No.123 - Fluke 189 Multimeter Repair 

My favorite mechanical cleaner for delicate stuff like contacts and gold plated PCB traces are the soft white drafting erasers that come in both rectangular cubes as well as click pen style. A bonus is that that you get a grime indication as any grime present discolors the white eraser bits falling away. It’s so soft and playable that only the lightest press is needed to begin getting results.

Well done, Ian. Sometimes they just need a bit of attention. I recently pulled a Fluke 189 out of e-waste at work. Its battery contacts were badly corroded and I found that new ones were available on Amazon for less than $20. I replaced them and now it works great. I really like the features of that meter, and it's dead-on accurate.

Welcome again, Ian. We all missed you.

Good stuff as always best meter fluke ever made in my opinion

That does it! I am getting one of those fiberglass pens. Love your videos.

Nice work. Fiberglass pen is indispensable! I usually pull, clean and repeat the fuses as well.

I. S. J. Gettin ‘er done!

Excellent service repair!

Don’t let Mr EEVBlog see you put self tapping screws in without find the cut thread :)

Nicely done, Ian. My first bet was the zebra strips because of the LCD. But, of course, that didn't explain the keypad not working. Always enjoy your videos, thank you! Regards, David

Excellent job Ian =D It was no fluke that you were able to save that!

The large fuse contacts were likely soldered on after PCB assembly, and they simply didn’t clean up the excess flux. You can even see the telltale splatters in the light. I’d clean it up too if I were already in there.

I have an old audio amplifier connected to my computer and I had been having strange intermittent problems with it shutting off randomly. I looked online and people were saying that they had bad solder joints that they reflowed and restored it to working. I tried this and saw a few suspect joints in the power path and reflowed them and have had no issues since and it's been about 3 months. I never knew that solder joints could go bad over time like that.

Nice meter, nice repair 👍

Either that or the battery contacts. I had the same "surprise" with my Fluke, It was working fine except in Ohm's mode where it had to draw a little bit more current.

Nice simple one...

My Fluke 189’s are my trusted standbys like analog VOM’s are to graybeards. I have fancier OLED DMMs, but my Fluke 189’s are my portable sources of truth.

Best meter they ever made by miles. Probe sockets are fragile and prone to breakage. The outer case cleans up like new using a nail brush and fairy liquid. There's grease on the contact tracks in all of mine.

Nice fix.

Very familiar with this model. I have one where the buttons have completely stopped working. I got a replacement button pad and had no joy. Oh well. I think I'll have to really troubleshoot it.

Common problem on this range is broken pins on the terminal panel and Fluke have obsoleted a lot of the parts. Sometimes can be bodged with some TCW, not ideal but better than a completely unusable meter.

Thank you, it was interesting. The only thing that confuses me is how you soldered the contacts for the probes. Most likely, this assembly has already been replaced previously, and the terminal is already oxidized along its entire length due to insufficient use of flux. It will not be well wetted with solder, especially in the depths of the hole. IMHO, it is better to unsolder the entire assembly, tin the pins and solder it again.

While you were in you should’ve checked the super cap for leakage.

Jobs a good 'un....cheers.

In general: do be careful with that fiberglass pen. Don't use them on soft gold plated (edge) connectors for example. At least first try some alcohol. I found over the years that ist most often more than sufficient.

Take out a couple ski doo's!

What "Glass fiber pen" is that? It seems to be a missing tool for my workbench.....

CUIDADO! Essa marca vazam as baterias e ocorre perda total do aparelho! Tive três fluke onde ocorreu isso!

You saved someone from having to blow $880 on a new Fluke 189.

Fluke have lifetime warranty so send it to fluke

Why did you break it?