Mark Zacharias wrote:
"Cydrome Leader" wrote in message
...
My hamfest special Fluke 80 something series something 20 year old meter
started to act weird so it was time to upgrade.

Got a spiffy 87 series V meter from Specialized.

It's much larger than the old meter which is sort of a bummer, but it has
a nice display and came with a cheapo temp probe.

I tried to measure the temp of the shower water I like and few minutes
later the meter started to freak out with "L38d" errors. It would not shut
the hell up unless it was in the mA or uA range.

So apparently the humidity condensed inside the lead sockets and shorted
out the other side of the connector shell causing the meter to think I was
stuck in a current range of some sort.

a dry qtip wasn't able to dry the sockets out. Neither was pure alcohol,
or a fan. I was about to get a RAM on the piece of ****, but finally,
after about 20 minutes of being set in front of a fan, the thiung dried up
enough to work again.

I checked the service manual and found a strange section suggesting your
spray a swab with WD-40 and work it around inside the lead sockets to
prevent this problem.

WTF.

Is there some some secret settings I can enter on this meter to supress
the input warnings, or is it time to unsolder half the connectors?

Since the entire meter is semi sealed and had gaskets and orings all over,
it seems stupid that a miniscule amout of moisture or a drop of water will
completely disable the meter.

I'm calling **** design on this one.






Fluke will fix it for free or replace it under the warranty. Do not try to
fix it yourself.

I have some experience with Fluke Service. Although nobody is perfect, they
are really the best in the business.

If you needed a waterproof meter you should have bought a 28 series II,
which has identical features.

Mark Z.

I'm doubting the meter is "broken" in that it won't behave like any other
one just like it. I don't need waterproof, just to know that the meter
doesn't have water absorbent plastics in it and it won't completely stop
working if my glasses fog up for a second when going to another room.

The slightest trace of moisture doesn't seem to need to get past the jack
itself, and it's not like I'm pouring water into the jacks. Maybe I need
to make some rubber plugs for the damn thing.

It reminds me of those horrible ceramic thick film resistor looking dew
sensors in VCRs that always failed on their own. Just drawing on them with
a pencil seemed to take care of that (not really sure how though).