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AADE LC meter for ham radio

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Alexandra Carter

AADE LC meter for ham radio

I just built the AADE (Almost All Digital Electronics) LC meter kit,
it's a very nice little unit and biased towards ham radio, being very
good at the smaller values of L and C that we encounter in antenna/RF
work. It took me about an hour to build, and I'd say it's worth the $99
or so it cost - I think it was $105 or so with the shipping. The
documentation is not up to Elecraft standard! But, the parts are so few
it's not so bad, just read the instructions and notes through first and
you'll be OK. You can get it factory built for $30 more. I hope this
message isn't too SPAMish but if you need an LC meter in a hurry you
may be tempted to get the B&K 878 which costs over 2x as much and you
won't have that hands-on understanding. This is a very solid and easy
to use unit. 73 de Alex NS6Y.

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Stephanie Maks

Re: AADE LC meter for ham radio

I 've also got an AADE LC meter (our club's Project Day from last
spring, a dozen of us built them) and I can also vouch for it. It's
a fine meter, was fairly easy to build, and is very easy to use. I
used it quite a bit while building my K1 and K2, to verify the values
of some of the hard-to-read caps, and verify the values of the
toroids I was winding.

No relation or interest in AADE, just a satisfied customer.

73 de Stephanie
va3uxb
K2#5311 - K1#2132

On 27-Jan-2006, at 07.52.42, Alexandra Carter wrote:

> I just built the AADE (Almost All Digital Electronics) LC meter
> kit, it's a very nice little unit and biased towards ham radio,
> being very good at the smaller values of L and C that we encounter
> in antenna/RF work. It took me about an hour to build, and I'd say
> it's worth the $99 or so it cost - I think it was $105 or so with
> the shipping. The documentation is not up to Elecraft standard!
> But, the parts are so few it's not so bad, just read the
> instructions and notes through first and you'll be OK. You can get
> it factory built for $30 more. I hope this message isn't too
> SPAMish but if you need an LC meter in a hurry you may be tempted
> to get the B&K 878 which costs over 2x as much and you won't have
> that hands-on understanding. This is a very solid and easy to use
> unit. 73 de Alex NS6Y.
>
> _______________________________________________
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Tom Hammond-3

Re: AADE LC meter for ham radio

In reply to this post by Alexandra Carter

Hi Alex:

Gotta agree with you... the AADE LC meter is a FINE addition to any
ham tool box. Though I don't use mine extensively, it do manage to
find sues for it on a fairly regular basis and it never ceases to
come thru for me. For the price, it'd be difficult to beat.

Another device you might want to look at is the M3 Semiconductor Analyzer.

http://www.m3electronix.com/features.html

A number of us built this kit at the 2005 FDIM Buildathon at the
Dayton HamVention last year. It's a really neat device and works
amazingly well... esp. for devices you can't fully identify. Saved my
bacon a couple times already.

73,

At 06:52 AM 1/27/2006, Alex, NS6Y wrote:

>I just built the AADE (Almost All Digital Electronics) LC meter kit,
>it's a very nice little unit and biased towards ham radio, being
>very good at the smaller values of L and C that we encounter in
>antenna/RF work. It took me about an hour to build, and I'd say it's
>worth the $99 or so it cost - I think it was $105 or so with the
>shipping. The documentation is not up to Elecraft standard! But, the
>parts are so few it's not so bad, just read the instructions and
>notes through first and you'll be OK. You can get it factory built
>for $30 more. I hope this message isn't too SPAMish but if you need
>an LC meter in a hurry you may be tempted to get the B&K 878 which
>costs over 2x as much and you won't have that hands-on
>understanding. This is a very solid and easy to use unit.

Dan Romanchik KB6NU

Re: AADE LC meter for ham radio

In reply to this post by Alexandra Carter

I write a blog covering automotive test (www.autotestnews.com), so
I'm on the mailing lists for a bunch of test instrument companies.
With all this talk about the $100 AADE LC Meter, I thought you'd get
a kick out of this. It's only $13,000!

btw, Agilent is the company that was formed to take over all the
Hewlett Packard test equipment lines when HP decided it just wanted
to be a computer maker.

73!

Dan KB6NU
----------------------------------------------------------
CW Geek: Fists #9342, FP #1171
Affiliated Club Coordinator, MI Section
Read my ham radio blog at www.kb6nu.com

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On Jan 27, 2006, at 7:52 AM, Alexandra Carter wrote:

Vic K2VCO

Re: AADE LC meter for ham radio

In reply to this post by Stephanie Maks

Stephanie Maks wrote:

> I used
> it quite a bit while building my K1 and K2, to verify the values of
> some of the hard-to-read caps, and verify the values of the toroids I
> was winding.

This comes up once in a while, and for the benefit of those (like
Stephanie) who may not have seen it before:

The measured inductance of a toroid depends on the frequency at which
it's measured because of the characteristics of the toroid material. I
don't know the frequency used by the AADE unit, but if it's far from the
operating frequency of a particular toroid, the results might be misleading.

Elecraft has said that they do *not* recommend meauring toroid
inductance, just winding the specified number of turns.

If you must measure the inductance of a toroid, it would be better to
use something like an antenna analyzer which will allow you to select
the frequency at which the measurement is made.
--
73,
Vic, K2VCO
Fresno CA
http://www.qsl.net/k2vco
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Stephanie Maks

Re: AADE LC meter for ham radio

Thanks for mentioning that Vic,

I have seen that in the Elecraft manuals and I don't expect the
inductance I measure to be exact to what the schematics call for.
It's just nice to see that it's close. Especially when there might
be some confusion about the cores, when they look similar.

For instance, the K1 Noise Blanker, the two cores are very similar in
appearance. But almost the same number of turns on both of them,
will produce two values that are different by a huge margin.

So I should have mentioned in my original post, that I used the LC
meter to just 'ball-park' the toroids. When the measurements were
off, I wouldn't change the windings but would rather, double-check
that the number of turns was correct and that I used the right core.

73 de Stephanie
va3uxb
K2#5311 - K1#2132

On 27-Jan-06, at 11.22 .22, Vic K2VCO wrote:

> This comes up once in a while, and for the benefit of those (like
> Stephanie) who may not have seen it before:
>
> The measured inductance of a toroid depends on the frequency at
> which it's measured because of the characteristics of the toroid
> material. I don't know the frequency used by the AADE unit, but if
> it's far from the operating frequency of a particular toroid, the
> results might be misleading.
>
> Elecraft has said that they do *not* recommend meauring toroid
> inductance, just winding the specified number of turns.
>
> If you must measure the inductance of a toroid, it would be better
> to use something like an antenna analyzer which will allow you to
> select the frequency at which the measurement is made.
> --
> 73,
> Vic, K2VCO
> Fresno CA
> http://www.qsl.net/k2vco

Tom Hammond-3

Re: AADE LC meter for ham radio

In reply to this post by Vic K2VCO

Stephanie, et al:

VA3UXB wrote:
>> I used it quite a bit while building my K1 and K2, to verify the
>> values of some of the hard-to-read caps, and verify the values of
>> the toroids I was winding.

K2VCO wrote:

>The measured inductance of a toroid depends on the frequency at
>which it's measured because of the characteristics of the toroid
>material. I don't know the frequency used by the AADE unit, but if
>it's far from the operating frequency of a particular toroid, the
>results might be misleading.
>
>Elecraft has said that they do *not* recommend meauring toroid
>inductance, just winding the specified number of turns.
>
>If you must measure the inductance of a toroid, it would be better
>to use something like an antenna analyzer which will allow you to
>select the frequency at which the measurement is made.

HEED Vic's comments here. It's all too easy to become MUCH too
wrapped up in the 'accuracy' of being able to measure component
values, esp. those of the toroidal inductors you wind, and to become
MUCH too anal about winding 'for' the published value.

Checking the values of FIXED components (resistances and
capacitances) is not a bad thing, to confirm that the fixed-value
component you hold in your hand is within the expected tolerance for
THAT component... and the confirm that you actually picked up the
component you think you did.

With hand-wound inductors for Elecraft rigs, FOLLOW THE MANUAL!

1) Ensure you're using the specified SIZE and COLOR toroid
2) Ensure you're using the specified wire color and size
3) COUNT your turns! Each time the wire goes thru the core,
that's ONE TURN
4) Spread the turns out around the core, generally to occupy 80%
to 85% of the available core.
5) Ensure that you have the leads well stripped and tinned, and
6) Ensure that the leads are installed into the proper holes in
the PC board.

If you feel the absolutely overwhelming 'need' to measure the
inductance of the toroidal inductor you just wound, do so with the
intent or at least confirming that the value is 'within the
ballpark', rather than being right on the money! IT'S NOT THAT
CRITICAL, and you'll drive yourself nutz trying to 'hit' the
published value... and for no significant benefit.

73, Tom N0SS

Fresno CA

>http://www.qsl.net/k2vco
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Alexandra Carter

Re: AADE LC meter for ham radio

In reply to this post by Vic K2VCO

This is very true! The AADE unit measures at something like 50kHz
ranging to 600 or so kHz, and the characteristics of the toroid
material matters a lot getting up into the HF range. I didn't get my
AADE to measure toroids at all, but rather to check other components
and well, fool around with loop antennas, goofy homemade capacitor
ideas, that kind of thing. And of course it's good to be able to check
fixed components to make sure I've picked up the right one...... 73 de
Alex NS6Y

On Jan 27, 2006, at 8:22 AM, Vic K2VCO wrote:
>
> The measured inductance of a toroid depends on the frequency at which
> it's measured because of the characteristics of the toroid material.
> I don't know the frequency used by the AADE unit, but if it's far from
> the operating frequency of a particular toroid, the results might be
> misleading.
>
> Elecraft has said that they do *not* recommend meauring toroid
> inductance, just winding the specified number of turns.

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Ron D'Eau Claire-2

RE: AADE LC meter for ham radio

I don't use the AADE meter (my inductance meter was scratch-built from the
ARRL handbook) but the fundamental frequency of the signal is not what the
inductor is reacting to in most modern designs

The one I use, which I believe is similar to the AADE in measurement
methodology, applies a square wave to the inductance and measures the effect
of the inductance on the waveform. What is of importance is the frequency of
the leading and trailing edges of that square wave, which is many many times
the fundamental frequency of the waveform. The steeper the edges, the higher
their frequency. Graphically, consider the leading (or trailing) edge of the
square wave a part of a sine wave of some frequency. Following the steep
slope of the edge waveform, continue with it to draw a perfect sine wave.
You will see that the actual frequency of that sine wave may be somewhere
between 10 and 100 times the fundamental frequency of the square wave if
it's a decent square waveform.

That's the test frequency that the inductor is reacting to: the frequency of
the leading or trailing edge.

Now, the fundamental frequency of the square wave can be of importance
because the measurement circuit often uses what happens to the waveform
during the time when the square wave is at peak or zero voltage to calculate
the inductance. The length of that time can affect the inductance value
reported, depending upon the design of the circuit, but that frequency is
NOT the "test frequency" the inductor is subjected to in the circuits that
I've worked with.

Ron AC7AC

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