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[Inverted18650]

fails first pass, but not the 2nd time. any ideas?

[Specmaster]

Looks to me like it failed the first time because it did not see the 4 wire test correctly, but the second time when you put the adaptor in and then connected with the probes it did see it and did so on the next time you repeated that sequence.

I did however notice that the 1st time you measured your line volts it read 124v and the second time it read 125v. I also notice that the display is extremely faded, more noticeable when you first power it up though so thats going to be an issue in the future.

[Inverted18650]

Just to be clear, I am not complaining about the unit, I expected a non working meter. I was surprised to find that it had been tested and the results were “intentionally” left out. The seller replied immediately and offered me a full refund. The very well written reply stated they do occasionally test units and post all the results, but for some reason, this one didn’t get processed correctly. Given their quick and detailed reply, I’ll do business with them again...especially if this unit works, as I still need a parts meter 

Having spent the best years of my life in the military, I believe deeply in honor and integrity and live my life based on those values. I would never attempt to get cash from eBay and have them eat the loss...that’s shameful behavior.

About the video: I noticed the same things about the line voltage and other oddities after rewatching the video...maybe I’ll get lucky, but should have fun trying. I’ll get the other 2000 back on the bench and see what I can find

[bitseeker]

Thats why they don't tell it fails the Auto test

Indeed. And look what I found. Seems they are shady and I should "knock" them. This jewel was tucker away under the main PCB. AT least they gave me back the input jacks...

If I recall correctly, Express has experienced techs who fix test equipment. They have at least two eBay accounts: Express Test and Express Auctions. The former is for the good stuff (tested, repaired, etc.) and the latter is for everything else (untested, couldn't fix, BER, etc.).

If I didn't recall correctly, corrections are much appreciated.

[Inverted18650]

Thanks bitseeker. I need to edit that “shady” comment, ran my mouth before I got their reply.

[bitseeker]

No problem. I wouldn't be too happy about the missing info either, given it was on their tag. I assume it was their tag since I usually see such on their listings. But, stuff happens.

[Specmaster]

Just to be clear, I am not complaining about the unit, I expected a non working meter. I was surprised to find that it had been tested and the results were “intentionally” left out. The seller replied immediately and offered me a full refund. The very well written reply stated they do occasionally test units and post all the results, but for some reason, this one didn’t get processed correctly. Given their quick and detailed reply, I’ll do business with them again...especially if this unit works, as I still need a parts meter 

Having spent the best years of my life in the military, I believe deeply in honor and integrity and live my life based on those values. I would never attempt to get cash from eBay and have them eat the loss...that’s shameful behavior.

About the video: I noticed the same things about the line voltage and other oddities after rewatching the video...maybe I’ll get lucky, but should have fun trying. I’ll get the other 2000 back on the bench and see what I can find

Just also to make it clear, given the evidence of the video and also my comments a couple of posts ago, then I really don't think you have any basis for a claim anyway. I was labouring in the first instance under the impression that the self test was the first thing that it did automatically upon switch on like so many meters do. I have a Phillips meter which does a self test first, but the Keithly clearly does not, so their photograph is not in anyway misleading. If anything, they have gone above and beyond to try and photograph all the problems that they could detect to ensure that they are being fair with the buyer.

[Specmaster]

No problem. I wouldn't be too happy about the missing info either, given it was on their tag. I assume it was their tag since I usually see such on their listings. But, stuff happens.

Are sure that it is their tag? I can't see anything that suggests that to be the case, it might be that the meter was sent for repair to an repair agent and they reported that it was BER so the original owner just left it for scrap and then it wound up being put up sale on ebay?

[bitseeker]

Nope, I'm not sure, which is why I said that I assumed it was based on tags I've seen before in their listings. Totally circumstantial and potentially errant.

[G0HZU]

Is this the one that you got? https://www.ebay.com/itm/Keithley-2000-Multimeter-6-5-Digits-For-Parts-Or-Repair-/302345829802?

If yes, then you may or may not have a case as they went to great lengths to provide plenty of clear photos and to be honest I don't think that I'd have gone for it unless I already had one that I was looking for parts for and even then it would have to a real bargain price.

$175 seems a lot for that scruffy meter especially as it isn't working or even complete. I bought a tired but working Keithley 2000 meter a few weeks ago for a small fraction of that price at an auction. I wanted the handle and feet off it for my K2015 and it seemed like a worthwhile gamble if it meant I got a working K2000 as well. I think the handle/feet kit is/was about £40 delivered from Keithley and I didn't pay much more than that for the K2000 with the handle/feet. But the meter is yellowed and grimy and the display is quite dim on it. But it does seem to work fine. The handle/feet seem unmarked on it so I think these were fitted to the K2000 fairly recently. But they are now on my K2015 and it really does make the meter nicer to move around and use.

[Specmaster]

Well that might well be the case, you are more "local" then I am so you might well have seen such tags before, I don't often go the USA site, preferring, naturally to keep if possible to Ebay UK for obvious reasons 

[bitseeker]

Yeah, makes sense, Spec.

[Inverted18650]

$175 seems a lot for that scruffy meter especially as it isn't working or even complete. I bought a tired but working Keithley 2000 meter a few weeks ago for a small fraction of that price at an auction. I wanted the handle and feet off it for my K2015 and it seemed like a worthwhile gamble if it meant I got a working K2000 as well. I think the handle/feet kit is/was about £40 delivered from Keithley and I didn't pay much more than that for the K2000 with the handle/feet. But the meter is yellowed and grimy and the display is quite dim on it. But it does seem to work fine. The handle/feet seem unmarked on it so I think these were fitted to the K2000 fairly recently. But they are now on my K2015 and it really does make the meter nicer to move around and use.

As the American slang term goes, "hook a brother up." Do you have any other need for the 2000?

[G0HZU]

I'm not sure what I'll do with it in the long term but I have been using it as a logger via GPIB quite a bit. So I'm probably going to keep it as a spare. It really does need a new display, in the images below the display looks OK but it's a bit dimmer than this in daylight. I just gave it a quick clean for the images below and ran some T Cut over the casing. It had a user name crudely painted on the top cover with a large paintbrush and this fortunately came off easily with the T Cut. All the front buttons had a halo of dirt around them from years of dirty fingers. I'm guessing the person who painted their name on it didn't wash their hands much. it actually looks quite good now and some of the yellow has gone from the bezel since I cleaned it.

Inside it looks brand new with not a spec of dust inside. I checked it for leaky caps on the day I got it home. It looks quite good now but has a few cosmetic issues. It is only a year out of an expensive UKAS calibration and seems to work OK. It's within a couple of LSDs of my K2015 on the voltage ranges but that was just a quick casual check across a few voltages. However this thing is old, it is probably 20 years old. It's also a lot lighter than my K2015 when I pick it up. This was a nice surprise as I don't like the heavy feel of the K2015.

Looking closely, it's still a bit grimy in the image below if you look at some of the buttons as they still have a faint film of dirt on them. But they were absolutely filthy before I cleaned it and it was hard to even read the button logos.

[Specmaster]

That display pretty normal to me, I've certainly seen far worse and I'd be happy with a display like that on my bench. Even LED's are hard to read in daylight if there's a hint of sunlight hitting my bench, its almost goodbye LED's, then the only displays I can ready quickly and easily are the LCD's.

The meter looks pretty clean and presentable as well, good job done with clean by the sounds of it.

[Inverted18650]

This unit makes that look brand new...lol. I am going to do a mini-tear down and scrub off the filth as soon as I know it’s wrothwhile...and it’s looking very good. I’ll post another video shortly.

[Specmaster]

Please do, its always nice to see how things are progressing.

[Inverted18650]

Some shots of both the units I picked up over in the last couple weeks. I lucked out with the latest unit and it seems fine. Time for a teardown, good scrub, new caps and calibration.

edit: its working so I decided to see if i can mess it up! I decided to do a full tear down and cleaning. Ill put the videos up as they progress & try to make 'end-cards' for each new segment.

[dryjoints]

This, DELICIOUS:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01HQE07RS/

[gamalot]

3 rolls of PLA filament 

[GreyWoolfe]

This, DELICIOUS:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01HQE07RS/

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM, hazelnut.

[macboy]

I'm not sure what I'll do with it in the long term but I have been using it as a logger via GPIB quite a bit. So I'm probably going to keep it as a spare. It really does need a new display, in the images below the display looks OK but it's a bit dimmer than this in daylight. I just gave it a quick clean for the images below and ran some T Cut over the casing. It had a user name crudely painted on the top cover with a large paintbrush and this fortunately came off easily with the T Cut. All the front buttons had a halo of dirt around them from years of dirty fingers. I'm guessing the person who painted their name on it didn't wash their hands much. it actually looks quite good now and some of the yellow has gone from the bezel since I cleaned it.

Inside it looks brand new with not a spec of dust inside. I checked it for leaky caps on the day I got it home. It looks quite good now but has a few cosmetic issues. It is only a year out of an expensive UKAS calibration and seems to work OK. It's within a couple of LSDs of my K2015 on the voltage ranges but that was just a quick casual check across a few voltages. However this thing is old, it is probably 20 years old. It's also a lot lighter than my K2015 when I pick it up. This was a nice surprise as I don't like the heavy feel of the K2015.

Looking closely, it's still a bit grimy in the image below if you look at some of the buttons as they still have a faint film of dirt on them. But they were absolutely filthy before I cleaned it and it was hard to even read the button logos.

There are a few threads here with info on cosmetically restoring 2000/2001 meters.
You can disassemble the front panel rather easily. The rubber keypad can be simply washed in soap and water. You can also safely use IPA, I've never damaged the lettering.
The yellowing can be reversed using a technique popularized by guys restoring old computer and game consoles. Google "diy retrobright". All you need is strong hair peroxide (I use a "30 Vol" gel type from a salon supply store) and sunlight. With the right type of peroxide, it can be finished in less than 30 minutes.  Be very careful of the silkscreening on the transparent lens of the display, it is easily damaged. The peroxide/moisture will soften it and it can then rub off easily (until clean and dry again). On most of my Keithleys I found it was easy to remove the lens from the frame to avoid any issue due to the de-yellowing process.
You will also find info in these forums about rejuvenating VFD displays. One technique involves running the filament "hot" briefly to try to remove surface crud which otherwise reduces electron emission. Another involves simply increasing the filament operating current slightly for more emission. Both techniques have some success stories.

[Inverted18650]

@macboy, I would have loved to have this info last night. I ended up using the 'brute force method' and wet sanding the surface. Of course this removed the menu options so I'll have to print new labels after refinishing the front bezel, making this a resto-mod. Thank you for the post and I will check the other threads for future restorations.

[gamalot]

3 rolls of PLA filament 

and here is my first creative work result 

[tautech]

3 rolls of PLA filament 

and here is my first creative work result 

Holder looks sweet. 
Is next project colour coded caps for the screwdrivers ?

All yellow.