Eye Current

A Meter for I & E Techs: A Fluke 789 Review

Most I & E Technicians are long time fans of Fluke meters. We at PCO are big fans and we use several pieces of their test and laboratory equipment. Almost every Instrument and Electronics technician has a trusty Fluke 87 or simular meter. The also usually have an 4 to 20 ma process simulator. from a company like Altek, Transmation or Unical. These are typically somewhat limited and not very field toughened.

Fluke has a new meter, the 789 Processmeter. It is a standard volt Ohm Current meter with the diode test and beeping continuity check, but it can output 0 to 20 milliamp signals. It behaves as a a source or as a passive device. It is as close as a field tech will ever get to a one meter fits all solution.

Our 789 came with 2 sets of leads: the standard Fluke multimeter probes and another set of leads with big rubberized alligator clips on the end. The first thing I did when I got my meter was fabricate a set of miniclip leads. The alligator leads are just fine for larger lugged terminations but are too big for smaller terminations that most newer systems are using today.
One of the first things I noticed is that it uses 4 AA cells instead of 9Volt batteries that never seem to be around when you need them. We also have the C Cell adaptor so that the unit can run on the very long lasting C cells for our benchwork. The C cells seem to last forever. It has a large well laid out display that can be back lit if needed.

The meter displays 5 digits of accuracy in both input and output. 0.000 to 20.000 Which is up to par for 16 bit measurement systems

• 24 V Loop power supply
• Double-sized, dual display
• Enhanced backlight with 2 brightness settings
• 20mA drive into 1200 ohms
• HART mode setting with loop power (adds 250 ohm resistor)
• 0% and 100 % mA Span Check buttons to toggle between 4 and 20 mA
• Externally accessible fuses for easy replacement
• Infrared I/O serial port compatible with FlukeView Forms software
• Precision 1000 V, 440 mA True-RMS digital Multimeter
• 0.1% dc voltage accuracy
• 0.05% dc current accuracy
• Frequency measurement to 20 kHz
• Min/Max/Average/Hold/Relative modes
• Diode Test and Continuity Beeper
• Simultaneous mA and % of scale readout
• 20 mA DC current source / loop calibrator / simulator
• Manual Step (100%, 25%, Coarse, Fine) plus Auto Step and Auto Ramp
• Improved battery power with four AA batteries

Fluke has found a need and filled it for those who seek the one meter that does everything.

posted by Ray L. @ 2:24 PM