ANSWERS : Technology

How do I measure the capacitance of something, I looked at the local ACE and none of the meters have a farad reading or anything else similar to capacitance.  We have an analog one, and I was wondering if there is a way to use it I just don't know of.

Comments

[seandogue]

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[jj.inc]

by large you mean high capacitance right, this is for a homemade HV cap.

[orksecurity]

Homebrew possibility: Throw together an RC oscillator circuit using that capacitor. Figure out what musical note it produces. Find the frequency for that note, measure the resistance (if you don't already know it), and calculate backward to find the capacitance.

(Bassbindevil's solution is basically an automated version of this.)

[bassbindevil]

There's ways to measure capacitance using a computer sound card and a few resistors, believe it or not. Just use the impedance measuring function of Speaker Workshop, WinMLS, Audiotester, or Visual Analyser (to name a few). This may work better with a sound card that has a speaker level output (like an old SB16).

Another option would be to use the computer (or a CD player) as a sine wave generator along with your voltmeter to measure impedance.

If you want to build a capacitance meter, check out the L/C meter from AADE; there's kits available, or plenty of information on the net to build one from scratch. http://py2wm.qsl.br/LC_meter/LC_meter-e.html

[Re-design]

YOu need a capacitance meter. One made specifically for capacity. Look at meters at an electronics shop or EBAY usually has a bunch of them.