@Saturation..Yes I put 8 alkalines in it(maybe 6) and it works great. Got bout 3 hours out of them tho so I need to mabe order the rechargeble pak for it. It is the 200Mhz BW version. and in color. Taking it to the lab at work tomorrow and gona see just what its capable of.
3 hours is pretty close to the original spec I think (4 hours?). Good low self-discharge NiMH cells like Sanyo Eneloop will probably last significantly longer. Don't be surprised if the original battery pack is very expensive, and be careful with used battery packs, since cells tend to degrade with age. I believe this is the chief complaint I've read about these units, dead batteries, so maybe that's why it's missing. If you can get fairly close to original battery life with standard rechargeable cells, I might just use those instead of expensive proprietary battery packs.
I wouldn't worry about performance, I'm sure Fluke did their homework, especially since it's not the first generation, those had nasty passive monochrome LCD displays, low sample rate and non-isolated channels. There are at least three generations before this one, maybe more. The Scopemeters are the sole reason why Fluke bought the Philips Test & Measurement branch (it used to be a joint venture between Philips and Fluke). Fluke dumped almost all other Philips test equipment like multimeters (they already had those), bench scopes and other lab equipment, and kept the Scopemeters.
The main complaint I've heard is about battery packs, and some people dislike the interface, a bench scope with larger display and proper knobs is nicer in some ways. It's hard to beat Scopemeters for portable applications, however, especially anything involving high energy circuits. It's designed to be fully floating, so you can safely clip the reference lead to any potential (within specified limits), and both channels are fully isolated (so both 'grounds' can be at different potentials). Don't try the same with 99% of the bench scopes, it will cause fireworks
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. The Scopemeter inputs are rated for CAT III; many other scopes are CAT II.
You should use the original probes (made by Multi-Contact I believe), since Scopemeters use special insulated BNC connectors. This is both for safety (the probes are designed with extra insulation around the reference lead, not much attention is paid to this with regular scope probes since the reference is grounded anyway), and because using metal BNC connectors will quickly wear out the plastic female connectors, which do occasionally break.
Just gona throw this out there guys. I recently purchased the Agilent U1253A. everything Dave said on his review was correct about it, Nothing to awful as I remember anyway. It is slow in continuity readings but overall a very good DMM. one thing I dont recall in the review is just how really easy it is is to read the lcd at some very odd angles which can happen from time to time while working around equipment. One could almost look at it from any angle and easily see the read out on the screen. Im sure it has its faults but I'm happy with it.
Most of Dave's negative comments were focused on the OLED display, except the slow continuity, and he did give it a thumbs up. Nothing is perfect, at least you can safely put this meter next to your cell phone
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. Good to know that the LCD has good viewing angles, I agree that it can be very frustrating if you're unable to read the LCD screen from where you're standing. One reason why I prefer VFD or LED, but that's way too power hungry for battery powered applications (kinda like OLED
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