Compact Decade Inductance Board
Decade resistance and capacitance boxes are somewhat common in the toolboxes of hackers, but inductance boxes are often overlooked. However, having a decade inductance box like this compact 5-decade board from PNP Instruments can be extremely handy. Whether you’re designing RF circuitry or simply trying out various filter values for audio amplifiers, it’s useful to be able to quickly vary parameters while testing and prototyping.
What stands out about this particular unit is its compact size — small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, but still having multiple connector types (0.1″ header, banana jacks, and screw terminals!) while maintaining either 2% or 10% accuracy depending on the ranges used. In order to keep the size compact, the board has 10-way surface mount DIP switches (is it still a DIP switch if it’s surface mount…?) which control the inductance in 10nH to 100μH steps.
If you’re looking for a compact, easy-to-use and affordable decade inductance box, this unit fits the bill! Specifically designed to take up the least amount of bench space, it’s proof that good things do come in small packages.