EEVblog #341 - Mailbag - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: T4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2012, 02:47:40 am
content: Oh man that analog meter made me laugh my guts outThose probes included with the 17B is the TL10, but one big issue with the 17B is the glaring omission of MIN/MAXand that the continuity is not latched well that makes it sounds awful and that the fuses are not really typical fat fluke HRC's*EDIT: That bombshell ending was totally hilarious!

author: retiredcaps
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2012, 03:55:05 am
content: A fellow Canadian did a video Fluke 17B review (short 7 minutes) just a couple of weeks ago. I am looking forward to Dave's review.

author: poptones
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2012, 04:38:26 am
content: Love the analog meter. It's likethe essenceof a real meter. It's like something the professor would have made out of the old radio parts because he needed a meter.

author: ratdude747
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2012, 05:22:46 am
content: I'm calling the Fluke 17B a turd. Why? The fact it says "fluke" and is (supossedly) made by Fluke conveys that it is supposed to be of superior quality. If it had been given the "Amprobe" brand, also owned by the same company as Fluke, it might have been more reasonable if the price reflected the quality. But as a Fluke, it falls short. Complete ripoff.That analog meter on the other hand... Epic Fail! And to think that I see the same ones rebadged under lesser name brands sellign for $15-$20 here in the States.I guess it is like the POS Velleman Meter I use (and need to seriously replace, funds are tight), which is a green holstered rebadge of the Yellow holstered Ebay meter that was nuked with the HV PSU. Had I known better I wouldn't have dropped $20 on one of those TWICE (the first one was donated to a FIRST FRC team).And good analog meters still exist... I nabbed a decently built (AFAIK) Radio shack 22-223 for $18 on clearance last year. They are good for when speed is of more use than accuracy/precision.

author: notsob
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2012, 06:58:19 am
content: As you are highly unlikely to use the gooligum PIC trainer, why not make it a contest prize for eevblog micro beginners (assuming dave at gooligum will agree)

author: adrianblack
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2012, 07:39:16 am
content: Man I laughed my ass off at the horrid analog meter and Dave's reaction! Awesome video!Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

author: JamesAus
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2012, 08:34:28 am
content: Interesting review of the Fluke 17B...It doesn't really seem to have a lot in common with the 19 other than the country of manufacture and the general appearance. I bought a 19 when they first came out (not sure how long ago that was, but it has to be a good 12 years). I thought it would be a piece of crap but it's actually the first meter I grab for field work. It has the analogue bar graph display, proper touch hold and min/max. It's also relatively quick to auto range, has a nice continuity beep and hasn't missed a beat given pretty rough treatment at times. Apart from having to replace the leads with decent ones (half the price of the meter), and of course the battery occasionally (er...and the BUSS fuse once...my mistake :/ ) it hasn't ever given me any trouble. In general I think it retained a lot more of the "flukiness" than the 17B. For something made in Schenzen I've been pleasantly surprised.Recently I purchased a B&K 390A for general bench work and was rather appalled in comparison. It has some nice bells & whistles for a $200 meter and I expected quality from B&K (after all the B&K bench meter I have seems pretty damn good) but I think all there engineering efforts went into the nice ball detent clicky knob and they forgot about the rest. I especially hate the slow to react continuity beep that sounds like a dying budgie and the feature lacking PC interface that looks like it was written in VB in 1995 and never updated.I suppose you get what you pay for but the 19 seems to have been an exception, for me anyway. Maybe I got the only good one?James

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 28, 2012, 11:41:31 am
content: Quote from: JamesAus on August 28, 2012, 08:34:28 amI bought half a dozen of them for work at the time, as well as one for myself from Tricky Dicks.All of them failed within the first 2 years! (lockups, crazy display stuff)IIRC the 19 used the same chipset as the 87(III?) at the time.Dave.

author: vk3yedotcom
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2012, 11:47:10 am
content: That analogue meter is looxury!My first didn't even have a range switch. Instead you plugged the probe into whatever holes suited the range. It was a Tandy Archer kit (maybe only 1k ohm/volt?) with just one resistance range.Still it served me well and I think it was more accurate than the one shown (not that I had anything better to calibrate it against).

author: krivx
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2012, 11:55:35 am
content: Dave, you might need to take extra precaution in hiding the senders' addresses. They're still pretty legible when viewing the 1080p stream.

author: Excavatoree
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2012, 05:27:18 pm
content: Was the 19 before or after the last "70 series" meters that were made in China? (70-3, 73-3, and 78)