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|
Constructional Project
Project By Charles Kosina
Automatic
LQ Meter
inductance / Quality
Besides adding the ability to measure inductance, so you don’t need a
separate LC meter, one of the big advantages of this design is that it has
an onboard signal generator, so you
don’t need two instruments to make
a Q measurement. Also, its operation
is entirely automatic, whereas all my
previous designs require fiddling with
knobs and a specific procedure to make
the measurement.
Much of the circuitry is similar to
my older Q-meter designs, some of
which were published in other magazines. Still, while I was adding the
new features, I took the opportunity
to optimise and simplify it without
sacrificing any performance.
It appears that no manufacturers
make Q meters any more, and the
scarce second-hand ones from the
likes of Hewlett-Packard fetch quite
large sums.
I saw one recently selling on eBay
for US$2400. This one costs a small
fraction of that to build!
Basic operation
A Q Meter is an indispensable tool for anyone
contemplating RF design. My previous
designs needed an external signal generator
with a well-defined output level. This new
design has a built-in signal generator
and also features two instruments in one,
measuring inductance from 0.1 to 999μH and
Q from 10 to 300 with a test frequency from
100kHz to 90MHz!
Features & Specifications
● Measures inductance (L) and quality factor (Q) over five frequency
ranges
● Inductance (L) range: 0.1-999μH with 100nH resolution
● Quality factor (Q) range: 10 to 300
● Test frequency range: 100kHz to 90MHz
● Resonant capacitance options: 18pF, 51pF, 118pF, 238pF or 488pF
● Power supply: battery (3 x AA) or 5V DC <at> 200mA
I
f you’re working with inductors, it is
helpful to understand what we mean
by the quality factor (Q) and how that
affects the inductor’s behaviour. In brief,
an inductor with a low Q has more
inherent damping, so it forms a filter
with a broader response and a lower
34
peak. In contrast, a high-Q inductor
will make a filter with a narrow (more
selective) response and a higher peak.
So you need to know the Q of the inductors in your filters, at the frequency
they will operate, if you want to model
their response accurately.
Briefly, we can determine both the
inductance and Q by exciting a resonant LC network containing the unknown inductor and a known capacitance at a controlled frequency. There
will be a peak in the amplitude of the
resonance at a particular frequency.
The relevant formula is:
f = 1 ÷ (2π × √LC)
Since we know f and C, we can rearrange it to solve for L, giving us:
L = 1 ÷ C(2πf )2
f is the resonant frequency, so we
can sweep the oscillator and find the
point at which the amplitude is at a
maximum, then plug that into the formula. Changing C will shift the resonant frequency but should give us the
same inductance result. That is necessary so that small and large inductance values can be measured at a reasonable frequency (within the device’s
operating range).
As for the Q factor, once we’ve found
the peak, we can also measure the amplitude of resonance. The ratio between
that and the excitation amplitude will
give us our Q measurement, as we shall
explain in a little more detail later.
Design decisions
My first decision was how to generate the test signal over the required
Practical Electronics | September | 2025
Automatic LQ Meter
range. My first idea was to use a DDS
chip such as the AD9851. However,
with a clock frequency of 180MHz, the
Nyquist limit is 90MHz, so 70MHz is
about the highest frequency it can practically generate. Also, it’s a relatively
expensive chip or module.
Fellow project designer, Andrew
Woodfield, suggested using the Silicon Labs Si5351 clock generator. I have
used this chip in other applications,
and it is extremely versatile, going
up to 200MHz and beyond. These are
available as ready-made modules with
25MHz crystals at a very low cost from
AliExpress and other suppliers.
Its frequency is set by loading many
registers over an I2C serial bus. That
makes it easy for me to use a microcontroller to perform a continuous frequency scan.
The output of the Si5351 chip is
buffered by a high-speed op amp, the
OPA2890, configured with a unity gain.
This has a gain bandwidth (GBW) of
over 200MHz, so it will have a reasonably flat output to at least 90MHz. As
with the previous design, the output
of the OPA2890 feeds a toroidal transformer with a 10:1 turns ratio, the secondary being a threaded metal standoff
passing through the middle.
This gives an extremely low source
impedance to drive the series-tuned
LC circuit, typically 0.02W. The voltage on the secondary is about 0.25V
peak-to-peak. The catch is that the
output is not a sinewave but more
like a square wave. Instead of just
one frequency, we have the Fourier
expansion with an infinite number
of odd harmonics:
sin(ω) + sin(3ω)÷3 + sin(5ω)÷5 +
sin(7ω)÷7 + sin(9ω)÷9 + sin(11ω)÷11 …
Where ω is 2π times the frequency.
It’s an infinite series, but in practice,
the higher harmonics are filtered out
by the bandwidth-limited circuitry.
Consider that the resonant frequency of inductor and capacitor (LC)
circuit may be 15MHz. If we drive it
with a 5MHz square wave, the third
harmonic will resonate and give us a
false reading.
Fortunately, this problem is easy to
overcome. Instead of scanning upwards
in frequency, we scan downwards from
the highest frequency. As long as the
highest frequency is above the resonant
point of the tuned circuit, the scan will
find the primary resonance frequency
on the way down.
Practical Electronics | September | 2025
When starting up to
Automatic LQ Meter, the screen
should display a message similar to the
one shown. The lead image (opposite) shows the
Meter measuring an air coil.
For example, say we have an airwound inductor of 6µH and a test
capacitance of 118pF. The resonant
frequency is 5.88MHz. If we set our
starting frequency at 30MHz and scan
down, no other resonances will be
found until we reach 5.88MHz, as the
first significant harmonic, the third,
will only occur with a test signal of
1.96MHz (5.88MHz ÷ 3).
Given a close-to-zero source impedance, the Q value is obtained from the
equation Q = Vout ÷ Vin, where Vin is
the voltage from the transformer, and
Vout is the voltage at the junction of
the inductor and capacitor.
For a maximum Q reading of 300 and
a test signal of 250mV peak-to-peak,
Vout would be 75V peak-to-peak. We
need to measure the input and output
voltages accurately, but it’s impractical to measure Vin accurately on the
transformer’s secondary. However, we
know the voltage on the primary is ten
times that. My testing shows that the
voltage ratio is close to 10:1 over the
entire frequency range.
Accuracy
Measuring Q accurately is not easy.
The error budget includes several parameters, including the source impedance of the signal generator. While it
is low, it is non-zero. RF voltage measurements are subject to errors and the
peak frequency found may be slightly
off. The stray capacitance on the circuit
board may not exhibit a high enough
Q, which will decrease the measured
value slightly.
I compared the readings with that
of my Meguro Q meter, and they were
generally within 10%. Inductance
measurements are likely to be within
5%. However, even the HP 4342A
laboratory instrument can’t guarantee a particularly high accuracy; it
has a tolerance of ±7% on Q values
up to 300.
Circuit description
The resulting circuit is shown in
Fig.1. MOD1 is the test signal generator and its output is buffered by
IC1a and AC-coupled to transformer
T1. The DUT (inductor) is connected
across CON3 & CON4. It forms a resonant circuit in combination with one
of the 33pF, 100pF, 220pF and 470pF
capacitors switched in or out of the
circuit by relays RLY1-RLY4 plus the
stray PCB capacitance of around 18pF
(or just the stray capacitance if RLY1RLY4 are all off).
A half-wave precision rectifier built
around the other half of the OPA2890
(IC1b) measures the amplitude of the
Vtest signal (at pin 1 of IC1a). The output
of this rectifier is the DC peak and IC5b
buffers that voltage.
The gain of this buffer stage is set to
1.25, compensating for a slight amplitude reduction due to the rectifier. The
DC voltage feeds the ADC7 input on
the Arduino Nano module for measurement using its internal ADC (analog-
to-digital converter).
At the same time, schottky diode
D7 half-wave rectifies the voltage
at the junction of the DUT and the
35
Constructional Project
+5V
+5V
100nF
MOD1
1
VIN
2
470W
GND
3
SI5351 BASED
CLOCK
GENERATOR
CLK2
MODULE
SDA
4
T1
TP1
10mF
10:1
TEST
TERMINALS
8
VTEST
1
100nF
10
VIN
D7
1N5711
TP6
10MW
SCL
TP7
8
1MW
4
5
100kW
GROUND PLANE
IC5b
6
D2
1N5711
7
IC1b
VIN
5
K
6
1
IC5a
2
100pF
SDA
D1 1N5711
A
3
CLK0
TP4
1kW
IC5: TSV912
K
CLK1
7
220W
100nF
A
330nF
3
+5V
CON3/4
6
–4V
GROUND PLANE
GROUND PLANE
VOUT
TP3
4
1kW
1
INDUCTOR
TO BE
TESTED
5
2
IC1a
SCL
A
7
100kW
100nF
K
100nF
390kW
IC1: OPA2890
100nF
VOUT÷11
33kW
100pF
1% RF
33pF
1% RF
220pF
1% RF
470pF
1% RF
Q1
2N7002
270W
+5V
12
11
10
K
A
D5
A
9
K
K
D4
100nF
IC3: 74AC139
RLY4
RLY3
D3
K
LOW/HIGH
+5V
K
l
G
+5V
RLY2
A
D
S
RLY1
LED1
2Y0
2Y1
2Y2
IC3b 2A1
2E
2Y3
4
14
5
13
6
15
7
1 Y0
1 Y1
1 Y2
1 Y3
Vcc
1A0
IC3a 1A1
2
3
1E
1
GND
D6
A
2A0
LOW/HIGH
16
CAP0
CAP1
EN
8
A
VBAT
D3 – D6: 1N4148WS
(SOD-323)
+5V IN
D8 MBR0540
L1 4.7mH
A
R1
CON5
S1
VBAT
2
1
5
3
REG1
FB
MCP1661
1
4.5V
Batter y
4
CON1
390kW
SW
Vin
+5V
+5V
K
EN
1
GN D
120kW
2
10m F
8
10mF
2
100mF
4
V+
OSC
FC
IC2
MAX660M
CAP+
Vout
CAP–
GND
3
SC
Ó2024
5
–4V
–4V
100mF
AUTOMATIC L/Q METER
1N4148WS
MBR0540
K
K
A
LV
7
6
A
1N5711
A
K
LED1
2N7002
D
G
S
K
A
Fig.1: the test square wave is generated by MOD1, buffered by IC1a and transformed by T1 before being applied to the
resonant circuit comprising the DUT and some combination of the 33pF, 100pF, 220pF & 470pF capacitors switched
by RLY1-RLY4. The test and resonant voltages are rectified and measured by the Arduino Nano. By knowing the peak
resonance frequency, capacitance and those voltages, both the inductance and Q factor can be calculated.
36
Practical Electronics | September | 2025
Automatic LQ Meter
+5V
an integral number from 0 to 1023
(210 − 1).
The firmware calculation is simple:
multiply the ADC6 value by 11 to recover Vout and divide by the ADC7
value (Vin). But what if we have a coil
with a Q of only 10? Vout ÷ 11 would
be only 0.225V, or an ADC count of 46,
and the broad resonance peak may not
be picked up accurately.
For low Q values, we increase the
gain of IC5a from unity to four times by
switching in a 33kW resistor from pin
2 to ground using N-channel Mosfet
Q1. This will give an output voltage
of 0.9V in this example, or 184 counts,
which can be measured far more accurately.
+5V
180W
LCD1
15
BL a
2
Vdd
4
RS
6
CONTRAST
16 x 2
LCD MODULE
EN
CONTRAST
VR1
10kW
3
D7 D6 D5 D4 D3 D2 D1 D0 GND R/W BLk
14 13 12 11 10 9
8
7
1
16
5
SCL
SCL
SDA
SDA
VIN
VIN
VOUT÷11
VOUT÷11
23
24
25
26
27
28
LOW/HIGH
29
30
SCK
MISO
ICSP
GND
6
D2/INT0
4
2
RESET
5V
A7
D3/INT1
A6
D4
A5
ARDUINO
NANO
D5
D6
A4
A3
D7
A2
D8
A1
A0
D9
USB TYPE B MINI
D10
D11
AREF
3 .3 V
D12
D13/SCK
15
14
Resonant capacitance
13
12
+5V
11 VIN
10 VOUT÷11
9
SCL
8
SDA
7
VBAT
+5V
27kW
6
5
CAP0
4
CAP1
27kW
21
22
100nF
Vin
GND
+5V
20
1
RESET
GND
19
D0/RXD
3
MOSI
18
5
1
2
3
X
4
17
D1/TXD
RST
MOD2
16
3
2
S2
RANGE
SWITCH
1 EN
CAP0
CAP1
4.7kW
EN
VBAT
R XD
START
S3
TXD
+5V
+5V
+5V
3x
27kW
4.7kW
ROTARY
ENCODER
B
A
PS0 GND PS1
2
4
Power supply and control
1 kW
RS-232
CON2
ENC1
5
3
2
3
D
1
G
2x
100nF
4.7kW
capacitance (Vout), converting it to a DC
voltage by charging a 100pF capacitor.
A precision rectifier is unnecessary because the voltage here is much higher;
a small voltage drop will not cause a
significant error.
Applying a maximum of 37.5V DC
to an op amp would destroy it, so we
have an 11:1 voltage divider made
Practical Electronics | September | 2025
S
Q2
2N7002
D
G
In my original Q meter, I had eight
capacitors switched by relays to select
a value from 40pF to about 290pF with
1pF steps to move the frequency of the
resonance peak. That was overkill, so I
reduced it to a choice of only five values
in this design. The stray capacitance
of the circuit is around 18pF, setting
the minimum value.
Why relays and not solid-state
switching? To eliminate errors, the
capacitance must have a very high Q,
preferably ten times that of the highest Q coil. The relay contacts in series
with the capacitors have very little
effect on the overall Q.
The capacitors must be RF types with
a 1% tolerance; the values are 33pF,
100pF, 220pF and 470pF, adding to the
18pF of stray capacitance.
1
Q3
2N7002
S
from 10MW and 1MW resistors. This
limits the output to 3.4V, which is a
good safety margin. This divided voltage has a high source impedance, so
IC5a buffers it before feeding it to the
ADC6 (A6) analog input of the Nano.
The Nano’s ADC has a resolution of
ten bits, so the voltages at the ADC6
and ADC7 inputs are converted to
Because op amp IC1a needs to drive
the primary of T1 with a signal that
swings above and below ground, its
negative supply rail needs to be below
0V. We generate an approximately -4V
supply rail from the +5V rail using
IC7, a MAX660 switched capacitor
voltage inverter in a fairly standard
configuration.
The +5V rail is generated from a
three-cell battery (at least 3V) by an
MCP1661 switch-mode boost converter
(REG1), again in a configuration pretty
much straight out of the data sheet.
This allows us to power the circuit
with three AA or AAA cells (depending on how long we want them to last).
The Nano can monitor the raw battery
voltage via its ADC3 (A3) analog input.
Alternatively, 5V DC can be fed in
from a USB supply, such as a phone
37
Constructional Project
charger, via CON5. In this case, REG1
will only operate to overcome the forward voltage of diode D8. If you use rechargeable cells (eg, NiMH), they will
also be trickle-charged when external
DC power is applied via R1.
The current drain in operation is
about 200mA, so a decent set of AAs
(alkaline or NiMH) should last for
around ten hours of use. That might
not seem very long, but this type of
instrument is generally only used for
a few minutes at a time, so the battery
life should be OK unless you’re using
it constantly.
If battery operation is not needed,
the MCP1661, the 4.7µH inductor and
diode D8 may be omitted. Just put
shorting links across the inductor and
diode pads.
The rest of the circuit is pretty standard. The Arduino Nano has just enough
I/O pins for the task. The LCD module
is the standard 2x16 alphanumeric
type available from multiple sources;
the version with a blue backlight is
recommended.
The four relays that switch the RF
capacitors are selected by a 74AC139
multiplexer that will power the coil
of just one relay at a time. The current sink capability of the 74AC139
is quite adequate for the relays used.
Diodes across the relays absorb switching transients.
Rotary encoder ENC1 is a standard
type with a 20mm-long shaft; 27kW
pull-up resistors are used for the three
switch contacts, with 100nF capacitors
for debouncing on two of them.
Note that we have two capacitors
on the INT0 line. One is located next
to the encoder, but some noise spikes
must have been getting into that line,
making the frequency and capacitance
settings erratic. A second capacitor
right next to the Nano pin fixed the
problem.
Two starting parameters can be set.
The first is the top frequency, which can
be set from 2MHz to 90MHz, while the
other is the capacitance value to resonate with the inductor. Three-position
switch S2 selects the setup mode. Up
sets the top frequency, down sets the
capacitor value and middle waits for
the start switch (S3).
These additional switches also have
pull-up resistors: 4.7kW for S3 and 27kW
for S2. S2 feeds either 5V, 2.5V or 0V
to the ADC2 (A2) pin of the Nano depending on its position, so an analog
voltage measurement is used to determine its position.
Finding the resonance peak
To find the peak voltage of the tuned
circuit, we start at a high frequency
and, at each step down, measure the
voltage V out . When far from reso-
Fig.2: this shows how voltage samples are taken at various widely-spaced
frequencies until nearing the peak, at which point the unit switches to much
smaller frequency steps. It’s important to accurately find the peak frequency
for precise measurements.
38
nance, this will be zero or close to
zero. There may be a bit of noise, so
the algorithm ignores anything less
than an ADC count of 5.
The frequency steps far from resonance are at broad logarithmic intervals. That means that each step is
the current frequency divided by a
number. The logarithmic step size arrived at by experimentation is f ÷ 200.
For example, at 10MHz, the next step
size would be 50kHz (10MHz ÷ 200),
making the next frequency 9.95MHz
(10MHz − 50kHz).
The next step size would be 49.75kHz
(9.95MHz ÷ 200) and so on.
When the measured voltage is 50
counts or greater on the ADC (about
250mV), we are on the rising side of
the resonance curve, so we switch to
a much smaller step size of f ÷ 4000.
At each step, we measure the voltage
and remember the highest voltage and
the frequency at which it was found.
If the voltage is lower than the highest
seen so far, we increment a trailing-
edge number instead.
When the trailing-edge number
reaches five, we have passed the peak,
so scanning stops. The highest stored
voltage and frequency are then used
to calculate the Q factor and the inductance. This is illustrated in Fig.2,
where each point on the resonance
curve is shown.
The peak will be sharp for high-Q
circuits, so the sampling steps must
be close together to avoid missing
the peak.
During scanning, we switch to the
low-Q setting by turning on Mosfet
Q1 to increase the op amp’s gain. This
means that we will detect the rising
slope sooner. If left on this setting, a
high-Q coil could saturate the op amp
output. To avoid that, we monitor the
ADC count for Vout. If this exceeds 900,
we switch Q1 off, reducing the measured Vout by a factor of four.
As with the previous Q meter design,
the brightness of LED1 is proportional
to Vout. Because the algorithm takes the
scan just past the peak, the LED will
increase in brightness, dim slightly,
then jump back to the highest brightness as we go back and re-measure the
peak value.
Measuring RF voltages with great
accuracy is not easy. Once the peak
frequency is reached, both Vout and Vin
are sampled 16 times, and the readings
are averaged. That helps to remove
random noise.
Practical Electronics | September | 2025
Automatic LQ Meter
I originally had some concerns about
the accuracy of measurements due to
the square wave shape. Is the rectified
input voltage Vin different between a
sinewave and a square wave? To test
this, I used my previous Q meter and
fed it with a sinewave and square wave
generators. Over a frequency range of
1-10MHz, there was no significant difference in the measured Q.
Construction
Most components mount on a
double-sided circuit board coded
CSE240203A that measures 138 ×
75.5mm. The two modules, the Arduino Nano and the Si5351a clock
generator board, are on the back of the
PCB; almost all the remaining components are on the front.
Start by soldering in all the discrete resistors and capacitors in the
locations shown in Fig.3, the PCB
overlay diagram. As SMD capacitors
do not have any markings, take care
that the correct ones are soldered in.
I use ceramic capacitors throughout,
so like the resistors, their polarity
does not matter.
Fit the SMD diodes next, all of
which are polarised; their cathode
stripes must be orientated as shown
in Fig.3. The polarity of the surface
mount diodes can be hard to see, so
if you are unsure, test them with a
multimeter.
Follow on by soldering the five integrated circuits, including REG4.
None of them are particularly finepitch parts. Make sure that pin 1 is
orientated correctly in each case, as
fixing that after you’ve soldered all
the pins is a chore!
The relays and 1N5711 axial diodes
should be mounted next. Like the ICs,
the relays must be orientated correctly. After that, solder the sole transistor
(Q1) in place. Fit the 4.7μH inductor
next; the SMD type is preferable for
slightly higher efficiency.
It’s a good idea to clean the PCB to
remove flux residue before mounting
the through-hole components, as it’s
easier at this stage. It’s also a good idea
to inspect all the SMD solder joints,
especially for the ICs, before moving
on, as it will be easier to fix any problems now.
Winding the transformer
Wind ten turns of the specified
enamelled copper wire onto the toroidal core (I used 0.4mm diameter wire
but 0.25mm is OK), taking care that the
turns are equally spaced around the
circumference, to the extent possible,
Fig.3: most components
mount on the top side
of the PCB, with just
the Arduino Nano, the
Si5350a clock generator
module and one or two
headers on the underside.
A large proportion of the
parts are SMDs although
they are almost all quite
large and easy enough
to work with. During
assembly, take care with
the orientations of the
diodes, ICs and relays.
The top overlay diagram
is the front of the PCB,
while the bottom diagram
is the back.
The pads for one
100nF capacitor were
accidentally left off the
PCB, so it can be soldered
like this (using a throughhole cap makes it easier).
Practical Electronics | September | 2025
39
Constructional Project
and that the ends line up with the
two small pads on the PCB (one of
which is attached to the large central
hole).
Scrape the enamel off the ends of
the wires, and tin them so they can
be soldered to the PCB. Make sure it
is centred correctly so that the spacer
can pass through the middle.
Once it is in place, gently feed one
of the brass spacers through the hole
in the middle of the toroidal core and
feed in a bright metal M3 machine
screw through the back of the PCB to
attach it firmly (it needs to make good
electrical contact). Attach the other
brass spacer similarly to the hole just
below the toroidal core and to the right
of diode D7.
Now it’s time to mount the various
through-hole parts except the LCD,
LED and modules. When fitting pushbutton switch S3, ensure that the NC
contact goes towards the bottom of the
board. Check which outer pin is con-
nected to the middle pin with a continuity meter when the button is not
being pushed; that is the NC contact.
Also take care that the switches and
encoder are exactly at right angles to
the board so that they fit through the
front panel neatly. The best way to
do this is to solder just one pin on
each, then adjust their orientation so
the front panel fits over them. Once
you are happy with that, solder the
remaining pins.
For the LED, insert its leads through
the 8mm spacer before soldering it to
the board. Its longer (anode) lead goes
to the left, next to the adjacent resistor. The flat side of the lens should
face to the right.
Before mounting the LCD screen,
the Arduino Nano and Si5351 modules must be attached to the back. You
could use socket strips to mount them,
but it is not essential. In each case, if
the module didn’t come with a header
soldered to it, fit one now.
Finally, attach the LCD module on
the front with 10mm M3 screws, hex
nuts and 3mm spacers. The Si5351
module is also held in place with M2/
M2.5 screws and 3mm spacers.
After cleaning the circuit board
again, inspect all soldered joints
and touch up any problems. The
photographs show a prototype version of the board; the revised one
has a few changes. Several components were not required and were
removed from the artwork, while
others were added.
Programming the Nano
Before the LQ Meter can be tested,
the ATmega238 microcontroller on
the Arduino Nano module must be
programmed. The modules generally
come preprogrammed with a bootloader, with the correct fuse settings
and a 16MHz onboard crystal, so you
just need to load the LQ Meter specific firmware.
How you do that depends on what
equipment you have. The simplest
way is to plug the Nano into your computer using a suitable USB cable and
upload the HEX file using free Windows software called AVRDUDESS
(download it from https://pemag.au/
link/aaxh or use the command-line
version, avrdude, if you’re running
Linux or macOS).
Download the firmware from
https://siliconchip.au/Shop/6/416
then unzip it and extract the HEX
file. Run AVRDUDESS and set the
programmer to Arduino, select the
Nano’s USB serial port, a baud rate
of 115,200 or 57,600 (depending on
your Nano) and click “Detect”. If it
doesn’t find the chip, adjust the settings and try again.
Once it does, go to the Flash window,
open the HEX file for this project and
click the program button. You should
get a confirmation message, and that’s
it – the Nano is ready to go.
Initial Testing
Note that the LCD screen is soldered to the PCB, as there isn’t enough clearance
to mount it on a socket.
40
Don’t install the board in the enclosure yet. With the Nano programmed,
a battery or external power supply
can be connected to the board. Leave
the power switch off and briefly connect a multimeter on its high current
range across the power switch. Around
200mA should flow. A much higher
current than that could indicate a short
on the board. If all is well, proceed to
the next stage.
Practical Electronics | September | 2025
Automatic LQ Meter
Switch it on and adjust potentiometer VR1 until the LCD screen image
is legible. Switch it off and on again;
the splash screen will show the version number and the battery voltage.
After a couple of seconds, the following screen shows the capacitor value
and top frequency. To adjust these,
use the centre toggle switch and set
the values with the encoder.
Once the values have been set, press
the encoder switch to store the values
in EEPROM, which are read on the
next power-up.
It’s possible that the encoder will
work backwards. This depends on the
specifics of your encoder and is quite
unpredictable. If that happens, switch
off the power, hold down the encoder
switch and switch the power back on.
The display will show “Toggling Direction”. The direction bit is stored in
EEPROM and will give correct operation from then on.
Final assembly
Use the front panel PCB as a template for drilling holes in the front
panel of the enclosure; Fig.4 shows
the hole sizes. The panel is a snug
fit in the detent, which makes for accurate drilling. Note that the spacers
have clearance holes in the case so that
they contact the pads on the back of
the front panel.
With the front panel in the enclosure slot, attach the red and black terminal posts. Two nuts are used on the
posts, one on the outside of the panel
to make good contact with the pad, the
other on the inside with the washer.
Tighten them well to maintain a low
resistance. The circuit board can then
be slotted in and attached by two black
8mm-long M3 machine screws and the
nuts on the switches.
Tighten the inside nuts on the switches right down for a correct fit. Push the
knob onto the encoder shaft, and the
unit is nearly complete. All that remains is to mount the battery holder
and DC socket (for external power or
battery charging) in the base of the case
and wire them up.
Drill a hole in the side for the DC
socket (if you’re using it) and mount it.
Make sure it won’t foul the PCB or battery holder once it has been installed.
Attach the battery holder to the base
using double-sided tape, then solder
the 47W axial resistor between the DC
socket’s positive terminal and the battery holder’s positive wire. Solder the
Practical Electronics | September | 2025
Parts List – Automatic LQ Meter
1 double-sided PCB coded CSE240203A, 138 × 75.5 × 1.6mm
1 double-sided front-panel PCB coded CSE240204A, black solder mask, 138.5 × 76 × 1mm
1 165 × 85 × 55mm IP65 sealed ABS enclosure with clear lid
[Hammond RP1175C – RS 268-1717]
1 Si5351A clock generator module (MOD1)
1 Arduino Nano (MOD2)
1 16×2 alphanumeric LCD with blue backlight (LCD1)
4 HFD4/5 subminiature DIP signal relays (RLY1-RLY4) [AliExpress]
1 Fair-rite 5943000301 ferrite toroid (T1) [Farnell 2948713]
1 30cm length of 0.25-0.4mm diameter enamelled copper wire (T1)
1 4.7μH M3216/1206 SMD inductor or axial RF inductor (L1) [Murata LQM31PN4R7M00L]
1 rotary encoder with integral switch and 20mm-long shaft (ENC1)
1 knob to suit ENC1
1 SPDT miniature two-position toggle switch with solder tags (S1)
1 SPDT miniature centre-off latching toggle switch with solder tags (S2)
1 SPDT miniature momentary pushbutton switch with solder tags (S3)
1 10kW top-adjust multi-turn trimpot (VR1)
1 3 × AA side-by-side battery holder with flying leads (BAT1)
1 2-pin vertical polarised header with matching plug and pins (CON1)
1 4mm red binding post (CON3)
1 4mm black binding post (CON4)
1 panel-mount DC barrel socket (CON5)
Semiconductors
1 OPA2890 dual 210MHz op amp, SOIC-8 (IC1)
1 MAX660M switched capacitor voltage inverter, SOIC-8 (IC2)
1 74AC139 dual two-to-four decoder/multiplexer, SOIC-16 (IC3)
1 MCP1661T-E/OT boost regulator, SOT-23-5 (REG1)
1 TSV912(A)ID dual rail-to-rail output op amp, SOIC-8 (IC5)
1 2N7002 N-channel Mosfet, SOT-23 (Q1)
1 3mm red LED (LED1)
3 1N5711 RF schottky diodes, DO-35 (D1, D2, D7)
4 1N4148WS SMD signal diodes, SOD-323 (D3-D6)
1 MBR0540 50V 0.5A SMD schottky diode, SOD-123 (D8)
Capacitors (all SMD M2012/0805 50V X7R 10% ceramic unless noted)
2 100μF M3216/1206 6.3V X5R
3 10μF 6.3V X5R
1 330nF
10 100nF
1 470pF NP0/C0G RF (high-Q) 1%
1 220pF NP0/C0G RF (high-Q) 1%
2 100pF NP0/C0G 100V RF (high-Q) 1%
[DigiKey KGQ21HCG2D101FT; Mouser 581-KGQ21HCG2A101FT; Farnell 1856269]
1 33pF NP0/C0G 250V RF (high-Q) 1% [Johanson 251R14S330JV4T]
Resistors (all SMD M2012/0805 1% unless noted)
1 10MW
1 120kW
5 27kW
2 1kW
1 220W
1 1MW
2 100kW
1 470W
1 180W
2 390kW
1 33kW
1 4.7kW
1 270W
1 47W 1/4W axial (R1)
Hardware
2 M3 × 16mm brass hex spacers
6 3mm ID 3mm-long untapped spacers
4 M3 × 10mm blackened panhead machine screws and hex nuts
2 M3 × 8mm blackened panhead machine screws
2 M3 × 8mm nickel-plated or stainless steel panhead machine screws
2 M2 × 10mm panhead machine screws and hex nuts
1 8mm-long LED spacer
1 double-sided foam-core tape pad approximately 40 × 60mm (for battery holder)
2 100mm lengths of light-duty or medium-duty hookup wire (red & black)
Extra parts for optional debugging interface
1 3-pin polarised header (CON2)
2 2N7002 N-channel Mosfets, SOT-23 (Q2 & Q3)
2 4.7kW SMD resistors, M2012/0805 1%
1 1kW SMD resistor, M2012/0805 1%
Silicon Chip Automatic LQ Meter Kits (SC6939, ~£50 + postage)
Includes everything in the parts list except the case & optional debugging parts. 41
Constructional Project
The Automatic LQ
Meter measuring a
moulded inductor.
You can rerun the test
with different resonant
capacitance values to get
measurements at various
frequencies.
battery negative wire to the DC socket’s ground tab.
You can find the positive tab on the
DC socket using a continuity tester
touching the central pin in the socket.
It will make a sound when the other
lead touches the correct tab. The ground
tab is trickier since many sockets incorporate a ground switch; make sure
a plug is inserted in the socket (but no
power is applied) and check for continuity with the outer barrel of the plug
and one of the tabs.
All that remains is to crimp (and
possibly solder) two lengths of lightduty hookup wire into the polarised
header plug and solder them in parallel with the battery leads.
Make sure that when it’s plugged
into the polarised header (CON1) on
the PCB, ground goes to the bottom
terminal and the positive supply to
the upper terminal that connects to
switch S1.
There is no reverse polarity protection on the PCB, so if you get this
wrong, smoke will escape! Double-
check that you got it right when the
wires are connected by the PCB by
verifying continuity from the battery’s
ground lead to one of the screw holes
on the PCB and the outer barrel of the
DC socket.
Using it
Using the LQ meter is straightforward. Just connect the unknown inductor and press START. If you have
no idea what the inductance is, set
the frequency to the highest (90MHz)
and the capacitor value to 51pF. It
will take a few seconds to run its
scan and display the Q and inductance values.
If you have a rough idea of the inductance, a lower top frequency will
make the scanning faster. The calculation is according to the equation:
f = √25330 ÷ LC
... where f is the frequency in MHz,
L is the inductance in µH and C is
the capacitance in pF. The constant
25330 takes into account those units,
plus the various gain or attenuation
factors in the circuitry, as well as the
ADC range.
The inductance of air-cored inductors will not vary much with frequency. However, the permeability of ferrite
or iron cores varies with frequency, so
you will get different values over the
frequency range.
The five-capacitance range of this
unit is comparable to the variable caPE
pacitor in Q meters of the past.
Fig.4: use the front panel
PCB as a template to drill
holes in the front panel;
they should be close to
the positions shown here.
Once they have been
located with a pilot drill,
enlarge them to the sizes
shown here.
42
Practical Electronics | September | 2025
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