Which Fluke?

[Satamax]

Hi everybody!

Well, long time since i've been here.

My voltcraft DMM being long dead. I was wondering which Fluke i should get for valve amps?

87 series either a III or a V

Or a 79/179?

Any cheaper options worth having?

Need 1000vac/dc

Freq meter.

Nice ones to me are dmm which read tension and current at the same time. Or at least on the same socket. As it's a pain to change the leads over when biassing.

Thanks a lot and best regards.

Max.

[Albert Kreuzer]

I'm very happy with my 179.
AC RMS is accurate up to 1kHz, and it is very well fused - almost impossible to destroy (I've tried...)

For biasing, I don't do direct current measurements anymore. It's too easy to forget to switch back to volts.
I measure the DC resistance of the OT and then the voltage drop over the OT primary winding at idle.

Cheers,
Albert

[g1]

Long time no hear, welcome back. I haven't seen meters that allow current measurement without changing sockets, I thought it was a safety thing to prevent damage to the circuit or meter?

[Satamax]

Long time no hear, welcome back. I haven't seen meters that allow current measurement without changing sockets, I thought it was a safety thing to prevent damage to the circuit or meter?

Thanks a lot guys.

Well, i thought my voltcraft 350E was doing that, but nah! May be one of my cheapos, but not sure!

[SteveJ]

Lots of meters will get the job done. Most any Fluke will work well. But I do love my model 87, it's just a real quality instrument.

[defaced]

We use 87Vs at work for welding equipment related stuff. They hold up in our shop well. But yea like other have said, if the Fluke specs for a meter meet what you're after, I don't see why one particular one would be any better than any other. The best price I found on our newest 87v was from Amazon. They were considerably cheaper than other retailers.

[Enzo]

Tell me, WHY do you need a freq meter? I have a freq counter here in my shop and I use it for one thing only - adjusting the speed on tape decks. I have never needed to know the freq of a signal in working on guitar amps. And for working on tuners, frankly the tuners are probably closer than the freq meter.

All the Fluke meters are nice and will work well. Don't pay for things you don;t need. For example, if a meter comes in 4 digit and 5 digit, you don;t need the extra digit. And I also swear that in a tube amp you will never know the difference between meters with 0.1% accuracy and 0.005%.

These days they throw a lot of extra features into a meter just because they can, and it makes it more attractive to market. Fine, just don;t let them up the prices too. I do demand autoranging. And I do not want to click through a menu ever.

[Satamax]

Thanks a lot guys for your replies.

Enzo, i need a freq meter, definately, for inverters, i play a fair bit with them on woodworking machines. Or chairlifts as well. (summer job/winter job) For example, one day, i was setting the arbor speed of a shaper, with a magnet affixed to the arbor. Meter with a coil picking up the magnet spikes. Damn easy, Well easier than calculating mid fiber diameters of all the puleys in the machine.

I know i want/need

1000vac/vdc
amperage
frequency
backlight
autoranging
peak and lows memory.

Capacity meter, i don't know, but since they all come with it mostly.

Indestructable.

If ever someone can point me to something cheaper than fluke and has all that. Would be nice. On my old voltcraft, i've blown a surface mount component. I don't know how, since the fuses were of the right rating.

Thanks again guys.

Bye.

Max.

[greekie]

I just replaced my Peaktech (probably the same innards as the Voltcraft) with a Fluke 179. I got it on sale, at a good price.

As Enzo has previously stated, I agree that there are some features that I'm not going to use. But the higher quality of the Fluke just makes it more satisfying to work with for me.

[Mark Black]

I've got a Fluke 179 and it really has been just great, but every now and then I find myself wishing it had some of the features of the Fluke 189 I get to use at work. Notably the easily-accessible delta (comparative) measurements and the ability to directly measure/read in dB units. In buying the 179 I weighed the price vs added functions of the 189, and in the end bought the 179 knowing I could probably borrow the 189 from work in a pinch.

All-in-all I am a fan of Fluke meters (in addition to the 179 I have an 8010A & three 8050A's). They are rugged, get the job done, and in most cases there are parts and service documentation available to keep them going (one definition of a real tool for me).

I must say though I also have a Tenma meter which compares favorably with my Fluke in terms of measurement accuracy in most of the common tasks. I just don't hold much hope of getting any parts or service docs for it if things go awry...

[Enzo]

If you look at the feature list, and often even the spec sheet, meters all look very similar. But I will say the main old Fluke I use every day has been working for me for 20+ years every day. It has been dropped on the floor many times, and used to travel all over this USA in my tool kit in the hold of an airliner. I think a cheap Protek or something would not have survived.

[km6xz]

I love the 8050a, but does not autorange....which I don't want in a bench meter since response and settling time is poor when ranging but if you are looking for something small to throw in a tool box and not for the bench, a 177 or 179(if temp is important) or the 87. All have the rare combination of 1000V and backlighting. The counter in the 170 series is limited to 100khz and .1% accuracy if that is a concern. Timebase accuracy is not great so if precision and accuracy is needed, a bench type counter/DMM would be better.
My main bench meter for digital is a Phillips PM2525 5.5 digit I still rely on the Fluke 8050a's as go-to meters. I like analog meters for adjustments...bias, tuning, null etc such as the HP410C which is bullet proof and much better suited to working on tube gear. Compared to other analog meters it has very fast settling time and little or no needle bounce or overshoot because the meter is servo driven

[Satamax]

If you look at the feature list, and often even the spec sheet, meters all look very similar. But I will say the main old Fluke I use every day has been working for me for 20+ years every day. It has been dropped on the floor many times, and used to travel all over this USA in my tool kit in the hold of an airliner. I think a cheap Protek or something would not have survived.

Hi again Enzo.

Well, no need to convince me.

It would be either fluke, Metrix/chauvin arnoux, which is a french brand, usualy very high quality. I don't see what else could fit the bill. Would be nice if Tektronix would make nice portable DMMs. I have a scopemeter, but it doesn't give me amps. Thought on the scope position i have a power measurement. Which i could calculate the amps from may be.

[bkahuna]

I bought a Fluke 179 shortly after they came out (8-10 years ago?). It's truly been a great tool. It does everything I need it to do, and hasn't ever failed me. Really good meter.

[Bill Moore]

I have 2 Flukes, an old 87 at the house, and an 88 I use at work. Both are over 20 years old, but I did have to replace the display to circuit board coupler on them. If I lost either, I would replace it with the current equivalent Fluke.