The winners of the giveaway are: Andrew Kener, rpavlik1, captain skeptical, Mameniac. Since I had 4 PCBs left I decided to pick 4 winners instead of 3. Each of them will receive 1x LC Meter - PCB. A random generator was used to pick 4 names from the comments (all the parts of the playlist). I ask the winners to contact me at: core.weaver@gmail.com Thank you !
What I don't like from ESR meter digital only detected capacitor still good or broken, but not half broken, that's why I still using analog ESR, you can measure the pressure of capacitor power, like blood pressure is heart still normal to pump or getting weak
This series has 4 parts. I tried to explain everything starting from the basic principle of this LC Meter, the situations when you're gonna need one, and then going through all the design and assembly processes and finally testing the prototype and the software application I wrote for it. Make sure to watch all the parts, and post a comment for a chance to win one of the 3 PCBs I am giving away after this series.
I finally managed to build it. Thanks for all the help and for this wonderful series. It works and I am so proud that I've built something like this on my own. 👍👍👍
Seems really neat! If you'll ship to the usa I'll throw my name in the hat. If I don't win, I might build a derivative version of this, going for mostly smd so that I can more easily fabricate the pcb at home. Might swap to a micro I have more of, too, though then I'd have to redo the firmware.
Thanks to Neil Hecht for sharing his project ,Very useful, nicely done video I've been looking for a good lc meter schematic for a long time, looks like I finally found it
got your email. Yeah I will help you out, just a little bit behind schedule doing pro stuff at the moment. Please give me a few days. Thanks for your comment
Hello, thank you, it's really detailed and well explained. I have a question if I may, did you use relays instead of mosfet as a switch to avoid side effects like the resistance of the transistor? I just listened to the song you used during demonstration, that's a nice discovery, reminds me a bit of Boards of Canada :-) Thank you!
Good remark, yeah, partly because of that. I didn't try this, but I wanted to build it rock solid from the get go. It's a beginner's project and I didn't want to give a guy who didn't use the right gate resistor headaches. The relays are either totally on or totally off. You don't have to worry about leakage currents or other things. You hear a click noise when it switches which is also nice when you've just finished soldering and you wanna do a quick test. I suppose you could try and use mosfets or analog switches too instead of those relays. And if you wanna read more about this topic, there's a lot of info out there about "relays vs. transistors"
Nice project.! Just curious how long did it take from the moment you desided "i want to build one" til "i am going to build it" and then actual building ? I gues between "want" and "going" a few months (maybe more) and for the next phase a few weeks, which all depends heavely on how much spare time you have. By the way i don't have a 3D printer and don't use AVR, (positive karma!) make someone else happy with a PCB.
I appreciate your comment, I have this feeling you know this kind of "ride". The part that took the most time was sorting the hours of footage and editing it into the videos you see. It took me about 2 hours from the "wanting" part till I had the schematic ready. Aprox. 3 hours for the pcb, a few days for the case (a lotta filament cause I made each part multiple times till everything was close to perfection), two days to assemble everything, 2 hours for the firmware, and a weekend for the PC UART application. But between those steps, are weeks of pause, cause time is a luxury as you guessed and this is just one of the 200 projects I was trying to finish in the free time I which I almost don't have. Still.. this was a prototype. This takes time even if you're Apple. If this was a commercial product, and if I was the manager of a small talented crew, instead of doing everything myself, it would've been done in a week, idea to packaged item. A lot of the geometry of the case for instance would be so much easier to do, using industrial manufacturing techniques. As I'm sure you're aware. One last thing.. It's was prototype, and these things take time. If the version of me from the past would've seen these videos, and have access to all the files I linked to, he would've finish this in a weekend, I like to think so, at least ;)
currently there's no circuitry for this purpose on the pcb. I will make a version 2.0 in the near future and I plan to implement resistance measurements too
I built 2 of these but have not gotten them to work yet. I am wondering if me not setting or picking any AVR fuse settings when I programmed the mcu would be the cause. Coreweaver what should those fuse settings be? Thank you.
hi, i tried to build this one ,but software for atmega328 is preventing me/....i am not used to bascom., you provided .hex file though,. can i burn atmega328 with this HEX file using xloader??? do i need to burn bootloader first to do so?? please reply.
hi, I never used xloader so I can't tell you for sure. From what I see in that picture attached on its github, it uses a com port so it's not an SPI programmer. To use that you would have to flash a bootloader in your mcu first. The easiest way would be to find an ISP programmer (10$ or less on ebay) and then use either AVRdude or AVRStudio or other compatible sw.
@@RepairRadioLab USBAsp will do the job. I assume you have an adapter to interface the ATMEGA328p with the programmer. If not you can easily build one. Contact me if you don't know how to do it. As for the PROGISP, I think it will work. If not try AVRstudio or AVRdude, afaik they both support USBAsp. Don't forget sure to set the Fuses too (Fusebits: FF / Fusebits High: D9 / Fusebits Extended: FF). Otherwise it won't work. A new ATMEGA328p comes with "clock divider by 8" activated from factory, that's one of the reasons why flashing the .hex without setting the right fuses is not enough. Good luck and don't hesitate to contact me if you're stuck.
I used the ATMega328P. It's possible to change the microcontroller and use the ATMEGA32. You'll just have to use the same pins I used and recompile the firmware for the M32. To use a PIC you will have to rewrite the entire firmware.
I've been thinking this too. This project uses bunch of frequencies and the only component that should really precise is the C cal. Is bunch off the frequency that measured here because of this reason?
any measurements you take are calculated with these formulae here: czcams.com/video/KhJiE4gL5T4/video.html So each of the F1-F3 or F1,F2,F4 are needed in order to determine a capacitance or an inductance. Imagine you start your LC_Meter, run it for 5 minutes and let's say you room temp. drops or rises in those 5 minutes. All the components on the oscillator's circuitry will have slightly modified values. Now let's say the F1 and F2 will remain the same since they were only measured once (at boot up). So the measured C or L will start to drift too. Another scenario: let's say you start the LC-Meter without any leads and probes connected, and you plug them only after calibration. The measurements will be far from reality since you've measured F3 and F4 with an additional capacitance. Even if you're measuring with the probes and then switch to alligator clips, there's still gonna be a difference between the probes capacitance. I hope this explains the need for calibration, which by the way means (re) measuring F1 and F2 a few times, and averaging their values. When I did the "INSANELY low capacitance !!! Measuring Femto Farads with the LC Meter" Video: czcams.com/video/OS8h7cKJdKs/video.html I re-calibrated after each measurement. Even changing the position of the leads will affect any measurement. To measure such a low capacitance, like I did in that video, I also modified the calibration procedure in the firmware, by increasing the number F1&F2 measurements and the time between the measurements, in order to get more precise values after averaging.
Pls make a video how to write fuse bits and firmware? I have seen all videos related to this project . You presented everything very nicely I can but subscribe your Channel . Thanks a lot
it's a pretty vague statement but here are my thoughts: probably your oscilllator (LM311 chip + circuitry) doesn't work the way it suppose to. Have you tried using the debug function (UART logger) ? If so, what are the values of F1, F2, F3 and/or F4 ? If not.. why ? that's the reason it's there, for debugging purposes. F1 is the freq. (l1 + c12), F2 is the frequency measured after the calibration capacitor was added (your reed relay could be faulty), F3 and F4 are the frequencies after adding the capacitance or the inductance to be measured (is your double relay switching ?) Also.. make sure to disconnect any components from the measuring leads BEFORE AND DURING the calibration sequence. This project has been completed and successfully tested by more than 50 people until now, at least what I'm aware of.
Thanks to Neil Hecht for sharing his project ,Very useful, nicely done video I've been looking for a good lc meter schematic for a long time, looks like I finally found it
The winners of the giveaway are: Andrew Kener, rpavlik1, captain skeptical, Mameniac.
Since I had 4 PCBs left I decided to pick 4 winners instead of 3. Each of them will receive 1x LC Meter - PCB.
A random generator was used to pick 4 names from the comments (all the parts of the playlist).
I ask the winners to contact me at: core.weaver@gmail.com
Thank you !
Confirmed
Can you make / modify multimeter analog + ESR + LC meter ?
@@opposites-369 there's gonna be a second version with a lot of other functions (ESR measurements included).
@@coreWeaver wow.. thx 👍🏻😊
What I don't like from ESR meter digital only detected capacitor still good or broken, but not half broken, that's why I still using analog ESR, you can measure the pressure of capacitor power, like blood pressure is heart still normal to pump or getting weak
This has to be one of the most underrated channels on youtube! Keep up the fabulous work!! :)
Thank you! Will do!
Thats a real neat idea and really useful ! Having one of these will be a great addition for my tools repairing arcade pcb's
thank you for watching
You won a PCB. Contact me at: core.weaver@gmail.com to clear out the details.
I have done this LC Meter project and it works great. Many thanks to the author.
This series has 4 parts. I tried to explain everything starting from the basic principle of this LC Meter, the situations when you're gonna need one, and then going through all the design and assembly processes and finally testing the prototype and the software application I wrote for it.
Make sure to watch all the parts, and post a comment for a chance to win one of the 3 PCBs I am giving away after this series.
Sự chính xác khoảng bao nhiêu % số với thiết bị lcr chuyên dụng
...With this project...you got a 69 young enthusiast follower...great project...Thank you for the opportunity to follow you.
Thank you for your kind comment.
I finally managed to build it. Thanks for all the help and for this wonderful series. It works and I am so proud that I've built something like this on my own. 👍👍👍
This is really great! very informative and useful video I have ever seen. Thanks a lot.
A masterpiece 👨🎓. My RESPECTS 👏
Seems really neat! If you'll ship to the usa I'll throw my name in the hat.
If I don't win, I might build a derivative version of this, going for mostly smd so that I can more easily fabricate the pcb at home. Might swap to a micro I have more of, too, though then I'd have to redo the firmware.
Thanks to Neil Hecht for sharing his project ,Very useful, nicely done video I've been looking for a good lc meter schematic for a long time, looks like I finally found it
Awesome! I am totally going to do this
got your email. Yeah I will help you out, just a little bit behind schedule doing pro stuff at the moment. Please give me a few days. Thanks for your comment
@@coreWeaver No worries! Appreciate anything you can do when you have the time :)
You won a PCB. Contact me at: core.weaver@gmail.com to clear out the details.
Delphi - YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not a M$ drone, ....love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Awesome!!!
Great Explanation
Unless I'm to late, I'd like to have one of your boards! Thanks.
Hello, thank you, it's really detailed and well explained. I have a question if I may, did you use relays instead of mosfet as a switch to avoid side effects like the resistance of the transistor?
I just listened to the song you used during demonstration, that's a nice discovery, reminds me a bit of Boards of Canada :-)
Thank you!
Good remark, yeah, partly because of that. I didn't try this, but I wanted to build it rock solid from the get go. It's a beginner's project and I didn't want to give a guy who didn't use the right gate resistor headaches. The relays are either totally on or totally off. You don't have to worry about leakage currents or other things. You hear a click noise when it switches which is also nice when you've just finished soldering and you wanna do a quick test. I suppose you could try and use mosfets or analog switches too instead of those relays. And if you wanna read more about this topic, there's a lot of info out there about "relays vs. transistors"
Nice project.! Just curious how long did it take from the moment you desided "i want to build one" til "i am going to build it" and then actual building ? I gues between "want" and "going" a few months (maybe more) and for the next phase a few weeks, which all depends heavely on how much spare time you have.
By the way i don't have a 3D printer and don't use AVR, (positive karma!) make someone else happy with a PCB.
I appreciate your comment, I have this feeling you know this kind of "ride". The part that took the most time was sorting the hours of footage and editing it into the videos you see. It took me about 2 hours from the "wanting" part till I had the schematic ready. Aprox. 3 hours for the pcb, a few days for the case (a lotta filament cause I made each part multiple times till everything was close to perfection), two days to assemble everything, 2 hours for the firmware, and a weekend for the PC UART application. But between those steps, are weeks of pause, cause time is a luxury as you guessed and this is just one of the 200 projects I was trying to finish in the free time I which I almost don't have.
Still.. this was a prototype. This takes time even if you're Apple.
If this was a commercial product, and if I was the manager of a small talented crew, instead of doing everything myself, it would've been done in a week, idea to packaged item.
A lot of the geometry of the case for instance would be so much easier to do, using industrial manufacturing techniques. As I'm sure you're aware.
One last thing.. It's was prototype, and these things take time. If the version of me from the past would've seen these videos, and have access to all the files I linked to, he would've finish this in a weekend, I like to think so, at least ;)
One question about " LC meter algotrithm " , When measuring the F1 , the Relay1 ought to be actived ( ON ) , right ?
nice , exelent
Subscribed
thanks for your interest in this project
Good
Is possible to also include measuring Resistors?
currently there's no circuitry for this purpose on the pcb. I will make a version 2.0 in the near future and I plan to implement resistance measurements too
Too much math involved 😄
I built 2 of these but have not gotten them to work yet. I am wondering if me not setting or picking any AVR fuse settings when I programmed the mcu would be the cause. Coreweaver what should those fuse settings be? Thank you.
Fusebits: FF
Fusebits High: D9
Fusebits Extended: FF
there's a "fuses readme.txt" in the firmware folder
Great Project sir.One question sir? Can the capacitance be measured in working conditions? Any method or suggestions sir. Thank you sir
no you can't measure caps in a powered circuit. Even an ESR measurement for a high capacitance cap would be very far off.
hi, i tried to build this one ,but software for atmega328 is preventing me/....i am not used to bascom., you provided .hex file though,. can i burn atmega328 with this HEX file using xloader??? do i need to burn bootloader first to do so?? please reply.
hi, I never used xloader so I can't tell you for sure. From what I see in that picture attached on its github, it uses a com port so it's not an SPI programmer. To use that you would have to flash a bootloader in your mcu first.
The easiest way would be to find an ISP programmer (10$ or less on ebay) and then use either AVRdude or AVRStudio or other compatible sw.
Thank you for your response. I ordered an usbasp programmer, which i intended to use with progisp programme.
@@RepairRadioLab USBAsp will do the job. I assume you have an adapter to interface the ATMEGA328p with the programmer. If not you can easily build one. Contact me if you don't know how to do it. As for the PROGISP, I think it will work. If not try AVRstudio or AVRdude, afaik they both support USBAsp.
Don't forget sure to set the Fuses too (Fusebits: FF / Fusebits High: D9 / Fusebits Extended: FF). Otherwise it won't work. A new ATMEGA328p comes with "clock divider by 8" activated from factory, that's one of the reasons why flashing the .hex without setting the right fuses is not enough. Good luck and don't hesitate to contact me if you're stuck.
Can I ask you use PIC16F628 or Atmega32 ?
I used the ATMega328P. It's possible to change the microcontroller and use the ATMEGA32. You'll just have to use the same pins I used and recompile the firmware for the M32. To use a PIC you will have to rewrite the entire firmware.
What is the importance of calibrataion
I've been thinking this too. This project uses bunch of frequencies and the only component that should really precise is the C cal. Is bunch off the frequency that measured here because of this reason?
any measurements you take are calculated with these formulae here: czcams.com/video/KhJiE4gL5T4/video.html
So each of the F1-F3 or F1,F2,F4 are needed in order to determine a capacitance or an inductance. Imagine you start your LC_Meter, run it for 5 minutes and let's say you room temp. drops or rises in those 5 minutes. All the components on the oscillator's circuitry will have slightly modified values. Now let's say the F1 and F2 will remain the same since they were only measured once (at boot up). So the measured C or L will start to drift too.
Another scenario: let's say you start the LC-Meter without any leads and probes connected, and you plug them only after calibration. The measurements will be far from reality since you've measured F3 and F4 with an additional capacitance.
Even if you're measuring with the probes and then switch to alligator clips, there's still gonna be a difference between the probes capacitance.
I hope this explains the need for calibration, which by the way means (re) measuring F1 and F2 a few times, and averaging their values.
When I did the "INSANELY low capacitance !!! Measuring Femto Farads with the LC Meter" Video: czcams.com/video/OS8h7cKJdKs/video.html
I re-calibrated after each measurement.
Even changing the position of the leads will affect any measurement.
To measure such a low capacitance, like I did in that video, I also modified the calibration procedure in the firmware, by increasing the number F1&F2 measurements and the time between the measurements, in order to get more precise values after averaging.
Pls make a video how to write fuse bits and firmware? I have seen all videos related to this project . You presented everything very nicely I can but subscribe your Channel . Thanks a lot
You have used polystyrene type C_cal..... Can I use ciramic type capacitor instead of that?
Where is part 2 of the phone
Can't download your files . Not able to convert your files to a pdf .
just tried and it all works fine. What are you trying to convert ? All the files are also hosted here:
hackaday.io/project/178081-build-an-lc-meter
can u give me the files in google drive link ??
I'm not sure what you mean
I built this but could not measure anything
it's a pretty vague statement but here are my thoughts: probably your oscilllator (LM311 chip + circuitry) doesn't work the way it suppose to. Have you tried using the debug function (UART logger) ? If so, what are the values of F1, F2, F3 and/or F4 ? If not.. why ? that's the reason it's there, for debugging purposes.
F1 is the freq. (l1 + c12), F2 is the frequency measured after the calibration capacitor was added (your reed relay could be faulty), F3 and F4 are the frequencies after adding the capacitance or the inductance to be measured (is your double relay switching ?) Also.. make sure to disconnect any components from the measuring leads BEFORE AND DURING the calibration sequence.
This project has been completed and successfully tested by more than 50 people until now, at least what I'm aware of.
can I have your email pleaaaaas i need help in this project
yeah sure. You can send me an email at: core.weaver@gmail.com
After so many years, my question is whether I can order the board .LZ1INK.73
Thanks to Neil Hecht for sharing his project ,Very useful, nicely done video I've been looking for a good lc meter schematic for a long time, looks like I finally found it