A warning none of you needs

[Charlie_Iliff]

Warning: Don't use a treasured 20+ year old ultra-reliable Fluke 77 digital multimeter to test an electric fence.

My punishment to myself for that particular brain fade is to buy another Fluke of similar capability at about ten times the cost of a Radio Shack meter that will do everything I need to do. It's the least I can do to atone for the destruction of an old friend. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[JohnMiller3]

<font color="blue">...Fluke 77 ... </font>

Hi,

Don't hold me to it... I think they had a recall on that series... you may be able to get another FREE... /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Charlie_Iliff]

<font color="red"> you may be able to get another FREE...

</font>

That would be a break that I surely don't deserve -- but of course I'll check. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

Edit: did a search and found the problem was in meters built for a few months in 1998. Mine was an old soldier by then.

 

[Bird]

Nothing like personal experience, is there, Charlie? I did that with my Extech digital clamp meter a few years ago; got a funny buzzing noise and weird display and very quickly removed the probes and got lucky; no damage. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[Charlie_Iliff]

Bird: I'd been lucky so many times with that old Fluke that I didn't hesitate a second. Then I looked at some of the new ones on a web site and saw that they are spike protected to about 30,000 volts less than I applied.
Oh, well - I just ordered a Fluke 179 with temperature probe. If it's as good as the 77, My kids will use it long after I'm gone. -- Unless I do another similar "limits test." /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Yeah my old Fluke 77 is still going strong. Great meter. about 25 years and counting.

 

[mikim]

The 77s are good -- no idea how many times I've "drop tested" one off an airplane ... 'course I liked my ol' simpson 260 analog to look for those intermintent(ms) shorts -- wiggle those wires and watch for the jump on the needle - digis sometimes aren't fast enuff to catch 'em. -- sure wish I hadn't "smoke tested" that 260 /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[Charlie_Iliff]

<font color="red"> sure wish I hadn't "smoke tested" that 260 </font>

Didn't roll the dial through ohms with the probes clipped to a power source, did you? /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif