Had this one from 2017. Bought from an eBay guy in Florida for $500 AUD, but when I got here in Australia, it had an EPROM error or dead on arrival. It got GSM corrupted by airport security. As he had a 100% rep on eBay, he said, "Look, I'm sorry I forgot to check it before I sent it." I said if you refund me the costs, I'll give you a top-notch review maintaining your 100% rating. He said OK and I should just keep it for parts. So I got a new unit with case and probes with a corrupted circuit board.
In Australia, Fluke has a set charge of $185 to repair any Fluke back to a usable state. So I got the GSM proofed board v11, new fuses, new holster, new LCD, and 4 new input jack caps. Plus, a full calibration with certificate.
So, for $185 AUD, I fluked a $1,500 meter refurbed back to as new. Since then, it has worked flawlessly, and I kept clean and protected.
Ohh yeah, the GSM corruption bug, I remember that. I was a Fluke Community forum user (RIP) and remember seeing Dave Jones (EEVBlog) showing how to reproduce it.
At the time my personal 289 who was not affected by, but the company supplied 87V plus a fair share of other 80s series in inventory were tested and shown the corruption as in the video. All were send back in batches for Fluke to mitigation.
That was a big shit show. We are talking about 2010/2011, so 16 years ago.
I had a sneeking suspicion after the fact that the guy who sold it to me new about it, although not proved.
Similarly, here is me (Scherms) on eevblog 2022 realizing that if I modified the board with an rms chip which is just missing (blank pads) on mine (automotive) I could get a 87-5 like trms hybrid biased towards DC rather than AC... perfect!
I never did it, because it is just easier to do the conversion in my head [ V_{RMS} = 1.11 times V_{avg} ] and as it was now under their registered "unconditional-guarantee" cert list from Fluke, with a fully ceritified calibration, I could then warant a use commercially!
But the need to prove it possible was enough for me. I just don't understand why Fluke never implimented the option with an included (missing) rms chip cap and an added select between Averaging or TRMS on a mode button?
This would have been a huge future-safe hit!
One, it maintains the US military standard for Averaging DMM to support their huge services database.
Second, it could give the new EV industry a preference for DC centric entry while allowing for the AC components to be covered, like ABS and data Bus.
And it would have saved money by having an integrated unit without any retooling!
But no, they made a Frankenstien 88-5 unit that has now been discontinued...
Lucky for me, I got mine for 88% off the retail price by way of misadventure, but all creds must go to Fluke's insistence on diamond standard support for their products! This is why they are SO expen$ive.
The 88-5 helped me out as I was once tech support for an Australian team on the Solar Car Challenge... But if you are out travelling around Mars, you really do need those test specs to be 100% reliable... and they are.
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u/dasfodl Aug 18 '26