×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

Fluke 438-II

Fluke 438-II

Fluke 438-II

(OP)
Anyone tested this?
Thoughts?

Gunnar Englund
www.gke.org
--------------------------------------
Half full - Half empty? I don't mind. It's what in it that counts.

RE: Fluke 438-II

No, but...

<drool>


" We are all here on earth to help others; what on earth the others are here for I don't know." -- W. H. Auden

RE: Fluke 438-II

Will be using a demo (with Fluke on hand) this weekend at a sewage pump station.

The initial demo with some simulation looked pretty good, but the software interface still seemed slow and clunky, like the older 435 software. I'm told that "improved" software is coming. We'll see how it looks with live data. If ok with customer I'll share what I can.

MikeL.

RE: Fluke 438-II

Eight thousand dollars!
Are these people insane?
Probably cost them $200 bucks to make one. 40X mark-up...
It appears they're trying to recoup all their engineering costs by selling the first five.

Keith Cress
kcress - http://www.flaminsystems.com

RE: Fluke 438-II


Can I use in motors with vfd?

GS

RE: Fluke 438-II

(OP)
The "Yellow Company", the one started by John F. Is very active now. I found a temperature calibrator in the mail. Showing an instrument that probably is OK for temperature calibration and tests.
But my confusion reached new heights when I looked at the instrument. The display says 300.0 V AC. Not what you expect to see on a temperature calibrator.

OK, nice to be able to check mains voltage. But showing an AC voltage somewhat obscures the message. Is it the same in other languages? Or is it only in Sweden that confusion reigns?


BTW, I studied the specs for the 438-II. I don't know about that one. Motor frequency is limited to 40 - 70 Hz and carrier frequency is from 2.5 to 20 kHz. So, if I shall go and have a look at a problem - shall I ask the customer if he can guarantee that the motor is running close to nomina speed? And that the VFD doesn't use 1.2 or 1.8 or some other low carrier frequency? I see a lot of sub-2000 Hz carrier frequencies.

Also, it cannot be used in field 1/sqrt(3) applications or other field-weakening applications. Or have I mis-understood something?

catserveng says (11 Oct 17 17:59) "software interface still seemed slow and clunky" That is a severe warning sign. I waited for that improved software in a four-channel scope several years ago. It never appeared. And PC communication was a joke. Be sure to try that out when you test it. Another thing that I had to wait for in vain was increased waveform storage. That unit didn't have more than the older two-channel monochrome scope (15 waveforms). And when I lost half of the waveforms after a distant job, I gave up and sent it back.

Not that they ignored my opinion. I think the problem was that they didn't understand there were so many and so severe problems. I hope that it has improved now. But watch out - and test all things you need in this device.

Gunnar Englund
www.gke.org
--------------------------------------
Half full - Half empty? I don't mind. It's what in it that counts.

RE: Fluke 438-II

Guilhermer-

A competor's product requires potential and current inputs. One of our 'technicians' who is a huge fan of the device tried using it on a VFD-driven motor.

Sadly, the VFD had no PT's on the drive output, so it was impossible for the device to do much of its magic analytical measurements because it was impossible to tie the line-frequency potentials to the corresponding currents feeding the motor. Those measurements requiring only current were unaffected.

The cost to retrofit output PT's was cost-prohibitive.

If your VFD has a bypass contactor, then you could probably use the device when the motor was running in bypass mode.

old field guy

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources