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| X-raying Fluke TL 175 probe |
| (1/1) |
| Bud:
Do we have anyone here who can X-ray a Fluke TL 175 probe? I have one of the probes failing and would want to try to shave the body at the pin to lead junction and resolder the connection, but need to know where to open it. I love the probe, it would be a shame to let it go. Edit: I mean X-ray their own probe, I just need to know where the junction is inside the body. |
| thm_w:
Its probably broken on the probe side, just at the strain relief, no? What I did was verify that is the location, then cut down the strain relief to the insulation of the wire, then cut the wire a bit higher to give some space to solder. |
| Bud:
That was what I thought too and I cut the lead at the end and then cut a a quarter inch of the probe body at the tail, and resoldered the lead wire, but that did not help. The failure was somewhere inside the probe. It is a known issue with Fluke TL175 probes. So I went ahead today and cut into the probe first closer to the tip but hit shiny metal, so did another cut in the middle of the probe and found the junction by trial and error. As shown in the attached pictures, the lead wire is crimped to the tip and apparently the crimp quality was poor. When you pull or push the lead wire at the tail you get unstable probe resistance between 12 and 0.3 Ohm. I used a blunt nail and a couple hits with a hummer to re-crimp the joint and probe resistance measured close to zero Ohm, so the connection was restored. I still went ahead and soldered a short jumper between the tip tubing and the lead wire as shown in the photo. Now to repair the body, I think I will get a JB Plastic Weld and fill the opening, then sand it to the shape. |
| Bud:
I think what I would do next time and what I would recommend is to drill a 2mm hole 2...3mm to the right of the "FLUKE" logo (you can get an idea from the 1st photo where to drill) until you hit the tip metal, then use a blunt nail of a small diameter and hit with a hummer with low to medium force to re-crimp the junction inside (put the opposite side of probe body against a a hard surface for solid support) . Measure the probe lead resistance before and after while pushing and pulling the lead wire at the probe tail. If continuity readings become stable, you fixed the problem. The small hole then can be filled with epoxy, polyurethane or silicone. Edit: I'd drill through the black part of the body, this will make the repair more inconspicuous. Just size from the photos where the hole need to be drilled. Obviously with this technique your can only re-crimp, not solder. |
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