unit the Cx function reads way too low. A 1000 uF cap will tend to read only about 777 uF.

[@johncoops6897]

That happens when you use too high frequency. Large caps = 100Hz or 120Hz maximum. Refer to capacitor datasheet for confirmation.

[@mikebarrett2621]

Looks decent value for money, but why did they decide on a bare metal front panel? Admittedly they have given it a texture to reduce reflections, but surely a painted fiinish with clearer markings would have improved it no end.

[@bobbauvian7700]

can I ask you a question please, would a hi frequency lcr meter (5 Mhz) be of any use in a pcb repair lab? already have a hp 4263A up to 100KHz.

[@WarayF1]

Yes, small SOT-23 DC-DC converters operates on frequencies above 1MHz. I wish I had one to test the caps it uses.

[@dhpbear2]

55:00 - One of the tips on your black probe doesn't appear to be making contact!

[@Digital-Dan]

Seems like somebody needs to make an overlay with holes for the buttons, changing all the button labels to something more comprehensible. Some day I'm going to volunteer to rewrite the English language instructions for a product made abroad, to see if anybody will take me up on it.

[@steve6375]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/hJi2g3SdbtF_j8k There is a PDF available with a very 'amateur' overlay.

[@paulpaulzadeh6172]

Watch some video on BODE 100 vector network analyser, will do all of those over frequency 1 Hz to 50Mhz , it is great instrument, without it , it is like blinde man in dark foreast ,

[@19janiboy96]

But its 4 and half grand :/

[@paulpaulzadeh6172]

@@19janiboy96 yes , but it measuring all Of these passive , loop measuring, S Parameters, for designing amplifier it is just a must equipment

[@19janiboy96]

It depends if you stay in the audio range you dont need that kinda equipment but if you go RF you might need it, but being knowledgable is invaluable

[@user-dq6jh3vh1b]

Greetings! Are you still using this device?

[@xraytonyb]

Once in a while. I have many different testers. I still like this one. It works well.

[@user-dq6jh3vh1b]

@@xraytonyb Thank you for responding. Help me figure out the fine-tuning. I can't rebuild point R4b in my device. I connect a 100K calibration resistor to the Kelvin probes, but I can't register the resistance value in the settings higher than 099.46K. What could be the reason?

[@razec11]

Don't you have the impression that the meter underestimates the capacitance of electrolytic capacitors?

[@schlomoshekelstein908]

first

[@schlomoshekelstein908]

heart my comment or im gonna shut ur elevators brakes off from miles away

[@ewong1]

DER EE DE-5000 is much better than this and around $100.

[@mr.selfdestruct2917]

Does the de 5000 show esr? I'm new to this.

[@audiokees4045]

SMPS transformers need to be measured on 50 to 100KHz and this meter do max 7 Khz. not accurate then.