Fluke 87 Replacement LCD

Must be a design flaw. I've punished my 77 for 23 years now and have not replaced a display. It is however encased in a nice rubber case/holster which does absorb some gforce.

Even if the unit is in the "holster", it might not survive a direct blow to the LCD.

If I wanted a "newer, better" DVM, I'd sell you mine. But I don't.

Is this the right LCD for the original model?

You might also consider...

There's at least a half-dozen 87s on eBay at the moment.

PS: It's interesting that you can buy a kit to "fix" the fading display (by replacing the elastomeric contacts). I fixed mine just by cleaning them with a swab dunking in isopropyl alcohol.

Zebra is unlikely to match in dimensions , same with pinning not going to match but has anyone successfully wired in (or whatever) via conductive epoxy (or whatever) onto the lands of a totally different display and soldered to the pcb. Anunciators may not be a match either Perhaps a faux zebra made from many many short lengths of the finest magnet wire , with stripped final mm or so and stagger laid-up before gluing. Then actively checking valid segment lines to the various backblanes and ignoring the ones failing to hit on a land. At least the sequencing of segments is fairly consistent.

Any LCD model suffers from the "fragile display problem".

The LCD elements are made of glass after all. The larger and more readable the display, the more fragile as well.

You could get a Fluke 28 which is spec'd to survive a 10 foot drop.

Check engineer Dave Jones' reviews Part 1 and Part 2 at:

or on Youtube.

and

Mark Z.

This thread made me check my intended future-proofing, should I break my Fluke 77 , used for unpowered/cold checks. I managed to blow up my work-a-day sacrificial el-cheapo no-name DVM a couple of weeks back putting

2000 V on the 1000V range. Not dumped , as the large LCD , for the Fluke. Just tried the display on 50 Hz sig gen and straightforward segment pinning (all segments ok) , I'd have to use the hFE anunciator perhaps as "2" mid segment for 2.999 Fluke use as this is only 1.999 max. Land spacing 1.2mm so easy staggered conductive epoxying of fine wires. Loads of other anunciators not used on the original like nF,uF, deg C etc I did not know were there.

-- Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on

Yep. That's it. Having the P/N (verified with the Fluke maint. manual) makes it easier to find without having to drill down through all the 'dim display' kits, Series 5 meters for sale, etc. The price is about what I recall the last time this happened.

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Paul Hovnanian  paul@hovnanian.com
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Have gnu, will travel.

Of course. So the solution is to find a manufacturer that will continue to support its most popular models with spare parts. Even original source parts (the mfg's P/N appears to be from Sharp) would be fine.

I went through the same problem with an old Fluke Scopemeter. A flexible PCB developed a break. Fluke no longer supports the model. Fortunately, it was repairable with some 'conductive repair paint'.

I've got cars 30+ years old for which I can still find new parts.

--
Paul Hovnanian  paul@hovnanian.com
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Have gnu, will travel.

Is this what you're looking for? ::

Also, this update kit includes a new display:

I think it is supposed to upgrade some of the other 80-series to the display size of the 87-5 (larger digits, etc.).

Includes a few other goodies, too.

Good luck.

Here's a cheaper one *and* it has a return policy unlike the one above which is [warning bells] as-is:

So I received the new LCD and installed it. Meter works fine now. But I noticed a flaw in the design of the meter: The corners of the LCD glass project beyond the corners of the plastic retaining bezel. Now I'm not certain what the clearance will be once the assembly is installed in the meter case. But its possible that, due to a violent shock, the meter innards could shift inside the case resulting in the LCD glass corner to strike the inside of the case. That's what appears to have happened when I dropped my meter.

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Paul Hovnanian  paul@hovnanian.com
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Have gnu, will travel.

Preemptively grind into the bezel corners with centrided burr in a dremmel

Or simply don't subject your Fluke 87 to "violent shock".

If they were not so expensive (and difficult to come by), I'd try it. I may practice on the old one to see if it can be done without cracking it.

A fall off a workbench while its in its yellow rubber case shouldn't result in this kind of damage.

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Paul Hovnanian     mailto:Paul@Hovnanian.com
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First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, 
then you win.   -Gandhi

"Paul Hovnanian P.E." wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@Hovnanian.com:

How about packing some kind of 'shock absorber' or immobilizing material around the mechanism so that a drop won't shift it?

Shapelock plastic seems to come in handy for many such tasks. If I don't want it to stick to nearby plastic, I put a barrier of saran-wrap between them. The shapelock WILL stick to the saran-wrap but the saran-wrap won't stick to the other plastic.

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bz    	73 de N5BZ k

please pardon my infinite ignorance, the set-of-things-I-do-not-know is an
infinite set.

The Fluke 87-3 LCD works in the earlier Fluke 87 models, as a replacement. Fluke Service performed this upgrade/change during a repair to my Fluke 87 almost a decade ago. The new LCD is cleaner and easier to view. LED used for backlighting.

greg, w9gb

This kit came with the elastomers and good instructions. Worked for me. If LCD is cracked or broken, then kit won't work:

Several eBay dealers offer replacement LCDs. I have no idea whether they're OEM.

This kit came with the elastomers and good instructions. Worked for me. If LCD is cracked or broken, then kit won't work:

Do you have the yellow rubber-like case protector covering your meter? What series is it?

I have a Fluke 87 series III (3) with the yellow rubber holster and I've found it to be very durable. Fluke supported these meters for many years and they are well made! I used to fix them 18 to 22 years ago when they first came out. There were fuseable resistors inside to protect the meter in cases of over-voltage, I would test them and replace the odd one along with fuses. I have replaced the odd display but not too often. Another problem was too much dirt would collect inside the holes where the leads plug in and meter give false alarms that the customer had the leads in the wrong jacks.

I own two fluke meters, I think they are some of the best quality meters out there. I don't sell them or repair them anymore; so this isn't a sales pitch.

Shaun