Just realized my shortcut with the new Fluke 87V almost cost me a whole afternoon.

I was checking a voltage drop on a comms bus in a King Air, figured I could just use the auto-ranging and not zero the leads first. Got a reading of 0.02V, which seemed fine, but the system was still acting up. Went back, zeroed the leads like you're supposed to, and the actual drop was 0.38V, way over spec. Learned that even with a great meter, skipping the basic step wastes more time than it saves. Anyone else get burned by trusting the tool too much on a simple check?

3 comments

3 Comments

grace_knight703d ago

Yeah, "trusting the tool too much" is the whole story. That auto-range is great until it quietly measures its own mess instead of your circuit. Been there, felt that special kind of stupid. The fancy meter just makes you feel safe enough to skip the boring step.

the_ruby3d ago

I just started manually checking the leads first, saves so much trouble.

piperwhite2d ago

Honestly, I think blaming the tool is a cop-out. A good auto-ranging meter like that should just work, and @grace_knight70 is overthinking it. The real issue was probably a bad connection the first time, not the lack of a zero step.