RE: impedance meter - Wavetek 27XT

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Ross Overstreet by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <ross-o-at-mindspring-dot-com>

Kevin speaks the truth.  The Wavetek 27XT is the best meter for the money
that a hobbyist coiler could own!  I've compared it to several of the high
end LCR instruments and it is always in close agreement.  I try to convince
all new coiler or electronics hobbyists to make this their first test
equipment purchase.

The Wavetek warranty is also great.  They will typically replace it if you
break it in the first year.  Tech America almost always has these things on
sale.

Cheer,
Ross

-----Original Message-----
From: Tesla list [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
Sent: Saturday, July 28, 2001 3:22 PM
To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: impedance meter


Original poster: "Kevin Ottalini by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<ottalini-at-mindspring-dot-com>

Justin:
        I presume you really want an inductance meter.

Impedance is the opposition that a circuit presents to ac, including the
circuit's
resistance, capacitance, and inductance. Impedance is the ratio of current
to voltage
in a system.  Impedance is measured in Ohms, like resistance and reactance,
whereas inductance in measured in Henries.  A good example of this is
speakers
... they typically have impedance ratings of four ohms, eight ohms,etc.

A quick Yahoo search for inductance meter circuits turned up:
http://my.integritynet-dot-com.au/purdic/lc-meter-project.htm
http://members.aol-dot-com/sbench102/owens1.html
http://members.aol-dot-com/sbench102/owens2.html

And this poptronics article:
http://www.web-ee-dot-com/Schematics/Inductance%20Meter/IndMeterAdapter.pdf

I haven't tried any of these circuits.  Good DMMs with inductance scales are
pretty
inexpensive these days.  I use a BK Precision 878 at home, but it was about
$225 new.

At work I get to play with an HP 4263B ... about $6K ( you should see the
eyebrows lift when I haul in my primaries and secondaries to measure
them! ).

I noticed that the little Wavetek Meterman 27XT was listed at $119 in the
Mouser
catalog, (as low as $110 street) and it does inductance, resistance,
capacitance
is a frequency counter up to 20MHz (someone also claimed it has a special
range for testing microwave oven Diodes too).
http://www.mouser-dot-com/catalog/cat_606/428.pdf

Wavetek's datasheet:
http://www.metermantesttools-dot-com/downloads/DataSheets/DMM/XTSeries.pdf

This little gem  was also passed around on the archives a couple of years
ago:
http://www.pupman-dot-com/listarchives/1998/December/msg00055.html

and I believe that Ross Overstreet uses one (so it has to be good!).

In my opinion, probably the most valuable $100 tools you could invest in
for TC work.

Kevin

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Sent: Saturday, July 28, 2001 12:31 PM
Subject: impedance meter


> Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<Cydesho-at-aol-dot-com>
>
> I drove down to All Electronics store in downtown L.A. the other day and I
> saw that they had a kit there that allows you to use your DMM as an
impedance
> meter even if it doesn't read impedance. I don't have an impedance meter,
and
> it would make things a hell of of lot easier when I'm working on my tesla
> coil. I was wondering if anyone out there knew where I could find a
schematic
> or some plans for something similar.
>                                         Justin