Fluke 789 vs Keysight U1401B - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: fresnedajuan
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: April 01, 2015, 09:31:24 pm
content: Hi!I'm new in this forum, but wanted to know your opinion between this two meters/calibrators.. I work in industry field where loop calibrations are often required, but I like the option of having in the same equipment a meter and a calibrator.Thanks in advance!

author: retiredcaps
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 02, 2015, 07:10:54 am
content: I have no idea about the loop calibration stuff, but on the multimeter side, I can point out some things for you to research and consider.1) The U1401B is made by Hioki. See (side by side pic)http://www.hioki.cn/discon/pdf/signal/7016E2-17M.pdfhttp://literature.cdn.keysight.com/litweb/pdf/5990-3459EN.pdfI guess Agilent got Hioki to make some of its handheld meters in the past. HP, when it was called HP, got Yokogawa to make some handheld meters as well.2) The Fluke 789 can measure voltages up to 1000V whereas the U1401B can only measure up to 250V. Whether that is important or not depends on your requirements.http://www.fluke.com/fluke/caen/Process-Calibration-Tools/Loop-Calibrators/Fluke-789.htm?PID=56133

author: franksanderdo
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: April 02, 2015, 10:30:26 am
content: Quote from: fresnedajuan on April 01, 2015, 09:31:24 pmHey HoDon't be scared, everything can be sortedAs my day job is commissioning of industrial plants I have to give the advice: Split between loop calibration and Mutlimeter. In this days you pretty much will look for loop calibrators which can talk HART as well. With this requirement it gets pretty fast pretty expensive ???Well... this is true if you have to do a lot of calibration worksIn case you need the instrument more for verifying a loop every now and then, then the Fluke 789 is the right tool.Within all industrial meters / loop calibrators I had in my hand, till now the Fluke ones were the most flexible and robust ones.This plus the 250V limit mentioned by retiredcaps, the Keysight / Hioki is pretty much disqualified.Again it depends pretty much on your needs. I personally like more the combination:Multimeter: Fluke 87VLoop Calibrator with Hart: Fluke 709H (for the verification / quick Maintenance)Process Calibrator with Hart: Fluke 754 (for the (re)calibration and loop checks)All the BestFrank

author: meeder
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 02, 2015, 09:10:12 pm
content: I have used a Fluke 789 during my 6 years as a service engineer at Endress+Hauser and it was a superb unit. It was the standard multimeter given to engineers when I started there. Before that they gave out 87's with a seperate loop calibrator.Not only does it simulate mA signals but it can also power loop powered devices and that has been a blessing when using this device. I had to do numerous calibrations on temperature and pressure sensors and instead of calibrating them in the loop, which often led to using extension cables to get the sensor to your temperature oven or pressure calibratorm, I would take them of the loop and power them with the 789 during calibration.After calibration I used the 789 to calibrate the rest of the loop to the DCS system, if the DCS was fast enough I used the automatic stepping function of the 789 so you skip walking back and forth.The 789 is also a rock solid device, if there is one thing to fault is that it does not have a warning for the input jacks.It is really accurate and during the yearly calibration there were not any noticeable deviations over those 6 years that I used it.If you also need to directly measure pt100, pt1000 and thermocouples (or simulate them) there is also the Fluke 726 calibrator which is also a great unit but can't be used as a normal multimeter.

author: arturmariojr
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 15, 2023, 01:09:16 am
content: Some links for Hioki Signal Source 7016 - a very important one - remote operation:https://www.hioki.cn/discon/7016/https://www.hioki.com/global/download/28424https://www.hioki.com/global/download/28425https://www.hioki.com/global/download/28423Hioki also has a multimeter in the same package:HIOKI 3802-50 and 3801-50 - very interesting and programmable multimeters.SOFTWARE:https://www.hioki.com/sg-en/download_file/9686DRIVER:https://www.hioki.com/global/support/download/software/versionup/detail/id_508MANUAL:https://www.hioki.com/sg-en/download/28046PROGRAMMING:https://www.hioki.com/sg-en/download/28201As Xandinator comments bellow, indeed the manual says U1401B measures up to 250Vdc, but its calibration is done on 450V and 950V values, and it has the 500V and 1000V scales !!! It beeps, but goes to these values with precision.

author: Xandinator
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 21, 2023, 02:00:18 am
content: I see no disadvantage in having an all-in-one calibrator and dmm. Also, depending on the PLC you work on, 24 V can come in handy. 789 is hard to beat.