Digital Multimeter and or Inductive RPM pickup

[smothers33]

was looking to upgrade my DMM. Im looking at the FLuke 88V and Fluke 117.
http://www.tooltopia.com/fluke-88-5_akit.aspx
http://www.tooltopia.com/fluke-117.aspx
I really want one that True RMS I just got a new job and will be working on primarily electric forklifts that are AC controlled. The 88v does have the upper hand because its more accurate, offers and comes with inductive rpm pickup, tempeture probe, and measure pulse width for injectors, plus it comes with a come extra things like alligator clips and magnetic hanger. What do you guys think? Anyone with either DMM have any input? Also if not the 88v I would need a Inductive RPM pick up tool. Any reccomendations for that? Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[bradreece]

the 88s badass

 

[redwrench60]

Just used an 88 with rpm pickup to set idle speed and timing on a nasty 383 SBC today, it's a hard meter to beat. But I'm not sure the Fluke 88 is a true RMS meter unless somethings changed. The Fluke 87 is true RMS for sure.

 

[Hootbro]

Well whatever you decide, do not buy off of Tooltopia. You can find better pricing elsewhere for Fluke stuff.

FWIW, I have the 117. Good meter but it is more gear towards industrial/commercial electrical work than finer electronic work like of car electronic systems.

 

[richfinn]

I have worked on cars for 25 years and use a Fluke Meter and I have the RPM80 inductive RPM pick up (I used it once when I first got the meter) it lives in a drawer somewhere.

Get a low amp probe instead, much more useful.

I know nothing about lift trucks but on modern cars you just use a scan-tool to measure RPM, you might use it on classic cars and bikes or even the fork lifts if they have HT wires, Most stuff I see is coil on plug anyway.

If you ever come to England you can buy mine for £10 ($45)

 

[ssblood]

88 is true rms. Nice meter even though I don't need mine terribly often. Accessories are great also.

Sent from my ADR6425LVW using Tapatalk

 

[smothers33]

I didnt think the 88 was true rms either untill I used the DMM selector tool on flukes website. It allows you to pick the feature you want in your DMM and narrows your search that way. I picked true rms for AC voltage and both 88v and 117 came up on the list. then you can compare both meters and it shows a long list of all the specs on the meters and highlights the differences. I know alot of the newer cars(and forklfits for that matter) can read rpm through scan tools, but I wont have a scan tool all the time so I really want the RPM pickup for power balance test and checking ignition and timing issues for those cases when I dont have the computer/scantool

 

[richfinn]

I didnt think the 88 was true rms either untill I used the DMM selector tool on flukes website. It allows you to pick the feature you want in your DMM and narrows your search that way. I picked true rms for AC voltage and both 88v and 117 came up on the list. then you can compare both meters and it shows a long list of all the specs on the meters and highlights the differences. I know alot of the newer cars(and forklfits for that matter) can read rpm through scan tools, but I wont have a scan tool all the time so I really want the RPM pickup for power balance test and checking ignition and timing issues for those cases when I dont have the computer/scantool

Thats cool, do those fork lifts have wasted spark with HT leads?

one thing I have noticed with these types of set ups and the Fluke is that one lead fires positive and one negative (so to speak) and you need to have the probe the correct way round depending which lead you pick to make your measurement.

 

[franzdom]

I have worked on cars for 25 years and use a Fluke Meter and I have the RPM80 inductive RPM pick up (I used it once when I first got the meter) it lives in a drawer somewhere.

Get a low amp probe instead, much more useful.

I know nothing about lift trucks but on modern cars you just use a scan-tool to measure RPM, you might use it on classic cars and bikes or even the fork lifts if they have HT wires, Most stuff I see is coil on plug anyway.

If you ever come to England you can buy mine for £10 ($17)

fixed conversion rate

 

[richfinn]

fixed conversion rate

Damn it, you got me

 

[smothers33]

Thats cool, do those fork lifts have wasted spark with HT leads?

one thing I have noticed with these types of set ups and the Fluke is that one lead fires positive and one negative (so to speak) and you need to have the probe the correct way round depending which lead you pick to make your measurement.

Not that Ive seen. Most forklifts just switched over to distributorless systems in 05-06 and usually use individual coils for each cyl. Some lifts actually still have distributors if Im not mistaken. I havent worked on any of the brand brand new Toyotas but 2-3 year old Toyota forklifts(which is the #1 forklift brand in the world I believe) still run distributors albeit very much electronically controlled. But anyways are you talking about the RPM pickup when you say one fires pos and one neg? Could you please explain im not sure I quite understand

 

[magova1104]

I have a MAC tools Multimeter that I don't use. Its made by Ferret instruments USA and comes with LOW and High amp clamps, with the case and everything, this meter is HEAVY DUTY! http://www.toolsource.com/ferret-automotive-multimeter-p-93121.html?osCsid=q785djjpjplc28uj8b6k5e0d15 Maybe I can let it go cheap. PM. Here is more info: http://www.mcburneysales.com/documents/GxTF95Flyer.pdf and the Owners manual: http://images.myautoproducts.com/images/Product_Media/Manuals/FRR/FRR-95_manual.pdf

 

[richfinn]

Not that Ive seen. Most forklifts just switched over to distributorless systems in 05-06 and usually use individual coils for each cyl. Some lifts actually still have distributors if Im not mistaken. I havent worked on any of the brand brand new Toyotas but 2-3 year old Toyota forklifts(which is the #1 forklift brand in the world I believe) still run distributors albeit very much electronically controlled. But anyways are you talking about the RPM pickup when you say one fires pos and one neg? Could you please explain im not sure I quite understand

A lot of car ignition systems are wasted spark (one coil fires 2 plugs at the same time) when this happens the spark has to complete a circuit so one spark plug fires conventionally "positive" and the other works the opposite way, if you pick this "negative firing" lead you have to reverse the probe to get a true signal because of opposed current flow.

Hard to explain but simple in practice

http://www.crypton.co.za/Tto know/Ignition/wasted sp.html