previously reviewed<\/a> on Cool Tools. The T5 is a compact, limited resolution (only four-digit display) tester. It does not appear capable of measuring many of the things that the 87V can handle. The 87V can measure a much wider range of voltages and currents with greater accuracy. It also has an analog-style bar graph to help show trends, stores max.\/min. readings and will sound warnings if limits are exceeded. It can answer all the same questions as the T5, except in some cases it would need a probe (the open jaw mechanism for measuring current without breaking the circuit is the T5’s killer feature).<\/p>\nThe 87V can also measure temperature (with a probe), frequency (for control circuits) and handles in-line current measurement to 20A. The peak capture will let you see spikes on a signal\/control line as short as 250 us. It also has built-in filters for measuring voltages on noisy lines (as with motors).<\/p>\n
If you only need to know how many volts or how many amps in a household setting, the T5 is surely sufficient. If you want a bench-grade tool for the homeowner, automotive and\/or electronics hobbyist, the 87V is the real deal. For me, most of the time, the application is automotive or motorcycling (ensuring that things are charging and within spec); or that I can confirm the homemade wiring harness is assembled correctly prior to plugging in the $100-plus parts and accidentally cooking them. For more complex things, like servo controls in remote control applications, the duty-cycle measurements the 87V gives help confirm that the servos are in the right position.<\/p>\n
I don’t use the frequency feature very much, but temperature measurement is useful in a few applications when debugging cooling problems in equipment, too. When trying to solve a problem with a power supply or load-induced glitch, the max\/min hold functionality is great. You can stress and test the circuit and see the min. (or max.) readings after the fact to confirm, or refute, the problem.<\/p>\n
The Fluke 87V is the benchmark by which most are measured. Knowing that it can be beat on and abused, yet continues to give me lab-grade results year after year means I just depend on it and stop wondering what is going on. It tells me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bench-grade digital meter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[12],"tags":[1350],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3913"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3913"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11963,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3913\/revisions\/11963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}