Anyone know a DVM exorcist?

[William Sommerwerck]

I was in bed, watching TV, when I noticed an unfamiliar clicking sound. It
persisted, so I leaned over and saw my Fluke 87's backlight flickering, and
heard it clicking. (The knob was in the off position, by the way.) Turning
it on, then off, ended this weird behavior.

The battery enunciator has been coming on lately, so I have to assume it's a
side-effect of low voltage.

 

[N_Cook]

I was in bed, watching TV, when I noticed an unfamiliar clicking sound. It
persisted, so I leaned over and saw my Fluke 87's backlight flickering, and
heard it clicking. (The knob was in the off position, by the way.) Turning
it on, then off, ended this weird behavior.

The battery enunciator has been coming on lately, so I have to assume it's a
side-effect of low voltage.

never with my Fluke 77 but did have it with a SOAR 3210 DVM with low battery

 

[William Sommerwerck]

The battery enunciator has been coming on lately...

Sorry. I meant annunciator. Ouch.

 

[William Sommerwerck]

Now THAT's dedication, sleeping with your DVM.

Uh... It was on the floor. Next to the bed. Really.

 

[William Sommerwerck]

doesn't it have a LOW-BATT indicator on the LCD screen?

Yes. The Fluke 77 has a rectangular battery symbol in the upper left
corner of the screen. When it comes on, the battery is certainly dead.

You mean useless. If it were dead...

However, voltage measurements go insane somewhat before the
indicator comes on. I was checking my supply of AA alkalines in the
fridge and noticed that I was tossing far too many batteries as dead.

This is Most Amusing, because I was checking a pile of NiMH AA cells, and
most of them read a few tenths of a volt. Then, a few hours later, they were
all fine.

In case you're wondering... Of course I use an alkaline battery. A lithium
would be an even better choice. MCM has name-brand lithium 9V batteries for
about $5 right now.

 

[Mark Zacharias]

I have an old original Fluke 87 that did that. It turned out that the
switch rotor had got chipped, allowing the switch to rotate just a bit
past the "Off" position.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs
--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal Consultant
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics

160 North State Road #203
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510
845-480-2058

hobbs at electrooptical dot net
http://electrooptical.net

Could it be just the function switch is flaky and needs cleaning?

Mark Z.