Thanks to all for their comments on VNAs. I got a very nice 8753B & 84046A from Vladan. That forced me to cry "uncle" I and am now looking for a rack for this stuff. So I have room for more, at least once I find a rack.

With the prospect of a place to put stuff I'm considering LCR meters. For a fairly sophisticated hobby user, how much benefit is there to a 4284/5 pair vs a 4274/5 pair?

There are some 84/85s on offer at $2200 each. Obviously newer and more capable. But also at, from what I can tell from eBay, over 4x the price of a 74/75 pair. I have been so impressed by what I have been able to get for under $2k, usually 1/2 that or less, that a 74/75 pair for around $1k seems more attractive. Lots of bang for the buck.

With the 8753B & 84046A combination it seems to me I should be able to use that to make up for the more limited frequency range of the 4275A. It would just be a lot slower. But I'm not going to be sorting parts in significant numbers. And if it really gets demanding I can always fall back to using a bridge to match devices.

I spent my career as a research geophysicist in the oil industry. So I'm in the odd position of knowing a great deal and nothing. I would drool as I walked by the EE lab areas, but that was not someplace I was allowed to go play. And up until recently, could not square buying that sort of stuff with my habitual parsimony. But being able to check a garage door remote with my 8560A last week was a real pleasure.

Thanks,
Reg

Hi Reg,
I don't know much about the 4274/4275/4284/4285 LCR meter, but I would like to mention the 4262A.
It is much more limited than the others (only 4 or 5 different test frequencies, only 3 1/2 digit, , but it is still very precise. These ones can often be found for 100$ or even less, sold as "non working". Most of them appear to have a common error: a shorting bar on the front panel that is a bit corroded and does no longer make a good contact, so it is likely that it is an easy fix. I got mine this way. (The shipment from US to Europe was almost more expensive than the meter.)
There is also the 4263A, which looks more like the 4284A and 4285A, but these are at least ten times more expensive than the 4262A and probably much harder to repair - this is an important point to consider. So if you just want a decent LCR, you can't do anything wrong with the 4262A (this would also fit your habitual parsimony ;-) ). See here



for a teardown.
One additional plus of this meter: it has no fan! (recently I was making some measurements involving a 54832 'scope and 8663 signal generator, 7 fans in total - sounds like a jet engine, one almost needs earmuffs in the lab)

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Hello,
Bought mine much the same way. However, keep in mind that these have a lot of relays - on mine, the meter does not work in some particular modes. IMHO, this is caused by a tired relay...sadly, I did not have time to hunt it down yet but will do so in the future.

In general, however, this is a great meter - just make sure that you don't want to measure any extremely large or extremely small caps. For extremely small, there is a company called GLK Instruments - for extremely large, I have no idea.

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With best regards
Tam HANNA (emailing on a BlackBerry PRIV)

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I am familiar with the 4263A and the B. I would not buy the A version again because of the poor user interface and its unlit LCD display (no back lighting). It's actually unpleasant to look at that display. Imagine a cheap 1970s LCD wrist watch. The B version does have back lighting and they cleaned up the user interface as much as possible, given the available front panel space. Still, both instruments suffer from the digital front panel mentality. Both are in the same plastic cabinet. Since the front bezel is plastic, cracks can happen. There exist service manuals, but no schematics have been published. Calibration is done via computer only. If you are a great hacker, you can perhaps figure out how to calibrate these. As far as I know, the software is not commonly available. Calibration requires some very expensive HP standards as well.

Now the good parts: Both, the A and B are quite accurate. I suspect their actual accuracy is as good as that of the more expensive models. Their size and weight are almost ideal. Compact and easy to move around, but they don't slide around on the bench when you push a button.

There are some options available. One is the addition of the 20 kHz measurement frequency. It's firmware enabled, so it was strictly an excuse for additional revenue generation. The standard meter goes to 100 kHz, so excluding 20 kHz was done to make the audio crowd pay extra. Another option, I think, is for transformer measurements.

In conclusion, I do like my 4263B and find few applications which would require a more expensive model. Also, I would add that the various fixtures will add quite a bit to the cost. So, whatever you buy, try to get something that comes with the fixtures you want.

Vladan

By far the best LCR meter out there up to 13MHz is the Hp4192A -- built in the 1980s large and heavy but very good.
For a fixed frequency LCR meter, I use the 4263A/B.
GH

totally agree about 4192A and it does a lot more too
4263B is also a perfect meter in many ways. I dumped my 4274/75 after I got 4263B

Anyone know how the ?General Radio / IET ?1693 RCL ?Digibridge meter ?compared with the various HP/ Agilent ?LCR units ??

The 1693 RCL was supposed to have been a metrology lab instrument, for out-of-circuit part measurements.?
? - sometimes a GR 1693, ?or older 1689 on eBay.

? ?have not seen a review or comparison ?to the HP / Agilent ... ? ?

Sorry, ... kind of obvious: ?the GR 1693 is limited to 10 KHz measurements,
? ?assuming higher frequency HP / Agilent units trump this aspect.

On Thu, 28 Feb 2019, garp6 wrote:

Sorry, ... kind of obvious: ?the GR 1693 is limited to 10 KHz measurements,
? ?assuming higher frequency HP / Agilent units trump this aspect.

GR 1693 works from 12Hz to 200kHz. It is still being manufactured, BTW:



I have two of those (one original GR and one later Quadtech unit with
switchmode power supply) and they are wonderful instruments. Way more
precise than HP 4274A that I also have on my desk for everyday use :)

I do even have original GR calibration kit for 1693...

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