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Error Chart Compilation: Capacitance

Writer's picture: Paul TaylorPaul Taylor


When it comes to capacitance, it's now a must-have on everybody's list of multimeter functions. From HVAC technicians, to power supply repair, to digital filtering, everyone wants to be able to measure capacitors.


Once again, I've graphed my compilation of measurements across inexpensive multimeters and also dedicated LCR meters. Starts at 30 pF, ends at 46 mF:




Individual results as follows:




I believe some meters have two measurement regimens, one for <1 uF, and the other for larger values. It's quite evident in the component testers:





I suspect these devices utilize the same circuitry:



Another meter demonstrating a shift in capabilities at 1 uF:



Different brands, similar profiles?:



A consistent shortcoming of LCR meters seems to be measuring capacity of larger capacitors. It's becoming obvious to me that the methods used by the capacitor mode of multimeters is more effective at obtaining the true charge storage capacitance. It's quite amazing three different units performed nearly identical:


Once again, are these boys all using the same circuitry?


Wow. More similarities:




Another LCR meter below. Don't rule them out due to poor capacitance accuracy, because they can report the ESR and D of capacitors, which is valuable information to characterize the overall health of an electrolytic. Just be aware that farads will be reported lower than the label.


The following is a kit build put together by both Darren Walker an myself. We didn't feature the result on the channel - at least not yet. I found I could tune the circuit to give a good result around 1 nF and the rest fell into line. Not a bad LCR style meter for a cheap kit. Lots of fun.


As usual, below is my favorite performers with a transition point at 128 nF. The surprise is the performance of the ZOYI tweezers, outperforming the East Tester which cost 5X as much! Also, how a clamp meter ended up measuring larger capacitors best of the group.


NOTE: This graph is zoomed in 10X relative to the graphs above:



Of all the tests I did, capacitance required the greatest patience. I had a lot of discrete components to measure, and the larger ones took a long time. I also took the time to ensure the electrolytics were reformed before the test, and in between devices I discharged them completely.


Thanks for making it through the fourth enrollment of this series! I plan to make a few more, perhaps diodes and inductance. I think I hit the big 4 with these blogs. Enjoy, and Keep On Testing!

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