Fluke 77

I have a 73 series II or something like that, a $20 hamfest special from probably $20 years ago.

The knobs is starting to fall apart, and the things to keep the knob from doing a 360 broke off long ago. I think the hold feature died, but I never use that.

I did get a new Fluke meter, whatever the "standard" one is these days. It has some sort of moisture sensitivity problem and is only about twice as large as the old meter, which is annoying. It's nice and all, but the old one is still better sized. The old one fit with leads and some tools in one of those canvas electrician's pouches. New meter has it's own bag now.

The correct expletive is "urk".

Duct tape may help.

I really takes some effort to blow the 10 A fuse. Are you perhaps applying voltage to the meter leads when the meter is set to the current ranges?

Most people don't carry DVM's with loose screws. However, the explanation is easy enough. The piezo beeper is sandwiched between the rear cover and the bottom of the PCB. The connections are loose, dirty, corroded, etc. Tear it apart and clean everything. Note that there is a retainer screw UNDER the 10 amp fuse. While you're at it, some contact cleaner on the switch might be useful.

That's normal. The little plastic pin that limits over rotation breaks easily.

Yeah, it's the connection to the piezo beeper.

Entropy always wins.

Incidentally, I have a Fluke 75.

I forgot to mumble that the contacts to the piezo disk are two black elastometric "bumps" on the plastic retainer clip. These connect to traces on the bottom of the PCB.

Chosing the right fuse for your tester:

I will take that under advisement. Thanks!!

Mine has the Fluke hard rubber solid surround case, so the case screws are hidden somewhat. Only one was loose, but it was enough to cause intermitte nt operation of the piezo.

I replaced the 10-Amp fuse (a Littlefuse KLK-10A, which is what was in it). Works fine. Maybe I am blowing the fuse and don't realize it. But I tho ught that fuse was out of the circuit if the red probe were not in the 10A hole? And I mostly use the meter for volts & ohms. Personally, I think gr emlins are afoot here... Luckily, I found a stash of 10Amp fuses, so I gue ss I'm good to go.

I think maybe when we hire our next field engineer, I'll "let" him/her inhe rit this "77" and I'll go get me a new one. One of the perks of owning you r own company. (Of course, I'll never actually get around to that..)

My Fluke 75 has four positions to the left of OFF. They do something, not sure what.

The only way to blow a 10 amp fuse is by applying more than 10 amps.

When my old Citroen shifted into 5 (it only had four gears ...) the shift stick sailed into the passenger area. It had corroded itself off.

Or if the fuse contacts are loose/corroded/gunked/crudded, the fuse gets hotter than normal and ... phut.

• Looks like image was computer generated,say with EAGLE.

• Hard to tell, may be a real image.

If you check the EXIF info, you'll find that it's probably a real photograph that was very nicely cleaned up with Photoshop CS4. That's probably why it looks better than real. Of course, the EXIF data can be faked, but I doubt anyone would bother with a photo of a DVM.

Filename - httpverysoft.free.frMY_PHOTOSDIY_ALIM_FLUKE77FORMAT_INTERNETDSCN0141_FLUKE77_PCB_1.jpg ImageDescription - Make - NIKON Model - COOLPIX S520 Orientation - Top left XResolution - 300.00 YResolution - 300.00 ResolutionUnit - Inch Software - Adobe Photoshop CS4 Windows DateTime - 2010:04:27 12:41:11 (etc...)