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| New Fluke 179 changes |
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| andyB2022:
As I was trying to fix my broken 177 I decided to buy a new Fluke 179 hoping that by comparing the 2 units I'll figure out what it might be wrong with mine. Until then I've taken some photos of the new PCB, the date stamped on the yellow case is October 2022. Personally, the quality has gone down for every Fluke meter compared to what they used to produce back in the day. First, the case finish is very rough compared to the old style cases, and then the rotary knob is easier to switch positions, I prefer stiffer ones. The hexagon going to the white plastic with metal fingers is now plastic versus metal. Fuses camed mixed with Bussman and LittelFuse. PCB quality went down just by looking at the gold plated contacts, even an amateur will be able to distinguish the "mirror" finish gold on the old models compared to the more matte new one. The ADC has been changed to ADS124S0 from Texas Instruments. They replaced the precision laser trimmed resistor with a series of SMD jobbies. The only place where I can give an A+ for the new model is the LCD backlight, perfect color temperature, light spread and brightness. Overall, they are trying to cut costs as much as possible. I'll let the photos speak for themselves. |
| Gyro:
--- Quote from: andyB2022 on April 27, 2023, 04:34:28 pm ---...PCB quality went down just by looking at the gold plated contacts, even an amateur will be able to distinguish the "mirror" finish gold on the old models compared to the more matte new one.... --- End quote --- That sounds a bit like basic ENIG rather than 'true' Gold plating, hard to say though. Cue another switch rotation life test! |
| AVGresponding:
Look at the crappy quality printing on the LT/Fluke asic... I believe the resistor you mentioned is part of the input protection and not the range divider; that one is the horizontally mounted one above the range switch. It's a fairly precise resistor, but not a super precise one; in the 87V it's 0.5%. It's likely easily possible and much cheaper to achieve the same level of voltage rating and value precision with smd, so yes, cost cutting, but not necessarily impacting overall performance. Maybe some small worsening of tempco, since the smd resistors aren't thermally coupled as well as a single hybrid? |
| andyB2022:
--- Quote from: AVGresponding on April 27, 2023, 05:48:26 pm --- I believe the resistor you mentioned is part of the input protection and not the range divider. --- End quote --- Yeah, in Fluke 87V Service manual is noted as "Z1". |
| 4thDoctorWhoFan:
IDK, it looks well built to me. |
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