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retailer · 30th Oct 2020, 2:06 pm

I'm rigging up a DC HT power supply and forgot I had been measuring mA with my Fluke 87 - touched the probes on the chassis and main filter cap (390V DC) and bang! - the display went blank for a few seconds and then came back on flashing and beeping - turned it off and then back on again but no function worked, volts measured low, display flashed and beeped would not settle on a range, my Fluke must be toast I thought - not a happy thought either.
Took me a few hours to get over the shock and to stop calling my self an idiot before I discovered the battery had gone flat almost at the same time I touched the probe on the capacitor, a new battery and it was all good, I was amazed it survived, the tip of the probe had been vaporized, I've damaged digital meters before with a much smaller overload.

30th Oct 2020, 2:06 pm	#1
retailer Heptode Join Date: May 2005 Location: Adelaide, South Australia Posts: 541	Fluke 87 multimeter overload I'm rigging up a DC HT power supply and forgot I had been measuring mA with my Fluke 87 - touched the probes on the chassis and main filter cap (390V DC) and bang! - the display went blank for a few seconds and then came back on flashing and beeping - turned it off and then back on again but no function worked, volts measured low, display flashed and beeped would not settle on a range, my Fluke must be toast I thought - not a happy thought either. Took me a few hours to get over the shock and to stop calling my self an idiot before I discovered the battery had gone flat almost at the same time I touched the probe on the capacitor, a new battery and it was all good, I was amazed it survived, the tip of the probe had been vaporized, I've damaged digital meters before with a much smaller overload.