Fluke really thinks about the every day adventures that the average electrician is confronted with
3 meters drop on concrete, 1 meter under water, Canyon trip, being frozen down to -15 degrees, 6 meters drop, 12 meters drop, 30 meters drop, being thrown from a car at 60 km/h.
Wow! Seems like Brymen didn't do their homework about every day adventures in the US
...the '87-VI' could be that, if they made the default current measurement DC not AC
Folks, you have to keep things in perspective. This is an electronics specific forum so most folks here are only thinking about these things from an electronics viewpoint. What many are failing to realize is that the Fluke 87 series was designed specifically for needs of the Industrial Maintenance and Electrician fields, not the electronic engineer/tech sitting at a clean bench in a climate controlled room. It is for this reason that it includes things like a low pass filter to enable accurate measurements when checking the output of VFD's. It's also why it defaults to AC amps and not DC.
By day, I'm a CNC tech. in a large production machine shop and I'm dealing with AC voltage measurements 85% of the time and AC current 99.9% of the time. For the most part, the only DC I deal with on a day to day basis is 24vdc control voltage. If there's a fault somewhere, it will load the 24v line and the voltage will drop. When I've isolated the fault the 24v supply voltage will go back to normal - no need to check current. In the few places where there's a current loop, we use a meter specifically designed for checking current loops.
Regarding the snarky "...everyday adventures in the US..." comment, the poster obviously has never worked in an industrial environment in
any country. When I have a machine down it's potentially losing hundreds or even thousands of dollars an hour. I can't be wasting time trying to bubble wrap and safeguard my $300 meter (btw, I paid for it, not the company). I need to get the machine running again as quickly as possible. A very common issue on CNC equipment is short/breaks in wiring to proximity and reed switches. They are extensively used to make sure that commanded movements of things like hydraulic cylinders or mechanical parts of tool changers and pallet changers have completed before the next movement begins so their cabling is often continuously flexing. Some of these machines are over 20 feet (about 7 meters) high and covered in a layer of dirt and oil and I'm precariously perched on a piece of 2" angle iron on top of it. I'm very careful about all equipment but in these sorts of situations things happen and it may get knocked off and fall down inside the machine bouncing off crap on the way down only to land in a pool of coolant. I know that when I fish it back out and clean it up, chances are it will function correctly and accurately (it hasn't failed yet in 8 years of use). Fluke understands the reality of working in these sorts of environments and designed their industrial meters to withstand the abuse they get exposed to.
I also work with 480v bus ducts and entry panels where the instantaneous current available is in the 10's of thousands of amps. It is these places that a sub-par meter
WILL KILL YOU. If you sniff around the internet for Arc/Flash fatalities you'll start to gain an appreciation and respect for working in these areas. Am I going to literally trust my life to the new kid on the block with very little experience? No, I'm going to go with the proven veteran whose track record goes back decades.
On the other side of the coin, by night I'm a ham radio operator, repair electronic stuff for friends/family/coworkers etc., and design and build a wide variety of stuff for my multitude of interests, work, and a few things for sale. All this at my clean, comfy, temp. controlled bench (OK, maybe not that clean
) and what is my goto DMM? Another 87V, primarily because I'm so familiar with it, but also because I trust it and its accuracy is more than enough. There is a lot of volt-nut-itis on this forum and for 99% of folks, entirely overkill. I do plan on picking up a bench DMM at some point (I'm still using a Heathkit VTVM for general work). Unlike Dave, I much prefer having a line powered, stable meter I can plug/unplug probes without having to hold on to the entire thing as my main meter and use the handheld for secondary measurements when needed. And again, I will buy an HP/Agilent/Keysight (should have stayed HP
) because of trust and reputation for solid, dependable design.