Mini review: Fluke 8846A

[Tooms]

Here is an mini review of my new Fluke 8846A multimeter

http://www.tooms.dk/Tblog/Showblog1.asp?BlogID=201204291218291139


Tooms

[bingo600]

Here is an mini review of my new Fluke 8846A multimeter

http://www.tooms.dk/Tblog/Showblog1.asp?BlogID=201204291218291139


Tooms

FSCK.... Lucky you 

Hvad sagde tolden ?
Eller kom det via en DK distributør ?

/Bingo

[Tooms]

Hi Bingo600


yes thanks it was an nice supprise.


The packages come from Fluke marketing in Holland, so there is no extra tax/told payments.


Tooms

[M. András]

wow, congrats, i would like such a present too

[saturation]

Very nice.  Thanks for making the pics and write up. Enjoy!

[robrenz]

I don't think this meter gets enough credit.  I feel it is better than the Agilent equivalent in many ways. (that's why I bought it) Trend plot and stats are your friend.  Makes it easy to see when your meter is warmed up, how stable the meter is, and when measurements have settled, etc.  I recently checked mine for stability with a short bar on DC V.  152 hour long test (312685 readings) with temperature at the meter varying from 28.8 to 31.2 throughout the test. Used stat mode and got min. max. span of 1.0382uV Average of 161.3142nV and a SD of 72.3278nV.  That is simply amazing.  I hope you enjoy yours as much as I do mine.

[free_electron]

the only annoying thing with that meter is the long boot-up time from cold start. It takes almost 20 seconds...
the reason ? that meter has two cyclone FPGA's in it. one runs the meter logic and the multislope integrator. it talks over an optical link to the FPGA that does the display , the usb hostport ethernet and all the other stuff... there is a NIOS cpu in there running ... linux .... which has to boot...

[robrenz]

Whats 20 seconds when it has a 1 hour warm up to achieve stated specs?  From trend plot on shorted dc input it is actually stable in about 35 minutes.

[Tooms]

Hi

I dont see the boot time as an big issue, i just turn it on when i know i need it.


and i must say that it is an verry cool meter and the only thing that i am abit disapointed about is the 2nd measerrment function, it is very limit in what it can.


Anyone there is having the rebranded "Tektronix DMM 4050 or 4040" ? if you have can you please tell me what the output of the *IDN? command is.


Thanks

Thomas

[robrenz]

Anyone there is having the rebranded "Tektronix DMM 4050 or 4040" ? if you have can you please tell me what the output of the *IDN? command is.
Thanks

Thomas

From the 8846A programmers manual  *IDN?   =  Retrieve meter’s identification string

robrenz

[Tooms]

Anyone there is having the rebranded "Tektronix DMM 4050 or 4040" ? if you have can you please tell me what the output of the *IDN? command is.
Thanks

Thomas

From the 8846A programmers manual  *IDN?   =  Retrieve meter’s identification string

robrenz

yes i know... as shown in my blog, but i was hoping to see what the Tektronix 4050 is saying


Thomas

[robrenz]

Sorry I did look at your review but I didnt pay attention to the communication part. I guess you are wondering if it says Tek, 4050,ser#    instead of fluke?

[chrome]

Anyone there is having the rebranded "Tektronix DMM 4050 or 4040" ? if you have can you please tell me what the output of the *IDN? command is.

I have the 4040 (better then the 8845A but I guess less then the 8846A (only missing temperature and capacitance)).

The command returns this :
TEKTRONIX,DMM4040,<my meters serial number>,08/02/10-11:53

Here's a video of the device in use:
http://youtu.be/uwi_I086Dvw

What do you want to know about the 2nd measurement feature? I can answer that for you.

[Tooms]

Thanks, that was just the output i needed.



I have just done the very first test to make an app there talk with the 8846A and i am uploading an small video clip of it.



Thomas

[Tooms]

Here is the video clip of the first demo app there is talking to the Fluke 8846A




The funny thing is that the remote reading get one digi more then the display on the meter.


Thomas

[robrenz]

Tooms,  Try setting 100NPLC 6.5 digit mode and put a shorting bar on the meter input and DCV. If it is giving you the full internal meter resolution you should get 0.2nV resolution  which is the same as the meter readouts in stat mode.