Choosing between Fluke 179/177 vs Keysight U1242C vs Fluke 87V?

[2N3055]

FK87V  - that one is OK for electricians , it is doing only  VERY, VERY  basic staff, it is USELESS for several BASIC electronic mesurements which are  needed even for simple repairs like FM tunner repair. If I  would do something with car  - I will take FK87V, but not for electronics,  even a cheap Unit-y multimeter is sometime a better choice than FK87V.  FK87V is also quite BAD with measuring LOW values like for small current.

Not sure what you're doing specifically but I'm using mine for electronics repair (specialist test gear) and RF / transmitter design. The thing is totally bomb proof, does mV/uA DC measurements perfectly fine and does everything fast and reliably. Count is fine for most tasks. It's absolutely spot on for ALL purposes which is the advantage of the thing. I can be sitting there measuring leakage one minute, then fixing the dryer the next minute. There's a huge amount of value in that.

As I said earlier I use one of my Fluke 8010A units, which is far lesser specified meter but incredibly convenient.

I have a BM867S and the 87V is a way better meter for every day use.

I personally agree with MiroS. I find BM869S much better for electronics use. I had 87V and sold it after I purchased BM869S.
F87V is industry standard for electricians and industrial environments. For electronics,Fluke 287/9 is more to the point.
Best Fluke for electronics was F189.
F87V only function that some people cannot live without is AutoHold. I never use it, it's too slow for me. Pretty much tried it and never used it again.
I'm so used to normal probe/look technique that is same for the scope and the meter.

 It is personal, and heavily depends on what are your habits and process.
Regards,

[Hydrawerk]

Not a problem for me, but Brymen has no specified drop resistance.
Fluke 87V is 1m drop resistant. I think that its input jacks are more durable than those on Brymen.
Brymen also does not have a good (magnetic) hanger. But i do not need that.

[bd139]

U1241C wins hands down here. It has 3m drop and IP67. Thing is indestructible.

[rsjsouza]

It is similar to the U1282A then - although I would never deliberately test this (my disposable income for meters is not that high)

[EEVblog]

The new-ish Brymen BM839

I am not sure why I would buy a BM839 instead of BM869s, if I want a high resolution. Someone might like that it is powered by 4 AA cells. 

The idea is that if you are considering the Fluke 87V then the BM839 is a direct competitor with the same 20,000 resolution at much lower price.
That's what Brymen released it for, to compete directly with the 87V.

I'm having a hard time seeing how it would fit into the retail pricing structure though. Sure it's cheaper than the 869, but not that much cheaper.
There is also a BM836 but you lose the temp probe which kinda sucks. If the BM839 was the same wholesale price as the BM836 then I think it might sell pretty well.

[EEVblog]

The new-ish Brymen BM839 is designed to compete directly with the Fluke 87V, I have one on my bench now for evaluation (possible rebadge), EU$169 from Welectron.

They will be very successful if they keep Brymen's excellent feature that recalls prior settings - something the 87V lacks by defaulting to AC.

[/quote]

Funny thing about that, I implemented the same feature on the 121GW meter and I get a lot of complaints about it 

[bd139]

Yeah that annoys the crap out of me in my BM867S.

You have to work out what state it is in to get it into the state that you need. That means you have to use your brain instead of muscle memory. Slows you down.

However 87V defaulting to AC is a PITA when I mostly do DC measurements.

Perhaps that’s why I reach for the 8010A so much.

[joeqsmith]

They will be very successful if they keep Brymen's excellent feature that recalls prior settings - something the 87V lacks by defaulting to AC.

Funny thing about that, I implemented the same feature on the 121GW meter and I get a lot of complaints about it 

The question is are the people complaining the majority or not.   Personally, I really like that feature on the Brymen meters.  I guess you could start a poll.

[2N3055]

They will be very successful if they keep Brymen's excellent feature that recalls prior settings - something the 87V lacks by defaulting to AC.

Funny thing about that, I implemented the same feature on the 121GW meter and I get a lot of complaints about it 

The question is are the people complaining the majority or not.   Personally, I really like that feature on the Brymen meters.  I guess you could start a poll.

I agree on all three counts.

[joeqsmith]

Fluke 87V might not have a good overvoltage protection.

That was Joe's experience with ONE sample. Another 87V did not exhibit this, and his original passed the tests once repaired. He never did find out why the first one failed the way it did.

Maybe simply a defective component?

Even that doesn't make a lot of sense in the way it was damaged.  Maybe something on the board.  See my last post if interested:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/hear-kitty-kitty-kitty-nope-not-that-kind-of-cat/3050/

I did look at the BM839.  It's not a bad meter.  It's very robust like every other Brymen product I have looked at, unlike a lot of that cheap crap being sold.   I had that meter up at 12KV before it finally went.  There are not many meters that have survived that sort of punishment. 
 Having used and abused the 869s for a few years now, with their basic feature set and low cost, I didn't see the point.  I would rather spend the extra and get the 869s.  It's just a nice basic meter for my electronics hobby.   We all have different requirements.   My feelings wouldn't be hurt if you instead went with a free Harbor Freight meter.    Buy the best tool for YOUR needs. 

Meters never get treated very well in my reviews.   
https://youtu.be/bNzd5wo6FWU

[1anX]

Oh, what was wrong with your U1241C?? Is there a problem with Hold function?

Just the auto hold feature is crap. You can configure it in one of the menus so it is less crap but it's still nowhere near as good as the Fluke which just works. That's what you're paying for.

I have a BM867S as well. That's pretty good. But no autohold!

Most of the time I use one of my Fluke 8010A units however.

The BM867S has Hold but not Auto-Hold as you say. It does has a Rec mode which updates automatically the Max, Min and Ave, would this perform the Auto function you want?

I just got the BM867S and like you am impressed by its performance!

[bd139]

Unfortunately no. When I am using auto hold I want it to sample the voltage at a point and take a reading. Then I can go hands free and write it down without having to remember it etc. The grab the probes and do another reading and do the same etc. A recent thing I did was binning over 100 diodes for matching. This was a bit laborious but autohold shaved about 20% off the job as it was just wired into the test jig. Press the test button (push to make, applies power to current source), write it down, remove the diode, new one in, press test button again etc. Because it dropped to zero in that window and then back up to the diode drop then fluke would pick up the changes. I didn't have to touch the meter once and I could record the diode voltage with my right hand while I was pulling the diode with the left hand.

Min/max/average is for looking at voltage trends so for example if you have something that is dropping out periodically you can get an idea of how often with the average and what to with the min etc.

[001]

Unfortunately no. When I am using auto hold I want it to sample the voltage at a point and take a reading. Then I can go hands free and write it down without having to remember it etc. The grab the probes and do another reading and do the same etc. A recent thing I did was binning over 100 diodes for matching.

Sorry for offtop
but what is diode matching?

[bd139]

Mostly worth ignoring. Special case when a cheap ass like me doesn't want to pay lots of money for some minicircuits RF mixers. So you take 4x 1n4148's and match them for close forward voltage by applying 1mA through them and measuring the voltage drop. When you get 4 close, build a mixer with it. Close tolerance is required because the characteristics of the mixer are partially defined by the quality of the diode match.

[001]

Mostly worth ignoring. Special case when a cheap ass like me doesn't want to pay lots of money for some minicircuits RF mixers. So you take 4x 1n4148's and match them for close forward voltage by applying 1mA through them and measuring the voltage drop. When you get 4 close, build a mixer with it. Close tolerance is required because the characteristics of the mixer are partially defined by the quality of the diode match.

WOW
amazing

[bd139]

Way off topic but video here:

[rsjsouza]

The new-ish Brymen BM839 is designed to compete directly with the Fluke 87V, I have one on my bench now for evaluation (possible rebadge), EU$169 from Welectron.

They will be very successful if they keep Brymen's excellent feature that recalls prior settings - something the 87V lacks by defaulting to AC.

Funny thing about that, I implemented the same feature on the 121GW meter and I get a lot of complaints about it 

People are weird.

You have to work out what state it is in to get it into the state that you need. That means you have to use your brain instead of muscle memory. Slows you down.

To me muscle memory is a recipe for disaster - perhaps because I work on medium/high power systems (relative to electronics, not power distribution) and also with some very expensive boards.

[MiroS]

U1242C - that one has only 10000 digits therefore useless for plenty of electronic tasks/repairs, even worst that FK87V.

Nothing at all wrong with a 10000 digit meter.
If you need more resolution, sure, buy more, but it's hardly "useless"

Dave, sure nothing wrong with 10000, but for electronics  I wolud say 50000 is minimum. Those days even 10000 for car electrician it may be too short, eg. for some AMG car battery charging circuit  15.000 and 15.002V makes a significant difference  ...  which is clearly out of that range not mentioning plenty of typical examples from electronics world.

[EEVblog]

Dave, sure nothing wrong with 10000, but for electronics  I wolud say 50000 is minimum. Those days even 10000 for car electrician it may be too short, eg. for some AMG car battery charging circuit  15.000 and 15.002V makes a significant difference  ...  which is clearly out of that range not mentioning plenty of typical examples from electronics world.

Try measuring say 6V with your 50,000 count meter, oops, it's now no better than that 10,000 count meter. Both show 6.000

[Hydrawerk]

Any opinion on Appa DMMs? They should be OK, but they are not so popular on this forum. I have never used any.

[rsjsouza]

Dave, sure nothing wrong with 10000, but for electronics  I wolud say 50000 is minimum. Those days even 10000 for car electrician it may be too short, eg. for some AMG car battery charging circuit  15.000 and 15.002V makes a significant difference  ...  which is clearly out of that range not mentioning plenty of typical examples from electronics world.

Try measuring say 6V with your 50,000 count meter, oops, it's now no better than that 10,000 count meter. Both show 6.000

I agree with others; to say 10000 is useless is an exaggeration; countless things can be done in electronics with the ICL7106 or 6000 counts.

Where is the limit then? My donkey's years old BM857 has a 500000 count mode that is excellent for battery charging trends which, coupled with its datalogging, makes quite an excellent solution for a very specific application. A much wider range of electronics applications exist that can benefit from lesser counts.

[joeqsmith]

What's all this count rubbish?  I started with a VTVM then my trusty Radio Shack analog meter.  The free HF meter would have been a big step up.

[Electro Detective]

Any opinion on Appa DMMs? They should be OK, but they are not so popular on this forum. I have never used any.

I scored an unloved APPA 99III Multimeter a while back and I would say it fits somewhere between a Fluke 117 and Fluke 87V in features and performance.
It hasn't got the 87V AC bandwidth but pretty much does everything else, and the compared readings agree. The APPA cable/probes are hard to beat and a lot better than the bog standard Fluke leads.

 
FWIW to the original poster upstairs:  A Fluke 87V, 87-111 and original 87 are a great all rounder meter and won't disappoint.  Easy to use and look the business too

Coupled with any reasonable TRMS AC+DC clamp meter with some DMM features on board, you're pretty well covered for many/most scenarios.

Just keep them away from bug zappers and barbeque starters 
or string together nine x 10meg resistors in series with the positive lead as I do for those special HV low current DC occasions 
It might set you back a dollar or two, still cheaper that taking out a pricey multimeter. 
 

[2N3055]

On question of count, it really depends how much resolution you really need and what you do..
If you do lot of measurements at 12V than 2xx..... is better than 1xx.... if you do 24V than 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 as first digit will be better.
Or it might not be important, because you really don't need 8 decimal places of detail...

Long scale in handhelds is also a bit of suspicious. Most of them measure down to microvolts and milliohms, where you already have errors from cabling, thermals, external fields...

Little nuggets from Fluke calibration manual for F87/89 IV series:

".. Because of capacitive coupling, readings will be affected by movement of the leads or
operator. Put fingers on UP button and wait for display reading to settle before pushing.
.. Wait at least 60 seconds for source and meter to settle before recording reading.
.. Using Relative Mode (REL) to zero residual reading (apply 0 Ω and allow UUT to settle for 45 seconds before
pushing REL). "

All that to achieve 4.5 digits meter specs. So measuring on car, in 10°C (or 45°C in summer) to some precision would be questionable to more than first few digits.

[rsjsouza]

What's all this count rubbish?  I started with a VTVM then my trusty Radio Shack analog meter.  The free HF meter would have been a big step up.

You started fancy there. Mine was an ICE Supertester 680R 20kΩ/V.