What's going on with my Fluke 117 meter?

[Axtman]

If I hold down the "HOLD" button on my Fluke 117 meter and turn the selector switch from "OFF" to "AUTO-V LoZ" my meter displays a weird message "FCEY". When I release the "HOLD" button the backlight starts flickering on and off! 

I looked through the Fluke user's manual and did not see anything to indicate what this might be.  What the heck is going on?!

[RobertHolcombe]

I'm not familiar with the 110 series meters, however all flukes I've used have different power-on features when holding each of the buttons during power on, and sometimes a different function or display at each range on the selection dial. These are usually recorded somewhere, in the manual or sometimes even on the back of the meter itself.

Functions like disabling auto power-off, auto backlight-off, no beeps, LPF enable/disable, version check, etc

Flashing backlight sounds a bit odd.

[Jeroen3]

Factory Calibration Erase?

[Fungus]

According to the manual (page 9) the "HOLD" button is used to display all segments at power-on.

Does it do something different when you go to low-Z? Only Fluke knows.

My advice? Don't do it.

[Shock]

The same flickering backlight occurs on the Fluke 114, the message displayed is "FCTY" though not FCEY.

[X]

Might be worth contacting Fluke as this sounds like a fault within the meter, or an undocumented mode.

According to the manual (page 9) the "HOLD" button is used to display all segments at power-on.

Does it do something different when you go to low-Z? Only Fluke knows.

My advice? Don't do it.

On my Fluke 28-II this activates every single segment in the entire display until you let go of the button and then the meter starts up and operates normally.

[Jeroen3]

FCTY is restore to factory defaults on a 187.
There is only 1 segment different between FCTY and FCEY...

[Axtman]

Here is the "FCEY" screen message.

How do I compress a video on my Iphone 6 in order to post it? I want to show you the flickering of the backlight.  Thanks!

[Fungus]

Here is the "FCEY" screen message.

That's not an 'E', that's a 'T'.

[retiredcaps]

Agree, that is a lower case letter "t".

[BMack]

Contact Fluke but it's probably a special mode for service centers. I think the only user power-on features for this series are disable continuity beeper, disable auto power off and screen segment test...You should be able to find those in your manual.

[Axtman]

I emailed Fluke's repair service team late last night. So far they have not replied to me. I will let you know what they say.

[Fungus]

"FCTY" is probably "Factory Reset" - restore all options to default.

[Axtman]

Here is the response today from Fluke.

*****************************
Typically when performing calibration tests and hooked up to the calibrator unit, you can hold the hold button and switch the unit to start the calibration process. It sounds like the meter is trying to start that procedure.

Sean Silvey | Product Specialist | FLUKE CORPORATION
email: sean.silvey@fluke.com | direct: 425.446.6992 |cell: 425.740.4294