Tuesday, April 22, 2008

A Meter for I & E Techs: A Fluke 789 Review

Most I & E Technicians are long time fans of Fluke meters. We at PCO are big fans and we use several pieces of their test and laboratory equipment. Almost every Instrument and Electronics technician has a trusty Fluke 87 or simular meter. The also usually have an 4 to 20 ma process simulator. from a company like Altek, Transmation or Unical. These are typically somewhat limited and not very field toughened.

Fluke has a new meter, the 789 Processmeter. It is a standard volt Ohm Current meter with the diode test and beeping continuity check, but it can output 0 to 20 milliamp signals. It behaves as a a source or as a passive device. It is as close as a field tech will ever get to a one meter fits all solution.

Our 789 came with 2 sets of leads: the standard Fluke multimeter probes and another set of leads with big rubberized alligator clips on the end. The first thing I did when I got my meter was fabricate a set of miniclip leads. The alligator leads are just fine for larger lugged terminations but are too big for smaller terminations that most newer systems are using today.
One of the first things I noticed is that it uses 4 AA cells instead of 9Volt batteries that never seem to be around when you need them. We also have the C Cell adaptor so that the unit can run on the very long lasting C cells for our benchwork. The C cells seem to last forever. It has a large well laid out display that can be back lit if needed.

The meter displays 5 digits of accuracy in both input and output. 0.000 to 20.000 Which is up to par for 16 bit measurement systems
  • 24 V Loop power supply
  • Double-sized, dual display
  • Enhanced backlight with 2 brightness settings
  • 20mA drive into 1200 ohms
  • HART mode setting with loop power (adds 250 ohm resistor)
  • 0% and 100 % mA Span Check buttons to toggle between 4 and 20 mA
  • Externally accessible fuses for easy replacement
  • Infrared I/O serial port compatible with FlukeView Forms software
  • Precision 1000 V, 440 mA True-RMS digital Multimeter
  • 0.1% dc voltage accuracy
  • 0.05% dc current accuracy
  • Frequency measurement to 20 kHz
  • Min/Max/Average/Hold/Relative modes
  • Diode Test and Continuity Beeper
  • Simultaneous mA and % of scale readout
  • 20 mA DC current source / loop calibrator / simulator
  • Manual Step (100%, 25%, Coarse, Fine) plus Auto Step and Auto Ramp
  • Improved battery power with four AA batteries
Fluke has found a need and filled it for those who seek the one meter that does everything.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Earth Day is Nearing

Earth Day will be here shortly and our friends at PCO have made a little tool to help us remember. If you like it feel free to share it.


Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Hello My Name is Robert and I Am a Google Addict.

It seems that Google has got something that no one is even close to attaining: a network of tools and users. I am a firm believer in the Sherman Act don't get me wrong, but for those who are screaming monopoly at Google, I don't see it. Google has done something that all of the other search engines haven't figured out yet; they have a cult like following of users. I hate to say this but yes I am addicted to Google too. It's not the Internet and everything on Google, it's all of the tools they offer. I use 16 different tools the Google offers. From one page (see screen shot below) I can manage my PPC(Google AdWords) and see the traffic(Google Analytics) they are driving to my site. Or I can share documents(Google Docs) with my friends in Austin. Oh and here's the real kicker it's free. Well free in the sense that I don't have to pay for it. However, I am not naive enough to think that Google is not collecting all sorts of information on my internet habits, but you know what as long as they keep delivering I could care less. Another thing Google has working for it is that their help center consists of volunteers; i.e. Internet gurus that browse the Google Groups all day answering questions. I can post a question in the Google Webmaster Forum and have 10 answers by the time I get back from lunch. You can't beat that with a ten foot stick. However, there is still one question that is plaguing me: Why is that the other big names in Search Engines don't offer the same resources? I'm not going to lie...I have no idea. The best I can figure is that they don't see the value in it. Google already has the web wrapped around its "$800 million in revenue? $200 million in profit?" finger. Personally if Yahoo! or Microsoft developed tools comparable to Google's I would be privy to use them. It only makes sense to obtain information from more than one place, the problem is there's nowhere else to turn to. So until Yahoo! or Microsoft ante up and give all of us Webmasters something to work with, Google it is.



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