Fluke 75 eBay Gamble - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: calexanian
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 08, 2013, 05:35:27 am
content: http://www.ebay.com/itm/321244722782So I came over all nostalgic for my old Fluke 75, and like all good crazies I decided not to go dig mine out of storage, but buy a dodgy one off eBay!For $20 and free shipping even if its a basket case inside it would be fun to look up at it on the shelf! If it turns out that it works then score! A non true RMS 35 year old design meter that is marginal by any stand..... oh wait......Thank god I am nutz!

author: retiredcaps
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 08, 2013, 06:32:12 am
content: If it doesn't work, post your problem here. Many of us like repairing multimeters and can offer help.

author: Robomeds
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 08, 2013, 01:46:47 pm
content: From the description I suspect the problem was no battery....

author: mos6502
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 08, 2013, 04:15:19 pm
content: It can't be defective. These things are indestructible. I have a Fluke 77 and I've dropped it countless times (of course without the rubber protector, that's way too bulky so I leave it off). It's still working great and as far as I can tell, the accuracy hasn't suffered a bit. I did have to reflow the 4mm jacks because the solder joints were cracked, but it's been used for 20 years in a power plant before I got it, so that's OK.What's more, it's really got all you need. Autorange. Buzzer. Touch hold. And 3,000 counts is enough for just about everything, with the 0.1mA/0.1mV resolution on the low ranges.It is missing a screw though, so if anyone has got one left over ...

author: calexanian
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 08, 2013, 06:09:24 pm
content: I agree. I truly expect that an old battery was left in and it leaked. Clean that up and the test lead sockets may need a bit of attention. Other than that perhaps the zebra connector, fuses, etc. All easily fixable. And like I said, for 20 bucks, What the heck. I was born in 80 into a family electronics business and we had two 75's and a triplet vom, a Doric model 130A cap meter, and an old Hitachi scope and with the acceptation of the scope that I sold I still have it all in working order. Those 75's put up with all manners of my abuse as a 5 to 10 year old before I saw how much they cost! You know, things like trying to read current across the electric forklift battery terminals, and measuring voltage across a Van de Graf generator. Hahahahaha... Memories.... Smashing apart the bad chips and looking at all the gold inside, then throwing that "useless old junk" away!!! I probably threw away several grams of gold over the years if not a solid ounce! We made, and still make Timers for irrigation use and my fathers electro mech designs used 555 timers for timings up to a minute so we had to use low leakage "Timing" capacitors. Mallory used to have "Timing Spec" parts up to 100uf if you can believe that! then the Exar series of 555's with counters on them. I remember a times 10 one, and I think one that counted to 2048 for the longer time selections. I remember calculating RC time constants and if I am not mistaken the 555 fired at 2 time constants. I would have to match caps to resistors to give us whatever we needed as reliable sealed multiturn pots were expensive and dad did not believe in them! Now just run OSC Cal and bang! hahahaha. What 30 years can do! We had a clock motor driving a cogged wheel with punch pins for start times that in turn fired the 555 which ran a motorized wafer switch stack that stepped through the station outputs that each ran for a time determined by an Exar 2242. Total awesomeness that ran forever!

author: Lectricman
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: November 10, 2013, 01:58:44 pm
content: That series of Flukes are really easy to repair. If it does happen to be broken no doubt you can fix it maybe with a bit of help. I bought a Fluke 21 (identical to the 75 except yellow plastic case) for around $20 on ebay this summer. Turned it on and the display just flashed and switched from + to - constantly on the dc volts range. Opened it up and discovered the fusible resistor was dead. Replaced it with a suitable resistor and it works perfect. It was even still in perfect calibration! I might not want to use it on something with a real high energy potential like Main electrical services or something but just for electronics I feel like it is perfectly fine. Good Luck!(oh and your not crazy at all I say)

author: calexanian
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 16, 2013, 02:58:02 am
content: *UPDATE*Just a dead battery. $20 score!!!

author: Lectricman
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: November 17, 2013, 01:13:03 am
content: Nice!

author: Robomeds
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 17, 2013, 09:19:11 pm
content: Quote from: calexanian on November 16, 2013, 02:58:02 amCool! I bought a 23 offered by the same seller (same time). It also was perfectly fine. Didn't even need the new battery.