Hi. Now, unless you were living under a rock a couple of weeks back, you would have no doubt heard about the big to-do between Spark Fun and Fluke. and well, I'll briefly recap if you were living under a rock uh, Spark Fun tried to import uh, 2,000 uh of their own branded multimeters one of these cheap little $15 uh Chinese ones you know, Spark Fun branded all that sort of stuff. tried to import 2,000 of them and they got stopped at the Customs coming into the country and custom said uh-uh you can't import those because Fluke have a trademark on the yellow holster for these things.

Here's a photo of it of the Spark Fund meter. Yes, they actually ban these coming into the country because Fluke have a trademark not actually on yellow as such, which a lot of people incorrectly uh said in all the comments and all the big Fury Over all this sort of thing, no Fluke actually have a what's called a trade dress trademark so to speak. They kind of different things, but essentially it's a trade dress issue. and yes, they do have a uh, they do have protection about the look and feel of the multimeters I.E the yellow surround and the dark uh, gray or black meter itself, so no one's allowed to import those into the country.

and Spark Fun didn't know anything about that as you know, who would know anything about that? nobody and they got caught and Customs said you can either ship them back to China which was apparently too expensive. You um you? you might as well just toss them or they said, well, we can toss them. Uh, we can destroy them all 2,000 multimeters at your cost. So Spark Fun didn't know what to do so they had a big blog post on there and I was going to do a big ranty reply on it of course.

um, but fluke who they went to uh, crisis, uh mode I I'm sure and they responded like within 48 hours or something like that. So I didn't get a chance to do my rant Anyway, they responded superbly um, they I think won this little uh fight here because they basically came back and said yeah, we hear you uh, Spark Fun and well, sorry. but because we're a big Corporation blah blah blah we have to protect our our look and feel of our products and our company and our employees and the safety of the customers. Because well, Fluke Meters are designed to be safe and all that sort of stuff.

and uh, yes, we will, uh, vigilant protect our trademark and the look and feel of these things. So sorry. but to show you that we're a fantastic company and because, uh, we support the hacker maker community and and uh, you know, educational institutions and all that sort of stuff which they do. They said we'll give you $30,000 plus worth of flu multimeters for free to give away to or to do whatever you want with, but they implied well to give them away to schools and stuff like that.

And Spark Fun accepted and there was happy rainbows all around and people dancing and joying the streets and it was fantastic. So excellent work Fluke for coming back! I Mean it was the obvious thing it cost them next to nothing and they got fantastic PR out of it. But anyway, that's not the first time this issue has happened. Actually, because this is a Tectronics multimeter, check it out.

Um, it's the Tetronics DMM 870 and it's a fairly old model Te ICS don't make these anymore. but it wasn't the first time this has happened. They look, it has the horror oh look yellow surround that looks like fluke yellow to me. No, so fluke weren't happy with that.

so they changed it. Tectronics actually changed exactly the same multimeter, but they changed it to. they changed the model number to the 916 and they changed it to a blue holster. So there you go.

Um, it has actually happened before. This isn't the first time, but ironically both companies are now owned by the Danaher Group, so everybody's happy but of course me being me. I have to call out a bit of BS that I saw in Fluke response here and let me read it to you. It's important to know that once we've filed for and received trademark protection, US Customs has the responsibility to determine what to stop at the border or what to.

Sees In This case. We first learned of this issue from Spark Fun's blog and well, yeah, okay my, it certainly might have been the first issue. Uh, first time they heard of the issue from Spark Funs blog. but just by getting a trademark, the Customs people don't go into frenzy checking everything into the country that is complete.

It really is. Um, in this uh case, Fluke actually went to well, previously Fluke have gone to the International Trade Commission and gotten a trade I think what's called a trade exclusion order basically. uh, Banning or telling Customs to look uh for multimeters that come into the country and they actually named like 10 or 12 different multimeters and the pictures of them. It's a huge big thing which I'll link in down below if you want to read all the boring details of it.

But yeah, Fluke actually went to that much trouble to stop multimers coming into the country. But hey, you know they as a big Corporation they have every right to do that so you can't say that they're bad guys or anything like that. In fact, they aren't bad guys because check out what they sent me. Oh, by the way, um I'll read what they said at the end.

Uh, while we continue to enforce our trademark, we are taking this onetime action because we believe in the work of Spark Fund for supporting the maker and education communities. This is important to us. We have been supporters of the Maker Community for years through donation of over half a million dollars worth of tools and employees of Uh to to organizations like First Robotics and that's brilliant. Fluke do do a lot of awesome stuff like that, but they're doing more which I'm going to show you right now they Rush this to me it is not in production yet but I believe it is, uh, very close and what it is is uh to support the hacker Maker Community It is a kit multimeter.

Yes, Assemble yourself. Well, you know not everything. you're not going to do all the SMD Parts but apparently it is a kit multimeter. In this case, it's their 114 model their Uh 110 series multimeter.

so it's one of the real uh, low-end Uh ones. and I believe they might be doing other meters in the future, but at the moment this is a uh, pre uction version I guess you could call it. They shipped it to me in a hurry and they've either done this incredibly quick or they might have had this sort of thing in the pipeline for a little bit of time. Anyway, let's check it out.

A kit multimeter? Awesome! Okay, let's see what we have inside. This puppy comes in a very nice, uh, genuine fluke uh carry case. bit big for a uh, a double one four cuz they're quite small meters. Let's take a look and look at this.

that is hilarious. Tada It's a fluk 10 series multimeter. It's where the empty um shell. basically awesome and uh, well.

we got some fluke probes and we've got a LCD kit. There we go look fluke. Yeah, it's the 114 so that's the LCD for it. We've got a bag of bits I don't know.

hey, that looks like the rotary is switch and uh, what do we got? What do we got? I don't know uh, component components I guess I'm going to solder a couple and the PCB itself and a bago bago screws and looks like just the regular um, uh, manual and everything else. So this is the 114. I Believe they will eventually have the 117 which is the one that includes the current because uh, if you seen these before, the only disadvantage of uh, these lower model 100 series is that they don't have current capabilities. Volts? ohms, uh, only that's pretty much it.

so that's a bit of a disadvantage. So, but still. um, the price that they're going to, um, sell this kit. uh, meter at is I'm not sure of the exact final price, but I've heard that it is going to be really great value for money like you know, at like half or something the regular fluke price.

They're doing this for the hacker maker community and I haven't heard, but no doubt they'll probably team up with Spark Fund to actually sell them through there as well as well as other uh type Distributors So well let's check it out. so that is hilarious. I've never seen anything like that before that is just great. and if we get the uh we have it's you know it's a it's just a regular 11 4 which you've probably seen in other reviews I haven't I I think I reviewed a 117, didn't I hello How do you jeez that? Oh there we go.

Hope it didn't break it anyway. Um, there you go. Oh batter's installed. There we go.

This still got the battery installed and it's just like the blank case. Fantastic! We'll check out the Uh PCB let's have a look. Yep, it is the Fluke 117 PCB Check it out. There it is and most of it is comes uh pre um solded of course because you know you can't have people doing little 0603 resistors.

It's not very beginner, uh, friendly or anything like that. It looks like I can see the Ms and stuff missing, but everything else. the surface mount battery ones cuz there battery contacts are instored. the sockets.

um for these curiously. uh, they actually um, solder all three of these on. Even though the Uh 114 doesn't have the current uh input, they just it's the same process, comes off the same line, they just leave various parts off. Like in this case, they've left the fuse and stuff off and it looks like they've left all the input circuitry.

The Ms and uh, Ptcs, and uh, stuff like that have been left off. But apart from that, it looks fully uh, operational. So we'll have to assemble the switch and everything. and let's look at the other bags and the LCD.

Let's check it out. Hello, That is the there it is. Fluke 114, True. RMS Multimeter.

Fantastic. Um, of course the labeling is on the inside. It's not on the screen like that. it's always on the inside and that that's not part of the LCD.

Oh, that's the. um, that's the shield. That's the shield for the board so that goes over there somehow. Like that, which uh, I'll figure out when I put this together.

By the way, I did not get instructions uh for this thing. They have not uh completed those yet so they'll have you know, really beginner style instructions. I'm sure they'll go to town on that sort of thing, but the zebra uh strip is pre-installed in there and that's ready to go. Then we've got some Miss I guess miscellaneous stuff.

This one actually holds the switch and other stuff. There we go. There's our uh, um, our rubber uh buttons and there's there's the switch mechanism. There we go.

There's the O-ring um that I think yeah goes in there somehow. What? is it? Something like that? and it assembles yeah, somehow like that. And there's a plate which goes in the shazzy. Um, yeah.

I'll figure it all out. Along with all that, we have our components. Let's uh, check. Don't want to lose any.

Don't lose any. No, no, no. Oh, there we go. We got a couple of Mths.

um, couple of uh, Ptcs. they would be. We've got ourselves the uh buzzer. Oh, I didn't Yeah, yes.

the buzzer that sits up. Yeah, that sits up there somewhere that's got to be solded into there. and well, that's it. Input 1K Input Protection resistor.

That's it. So really easy job to. uh, assemble this thing. um, into a kit.

That's all there is to it. Pretty much so. Yeah, they're pretty much doing it as a token thing. I Think Obviously, you know you're not learning a huge out by soldering some components on here.

But if you can get a cheap genuine fluke multimeter with genuine fluke yellow, look at. that means everything. Um, you can go Legit by getting this kit then uh yeah, and they're selling it. They're going to be selling at a very attractive price.

Hey, why not brilliant And there we go. Our board is assembled and all we've got to do is put the uh range, uh, switch onto here onto the back here so that uh, you should need it in the off position like that. Anyway, this is not. They'll come with detailed assembly instructions I think I've figured it out.

It goes in the S1 It goes into the Position like that. and uh yeah, we can, um, just ass just mechanically assemble all the uh stuff together. the LCD assembly that will just, uh, go on here like this and goes in and it just clips into place like that. That's easy.

and uh, the pressure on there just keeps the zebra strip on. And if, like me, you thought this is a pretty dumb idea, it does sound like it on the surface. you know, the safety and all that, uh, sort of stuff. That's why you buy a proper flute.

but really, it's just the input protection devices which you can't get around back to front. Very clear instructions, all that sort of stuff. and really, it comes fully calibrated out of the factory. Uh, so I'm told they've done.

you know, the bed of nails, uh, test on it and the remote. uh, calibration. all that sort of stuff. so it should be ready to go.

so probably not as dumb as you think really. There a switch mechanism and the O-ring that goes in there like that and snaps into place and you've got to put uh, this on the right way as well because it's got the stop on there so that's pretty obvious. But yeah, this all goes together. Um, you know, incredibly easy.

I mean you know, 5 or 10 minutes work or or something like that, it's you know, it's not much at all. so there you go that just pushes on latches into place like that. This cover just goes over there like that. You make sure you line that up with the shaft up there with that and you put it over the top and push it in and Bobs your uncle and then all you're left with is a couple of screws.

Two are put in and the two screws for the final case. and that's it. Too easy. All right, fully assembled.

Let's give this thing a bur and see if she works. Fingers crossed? F1 Yes, 114. No worries, all the segments. So we got the uh, zebra strip and everything in place.

No problems whatsoever. And I'll tell you what. I'm not a fan of the these ridiculous probe covers they've got on these things. Hopeless bugger those off.

And uh, let's try the continuity buzzer. Yay! Yep, good as a flute. Continuity buzzer always is. And of course you'd expect it to be bang on on all the ranges because it has been Factory calibrated and just assembling the thing isn't going to cause an issue whatsoever.

So awesome. Just like a bought one. and on the vaults. of course you'd expect nothing less from a fluke.

There you go, Bang on! So it was a very clever marketing employee by flugan. Kind of obvious if you're in the marketing Playbook like that to respond in this way, but it is remarkable how they got it together so quick. especially this, uh, pre-release or beater I Guess you could call it uh kit version of a fluke multimeter. Hopefully others will follow and this will be on the shelves soon as a kit version.

maybe even at Spark Fun. Who knows that would be fantastic. Um, but but yeah, it's just it's kind of pointless really. I Don't know why they don't just drop the value of the real meter, but hey, you know anything that gets a high quality meter in people's hands I'm all for So there you go.

If you uh, like this and you want to put your name down for one, basically all you've got to do is um, send Fluke a uh Twitter at Fluk Corp send them a tweet sorry and uh, they will automatically, uh, put you in the list to get you to announce or uh, contact them via their Facebook page as well and ask from them because they are going to be a very good price. They might even be for a limited time. who knows. I'm not entirely sure, but I'm sure we'll find out more details in the coming days anyway.

I Hope you enjoyed that video and yeah, awesome fluke. it's a kit multimeter. Who would have thought awesome I actually like it, especially if you can sell it at a really good price to those hackers and makers that and you know, hobbyist and up schools that you like so much. everyone can have the genuine Fluke yellow except no substitute.

Awesome! Catch you next time.