Fluke Scopemeter

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Tainted

Tainted

Senior Member
Location
New York
Occupation
Engineer (PE)
My boss just got a free fluke scopemeter from an electrician who retired. It's a portable oscilloscope basically. My boss asked me to figure out a way to make money from this meter.

Does anybody any ideas? I think this can be used to diagnose motors/generators, but I can't really think of anything else.

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What services would you provide using this tool to make money?
 
Tainted said:
My boss just got a free fluke scopemeter from an electrician who retired. It's a portable oscilloscope basically. My boss asked me to figure out a way to make money from this meter.

Does anybody any ideas? I think this can be used to diagnose motors/generators, but I can't really think of anything else.

View attachment 2564566

What services would you provide using this tool to make money?
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I'll give you $100 right away. That's a money maker right there! ... $200...

I haven't used one, but it looks fun. Did he get all to Bells and Whistles with it?
 
ptonsparky said:
I'll give you $100 right away. That's a money maker right there! ... $200...

I haven't used one, but it looks fun. Did he get all to Bells and Whistles with it?
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Haha, not for sale. It cost like 4 grand based on what I see online. It came with everything in it including connectors, cables, manuals, suitcase. I just don't see how an oscilloscope would be useful in this industry unless we are doing some electronics or diagnosing problems
 
Would be good for checking frequency. Pretty good learning curve to get started. Fluke used to have an electricians scope meter that easier to use.
 
Tainted said:
Haha, not for sale. It cost like 4 grand based on what I see online. It came with everything in it including connectors, cables, manuals, suitcase. I just don't see how an oscilloscope would be useful in this industry unless we are doing some electronics or diagnosing problems
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Diagnostics of some sort. You may have to hire new experienced help and expand your services.
 
Tainted said:
What kind of diagnostics can you think of?
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Of the top of my head, with appropriate probes you could look at voltage and current waveforms to see if there is significant harmonic distortion, and also details about how the distortion is occuring, not just a number in percent. You could see if a transformer is being overdriven and getting into saturation. Also, you could see the actual current waveforms feeding into the rectifier of a VFD and see how well they are matching each other. Mismatched current waveforms could come not only from unequal input voltages, but from a bad rectifier diode, MOV, etc. The effectiveness of a reactor in front of a VFD in reducing harmonic currents could be evaluated, including a reduction in the peaks of this current.
If you can store and print the measured waveforms you might give them to a customer to help show the work that you did, instead of just saying things are OK or not. But I can't say whether or not it will help you make any more money.

When I was using 'scopes and other test equipment it was mostly larger bench models from Tektronix, HP/Agilent/Keysight, Rhode & Schwarz, LeCroy, etc. for developing electronics. Fluke has improved greatly over the years. We used to joke "if it works, it's a fluke". In other words, if you're lucky. :)
 
synchro said:
Of the top of my head, with appropriate probes you could look at voltage and current waveforms to see if there is significant harmonic distortion, and also details about how the distortion is occuring, not just a number in percent. You could see if a transformer is being overdriven and getting into saturation. Also, you could see the actual current waveforms feeding into the rectifier of a VFD and see how well they are matching each other. Mismatched current waveforms could come not only from unequal input voltages, but from a bad rectifier diode, MOV, etc. The effectiveness of a reactor in front of a VFD in reducing harmonic currents could be evaluated, including a reduction in the peaks of this current.
If you can store and print the measured waveforms you might give them to a customer to help show the work that you did, instead of just saying things are OK or not. But I can't say whether or not it will help you make any more money.

When I was using 'scopes and other test equipment it was mostly larger bench models from Tektronix, HP/Agilent/Keysight, Rhode & Schwarz, LeCroy, etc. for developing electronics. Fluke has improved greatly over the years. We used to joke "if it works, it's a fluke". In other words, if you're lucky. :)
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Yea checking harmonics is a good idea, but in buildings I typically work on harmonics is not really an issue. The only major non linear loads that I usually encounter are VFDs. I cannot convince a client and tell them it would be a good idea to check for harmonics in their system lol
 
With the new age of electronics already here and all the "State of the Art" equipment. Throw away your $25 Wiggy voltage testers. Hay Joe what's a harmonic ?
 
Tainted said:
What kind of diagnostics can you think of?
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Power Quality Analysis (PQA)
When I used to do work at a large data center this was used along with a Dranetz power line disturbance analyzer. By moving them around the elec dist system one can tell if the voltage transient was created inhouse or from the utility. It was like ghost-busting trying to find out what was causing some of their servers to shut down. It got to the point where I got the job to build a central Dranetz station and through switches we could look at the 3 phase 480V inputs and outputs of the (5) large Liebert UPS systems scattered throughout the basement power room.
I remember one problem when a spike was showing up on the printout sheet every morning around 6:15AM. The cust sent the info to the Poco and a month later they got and email back from the Poco thanking them. Turned out it alerted them to a faulty phase on one of their pole mounted power factor correction capacitor banks that was programmed to switch on at that exact time!
Yeah, PQA is a whole business in itself with many companies out there charging big $$ for their services. Most know what their doing, some do not!
;)
 
ATSman said:
Power Quality Analysis (PQA)
When I used to do work at a large data center this was used along with a Dranetz power line disturbance analyzer. By moving them around the elec dist system one can tell if the voltage transient was created inhouse or from the utility. It was like ghost-busting trying to find out what was causing some of their servers to shut down. It got to the point where I got the job to build a central Dranetz station and through switches we could look at the 3 phase 480V inputs and outputs of the (5) large Liebert UPS systems scattered throughout the basement power room.
I remember one problem when a spike was showing up on the printout sheet every morning around 6:15AM. The cust sent the info to the Poco and a month later they got and email back from the Poco thanking them. Turned out it alerted them to a faulty phase on one of their pole mounted power factor correction capacitor banks that was programmed to switch on at that exact time!
Yeah, PQA is a whole business in itself with many companies out there charging big $$ for their services. Most know what their doing, some do not!
;)
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I guess PQA is only useful for data centers and industrial facilities, cannot find a use for it in residential apartment buildings lol. did that spike damage any equipment?
 
I bought a fluke documenting process calibrator, it Was accurate to .001 mA. My manager who had a MS in Punlicensed Health wanted to know why the company was named after a liver parasite
 
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