Inductance & Capacitance Measurement

[Davii]

Messing around taking measurements of a few single coils I've made has left me scratching my head somewhat - can you measure inductance, and capacitance to any reasonable accuracy with a modestly priced LCR meter? Mine seems fine for the most part, but have come across a few odd results. I was initially trying to do the peak resonance calculation, which came out really low (circa 500Hz), but also noticed that ceramic magnets weren't influencing readings, though alnicos were.

The meter appears to be consistant, and I've no reason to consider it wack, but Google's bringing up too much physics for my brain to cope with not plumping for asking here instead

Updated: Google's given me some indication that metal alloys effect inductance, but ceramics tend not to by much, so no issue there then.

 

[AlexR]

Re: Inductance & Capacitance Measurement

There is a certain level of frequency you have to measure at, and with a certain input signal.

 

[Davii]

Re: Inductance & Capacitance Measurement

There is a certain level of frequency you have to measure at, and with a certain input signal.

Would that be for both inductance, and capacitance, or just the latter?

I'm sure I saw a video on YouTube of someone - possibly the Dylan Pickups guy - attaching something to a couple of pickups to demonstrate the differing peak resonance between single coil, and humbuckers, but I've never been able to find it again. It gradually filled in a frequency/amplitude graph on a computer screen, so guessed it was some kind of sweep.

 

[AlexR]

Re: Inductance & Capacitance Measurement

I am unfortunately not experienced enough to know how these two measurement are done, sorry.

I am sure there was a thread somewhere on the forums I frequent that I read just recently that had the details of how to measure for these....but I cannot for the life of me remember the details of it nor where I was. I have a feeling it was on the Pickups or Tonefreaks section of MLP, and the owner of ReWind Pickups was the poster who detailed what had to be done.

 

[Davii]

Re: Inductance & Capacitance Measurement

No worries. I'm happy with the inductance measurements, as they don't appear to be out of the ordinary, so it's mostly the capacitance ones that make me wonder. I'll keep digging