Author Topic: Fluke A3001FC strange battery drain problem.  (Read 1278 times)

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Offline BeBuLamarTopic starter

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Fluke A3001FC strange battery drain problem.
« on: December 10, 2023, 05:01:34 pm »
The Fluke representative gave me this simple AC current clamp meter with Fluke Connect. It works OK but I found it drains the 2 AA batteries when not in use. So today I checked the current draw and found initially when I just connect the power it only draws 0.3 µA so it's no problem there. Turning it on it draws from 7 to 15 mA. OK that's fine. Turning it off with its power button the unit went off but now it draw 300µA which is significant. And it continued to draw the 300µA until I disconnect the power source and reconnect it then it draw 0.3µA again.
So basically I would have to remove the battery and reinstall the battery whenever I am done using it.
Anyone has any idea what is the problem?
 

Offline bdunham7

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Re: Fluke A3001FC strange battery drain problem.
« Reply #1 on: December 10, 2023, 05:41:13 pm »
Is it capable of being turned back on via the remote app?  How long does it take to drain the batteries?  If they are AA, I'd expect that to take a few thousand hours?
A 3.5 digit 4.5 digit 5 digit 5.5 digit 6.5 digit 7.5 digit DMM is good enough for most people.
 

Offline BeBuLamarTopic starter

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Re: Fluke A3001FC strange battery drain problem.
« Reply #2 on: December 10, 2023, 06:38:19 pm »
I don't use it much and noticed that the battery drained after a few weeks. No it can't be turned on via the remote app. I know what you meant if it drain 0.3 mA it would take a year to drain them.
 

Offline floobydust

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Re: Fluke A3001FC strange battery drain problem.
« Reply #3 on: December 10, 2023, 07:06:10 pm »
I had a device behave like this and it was a firmware bug. The MCU and peripherals did not properly go to sleep- under certain shutdown sequences.
You might try a few things and see what makes it shutdown properly, if that is possible or if Bluetooth activity is part of it staying at a higher drain etc. Or it might draw higher current just for a few minutes after shutdown.
Sometimes a programmer is a bit sloppy with the 'go to sleep' path and forgets to turn something off.

In my case, the manufacturer issued a recall because it caused batteries to go dead and then leak. I had to laugh, the replacement product changed over to a hard on/off switch  :palm: instead of fixing the firmware bug.
 


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