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Reviews For: M-Cubed LCRZ Meter

Category: Tools & Test Equipment for the amateur radio work bench

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Review Summary For : M-Cubed LCRZ Meter
Reviews: 9MSRP: $169.00
Description:
The M3 DIGITAL LCR Meter is a multi-frequency impedance measuring instrument capable of measuring resistance, capacitance, inductance, or transformer parameters from 1 milliOhm to 100 MegOhms. The M3 DIGITAL LCR meter has a basic accuracy of 0.2%, has 10 user selectable test frequencies and 6 impedance ranges.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.m3electronix.com/lcr.html
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0094.6
AE1S Rating: 2011-03-03
Fantastic instrment Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The M-cubed LCRZ meter is abosulutely incredible piece of kit. It is almost a "Lab grade" equipment. It uses the 4-wire measuring method and with Kelvin clips the accuracy is amazing! It has a huge set of very useful features and nice user-interface. It is always on my workbench and I have a small battery pack for portable use.
It is a shame that the company closed its doors last year. I have their semiconductor analyzer which is also fantastic.
QRPNEW Rating: 2011-03-02
Good Product Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is a good product. I dont own one, I had to borrow one from someone else who bought it at Dayton. I dearly wanted to buy one.

I am not surprised that this company has gone broke.

Our club wanted to order 30 units. They would not ship overseas. We even said we would pay by direct bank deposit and pay for the employees fuel and time to go to the post office. They said NO OVERSEAS SALES WHATSOEVER, without explanation in an email. Maybe they got burnt or something.

Anyway I bought the ALL DIGITAL ELECTRONICS LC meter. However I wanted this product badly.

Maybe some other enterprising ham would buy the design and sell overseas. You really being silly excluding the thousands of hams overseas who can make your product a success.

Darn shame that they are broke. I did see some company in France advertising this unit, however they have disappeared as well.
AB9GO Rating: 2011-03-01
Works great, but now no support. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have owned this meter for years now and it works great, but alas the company is now out of business as of summer 2010.
WB2VSJ Rating: 2009-12-08
M-Cubed LCRZ Meter - Well worth it Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This little hand held box blows anything else away (even some of the "pro" bench units). Great for ESR on old electrolytic caps.

I have other hand held LCR meters, but they are two orders of magnitude away in terms of accuracy and data presented/measured as compared to the M3 meter.

Two suggestions for the designers - Those tiny push buttons were a pain to get lined up in the holes so the buttons don't "stick", perhaps a small pre-made key pad?? A rechargeable battery pack would also be nice. I'm always looking for my a 12V wall-wart to power it. I'm looking into mounting a flat 12v NiCd pack to the bottom of the meter to make it more convenient for bench use.

You won't be sorry you bought this unit!
VA7ION Rating: 2009-11-10
Outstanding products, outstanding after market support Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This review was long overdue: bought every single piece of equipment this company has to offer. Never disappointed, outstanding products, outstanding after market support.

Thank you Mike and Mike#2
W5VIN Rating: 2008-08-26
Great addition to a test bench Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is a very accurate instrument. I took my time during assembly. The precision resistor color codes are somewhat hard to read and I double checked myself with a digital ohm meter. It all went togeher very well using the assembly manual. The parts are separated into order of assembly. I haven't checked mine in modes other than resistance but it measured a 0.25 ohm resistor at 0.249 ohms! It is a very complex instrument and keeping the manual handy until one learns the routine is a plus. This instrument rates in accuaracy with equipmennt costing much more. These guys did a fantastic job in designing the meter.
Charlie W5VIN
K0BG Rating: 2008-06-04
Super Device! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Floyd is right on in his review. This is a lab-quality instrument with .2% accuracy. To come even close requires a substantial cash layout with the likes of Agilent.

I will add, this is not a kit for beginners. While the surface-mounted devices are pre-installed, the supplied, 1%, blue-bodied, precisian resistors are difficult to read, so expect to check every one with a decent DVOM. And you'll need a good, 20-power magnifier to read some of the small capacitors.

Nonetheless, if you take your time, and triple check your work, you'll be well rewarded! Even if you get stuck, support is just an e-mail away.

Considering the cost (just under $200 with shipping), very few amateurs will ever own anything even close to its capabilities. My hat's off to the folks at M3 Electronix.
K8AC Rating: 2008-06-01
Good value - extensive function Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I picked up this kit at the Dayton Hamvention this year because I needed a way to measure small values of inductance. Assembly was pretty straightforward and it worked the first time power was applied. Initial testing with small commercial inductors resulted in readings well within the tolerance of the inductors. I particularly like the auto ranging and component identification - it recognizes the type of component you're measuring and selects the proper value range. The basic kit comes with a four probe cable, which is fine for discrete components, but if you plan to measure a lot of components you might consider the Kelvin clip probes (an option) which reduces the number of physical probes to 2. The company also offers a special probe for measuring surface mount components. Another interesting feature is the ability to measure the inductance index of toroid cores. So, if you have some cores of unknown mix, you can easily determine the inductance index and then know how many turns of wire you need on that core to achieve a desired inductance. The only price competitive device that I know of measures only inductance and the ability to accurately measure capacitance with this device easily makes up the price difference.
WB7OND Rating: 2007-01-02
Must Have For Test Bench Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
After building M-Cubed semiconductor test set two years ago and their frequency/power meter this year, I was anxious to try out their brand new autoranging LCRZ meter. I Just finished it today and it went together like a breeze, instructions included on cd were complete, accurate and easy to follow. Surface mounted microproc was programmed and already mounted on the board. After a two evening build, I just powered up the device today with a small 12v battery, and after setting the constrast on the LCD I saw the sign-on screen and heard the "beep". Beautiful silk-screened boards with plated through holes. The kit includes .1% precision resistors to perform the final calibration, if you have access to a more accurate measuring device, these resistors can act as a transfer standard so you can preset the precise values before calibration which improves the accuracy of the LCRZ meter. The Kit calibrated without a hitch, and was ready to go. It uses advanced 4-wire measuring techniques which virtually eliminate inaccuracies caused by contact resistance... With this kit you can measure resistors, capacitors and inductors to a precision not usually affordable to the average electronics enthusiast. Multiple test frequencies are available as a stimulus signal for impedance readouts; Q and Dissipation measurements display along with the L and C values. Not only can you tell if the component is within tolerance, also if its quality is still good, just what you need for radio restorations using "old" caps.. You can even set the meter up for sorting known values with an audible signal if it falls outside a presettable tolerance. M-cubed website has a downloadable user manual. All in all a great kit, I am still learning, I still have to try out the transformer windings measurements... In conclusion, this kit brings a lab-grade quality LCR instrument to the workbench for a very reasonable price.. I do not work for nor have any pecuinary interest with M-cubed.