Review on 🔍 DER Ee De-5000 High Accuracy Handheld LCR Meter Review: A Comprehensive Analysis of TL-21 and TL-22 Functionality by Joel Payne

tl;dr Economical, easy to use and very accurate. The new inventory (March 2021) now comes with an English manual. However, the device has its drawbacks. Problem #1: While I have no complaints about the device itself, it does have one major flaw. The 9V battery compartment does not have a traditional polarized connector. This makes it easy to insert the battery incorrectly and blow up the device. Older models had a reverse sacrificial diode (fast switching mixed signal SMD diode) on the battery connector that would explode if you flipped the battery, protecting the tool itself. But this diode allowed about 2.5-5 µA of reverse current even when the device was off and was the cause of all the complaints about poor battery life. On newer models they have removed this diode although the diode connector has remained. This greatly increases battery life, but can permanently damage the device if you accidentally reverse polarity. I really want manufacturers to fix this design flaw. At least they can supply normal polarized 9V battery connectors that prevent incorrect battery installation. Problem #2: The official DC adapter is not available. Designed to use 3.5mm x 1.35mm connectors with a 12mm shank length with an internal +ve pin and an external 9V 650mA pin, also unconventional. The official adapter costs a whopping $40, which is almost half the price you pay for the device. At $120, DER shouldn't skimp on providing a universal power supply that won't cost more than $7 at Revain. Problem #3: Adding a simple protection circuit at the test terminals against live capacitors would be welcome, although it would require the use of ultra-low inductance, low capacitance FETs. Something like that would probably increase the cost, but would still be cheap insurance against toasting the chips. Those nits aside, the device itself is absolutely fantastic. I've already used this on several projects that pay off. Used it to find faulty capacitors and also compared it to measuring the inductance of several miniature SMD coilcraft inductors with great accuracy. It's really very useful to have 4 frequencies to do a test. I still give it 5 stars for that.