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For those with Fluke Handheld DVMs

I have 4 brand new DVMs and one uses a battery pack up in 3 days flat, turned OFF! I did some net searching and found a forum where it was discovered that Fluke put a cheap Toshiba supercap in the meter with a less than 2 year lifespan and AT the same voltage they were charging it to and everyone was seeing leaking.

I knew right away that was the cause of my problem. So I bought a higher voltage, bigger supercap with nearly the same footprint and a slightly higher profile, and stuck it in the BAD METER! and fixed that pup. It takes minimal GRINDING (yes, I said grinding) to make it clear, but it will last for years without leaking since it has a higher voltage rating and the meter will hold the date longer if the batteries do die down. They have been in it for two weeks and no depletion, so that nailed the problem.

I photo-documented the whole process in case anyone else has a Fluke DVM that eats batteries for breakfast like they are going out of style. I would have made a video, but this works. Feel free to critique or make good use of as you wish.

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Reply to
DecadentLinuxUserNumeroUno
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** The M shaped symbol on the original supercap indicates Matsushita - aka Panasonic.

No biggie, thanks for the heads up and solution.

... Phil

Reply to
Phil Allison

Doesn?t Fluke have lifetime warranty for these kind of things?

Reply to
DaveC

On Sun, 13 Mar 2016 21:31:51 -0700 (PDT), Phil Allison Gave us:

I probably knew that and Toshiba was all that came to mind.

How did you like my replacement of a Jap Zero with a Super Guppy? :-)

As Blind Melon Shetland would say...

"We'll never get that in the hangar!"

Reply to
DecadentLinuxUserNumeroUno

On Sun, 13 Mar 2016 21:35:11 -0700, DaveC Gave us:

Right... So they can put back the same failed design element.

This was also talked about on the forum.

Reply to
DecadentLinuxUserNumeroUno

Fluke forum? Or...?

Reply to
DaveC

I've seen it somewhere, maybe eevblog. But I believe Fluke will do a warrenty repair.

Cheers

Reply to
Martin Riddle

On Mon, 14 Mar 2016 14:58:13 -0400, Martin Riddle Gave us:

From the chat I've seen, customer service is one their biggest problems.

Reply to
DecadentLinuxUserNumeroUno

Thanks!!

--
 Thanks, 
    - Win
Reply to
Winfield Hill

Careful. It may void the lifetime warranty.

Reply to
tom

On Mon, 14 Mar 2016 21:57:43 -0400, "tom" Gave us:

It is a lifetime Mfgr's defect warranty.

If you fry your meter by hooking it up to a voltage source with the probes plugged into the ammeter ports, you pay for your repair.

These meters last forever when used properly.

Reply to
DecadentLinuxUserNumeroUno

** Doing that will not fry a Fluke (or other decent DMMs).

The amp ranges are well protected by HRC fuses while the ohms and diode test ranges are able to tolerate at least 240VAC without damage.

** Had my Series 70 II for while now, has as few "war injuries" but works fine and is dead accurate.

..... Phil

Reply to
Phil Allison

Brilliant! Thanks.

Reply to
ehsjr

On Wed, 16 Mar 2016 01:17:54 -0400, ehsjr Gave us:

Forgot to mention that not only is it a higher voltage, it is also something like 4 Farads!

Probably last longer than a mere two years.

Reply to
DecadentLinuxUserNumeroUno

On Wed, 16 Mar 2016 01:17:54 -0400, ehsjr Gave us:

I wish I had made a video, but all there is are the pics, so one has to be a bit intuitive and look at the file names as well. I also put metadata info into the file, but imgur may not take the files as they get uploaded and my create their own versions sans metadata.

I like when I can hover over one of my Excel spreadsheets/workbooks with my mouse and a wealth of info (which I inserted) about the file and what it does appears before ever opening the file. The idiots at MS did get a few things right.

Reply to
DecadentLinuxUserNumeroUno

So what's with the scribbled over fingerprints? You think someone would bother trying to ID you?

Reply to
JW

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