Hi. This is one of my absolute favorite form factor multimeters of all time. It's the Fluke 37 and you may not have seen this before because it's a bit of a one of the more obscure fluke multimeters, but I just. I've always loved this thing.

I thought that its form factor has always been absolutely fantastic. It's basically a hybrid between a bench multimeter and a portable multimeter. It's a battery powered. There is no mains option for this thing.

It's got a thousand hours battery life, runs from a nine volt battery, It's a uh, 3200 count meter, and it is basically, uh, the identical, uh version of the Fluke 27, which you've seen me do a video on before. And this is a classic, uh, rugged fluke multimeter. And it's base. I believe it's exactly the same.

pretty much identical guts inside. Uh, the Fluke 37, but I haven't actually, uh, torn one of these down before, so it's going to be interesting to take a look at it. What? I I just love the form factor. Um, the fact that it has a carry handle like this that you can carry it around.

Sure, like, you know, if it's just got the functionality of this right. Why do you need all of this case and everything if you can just get the exact same functionality in this meter here? Well, the whole point of it, of course, is that. Well, you've got all this space in here to store your test leads or yeah, you know, your adapters or whatever. and you can see that the multimeter part of it is basically just inside here and the rest of it is just the shell to hold stuff and have a carry handle like that.

But I love the fact that the face of it is actually sloping like that. So when you use it on a bench like this, it actually uh, faces up towards you and it's It's just a beautiful thing, but it's got a few more tricks up at sleeve as well in that uh, this bail on the bottom which is a bit how you do it. It is not the best design at all. I will readily admit that um, you can see that one of the things has broken off here, but of course you can use it with no, uh, tilting bail at all and it's still going to be sort of.

You know, good for bench use in that it's uh, you know this screen is actually tilted a bit upwards like that, but that's not ideal for the Lcd as you can see at this angle sort of here at sort of like the steeper angles coming down. You can't see it that well. so it is better to actually have uh, the tilting bail on the bottom like that. but you can actually install this in different ways.

So if you've actually got it up on a bench, you can install it backwards like that and then it will come. It will actually slope downwards so it's flat like that. so if you've got it up on a high shelf on a test bench or something, then you can get your traditional flat form factor face like that. Brilliant.

Of course it takes up a fair bit of height here on your uh shelf, but still. You know that really is quite versatile and you can also stand it up on the floor like this. So if you've got it on the floor and you're doing, you know you don't have any bench room at all. You can actually put it on the floor and just have it tilt up like that.

or you can actually take the tilting bail off and it just sits on its end like that. So um, yeah, it really is quite a versatile stand, even if it's a bit, uh, the design of it bit how you doing. and I love the fact that they have the different operational modes actually and molded into the back of it. None of that sticker rubbish.

Oh fantastic. Made in the United States of America. There's a serial number for those playing along at home and this one comes from the Central Texas College. Yes, I got scored this one from Ebay in the Us.

Whilst I said it's not mains powered, it does actually have a battery eliminator on the side which is deeply embedded in there. For our safety reasons. I would uh, presume, but with a thousand hours battery life on this thing. Uh, but still, you know, a thousand hours it does not seem to have an auto off uh function.

I just leave this thing and it just stays on forever. Some people love that. Anyway, this with all space in here, of course would be an ideal candidate for that 10 000 plus our multimeter uh design with just install like a big Uh primary battery in here and it would literally last forever. You get like a hundred thousand hours operation with that much space.

and it's basically got identical specs to the Fluke 27 as I uh showed. It's a basic accuracy 0.1 percent. it's got 3 200, uh accounts about 0.2 percent on Ohms. uh, current isn't that terrific burden voltage: I can't remember the exact burden voltage, but it's not that terrific.

But you know it's got your basic functionality. It's got your diode and continuity. Another capacitance rubbish. because I think this thing I don't have an exact date if you do leave it in the comments down below, but I believe it dates from the late 80s.

I'm not quite sure. could be the early 90s, but it's got your Ohms and your micro amps. And of course it's got the classic Fluke auto hold as well, so we can just whack that on there. Beautiful diode mode compliance voltage: 2.5 volts.

So you know it's not the best thing out there, especially considering it's powered uh, from a nine volt uh battery. But you know it, it does the business and continuity mode. It's not the fastest thing out there, but you know it's loud enough. And of course it's got the bar graph and you'll notice that doesn't have any of that enunciator rubbish.

You know you're on Volts, damn it. You don't need a V on there. And yes, of course, as is typical with our second hand flukes, this one. I don't know how old it is, but yeah, it's still within spec.

I've measured it and it's it's fine. and this was designed in the days before any of that cat rubbish. So um, anyway, let's go in and let's have a squish. I just opened the battery and fused compartment like that and it's a bit how you doing.

Uh, the battery. Just um, like just flaps around in the breeze in there. Um, there's really like nothing. And of course you've got your two main current Hrc fuses and there seems to be a little third ceramic jobby down there.

I'm not sure what the deal is there, so let's take this bad boy apart, shall we? Sorry, I had to, uh, turned on before I took it apart. I was just so excited. It's the Fluke 37. I've always wanted one of these that looks like threaded metal inserts to me.

Split? What's I think the bottom list off. I think that's the deal rather than the top which is interesting. and there you go. we're in.

like Flynn. There's our big, uh, whoa, that's interesting. That's like some sort of weird alloy. that is.

It's I don't don't know if that's steel. Um, yeah, that looks like if anyone can identify that, it's more aluminium. Like, none of that aluminum rubbish. I know it's made in the United States of America, but um, yeah, that just that just has the feel of of some sort of aluminum.

Um, probably to get the weight down, perhaps. but I've never seen a coating like that before. It's very unusual. Let's just check the current draw on basic Dc volts.

and oh, it does take a bit to boot up. So that was the boot up current. and now it's uh yeah. 0.3 milliamps.

oh sniffer from oily rag stuff. Same on the Ohms range as well, but ah, almost doubles on Ac volts. Jeez. check it out.

if you wanted to. that could be your bench meter. Um, you could just like 3d print like a smaller, uh, well. you could hack into the case with the existing case really.

and uh, just use the front bit. You could hack all the back of it off. and uh, the 3d printer case for that. That would make a really sweet little bench meter.

Hands up if you want me to do that. Um, I don't know. It's like you could certainly do it. You can see how it's unfortunately like you can't just have a case going straight up like that.

a square one. It's gotta, you know, get around that uh, shield there. so it's designed to lay back like that it's still tilted. that is.

I. I just love it. I just I. I want that.

My money's on that. Being some sort of magnesium alloy, I suspect we can scrape some off and, uh, attempt to burn it. There you have it. Two metal threaded insert screws through there and we're through to the Pcb.

The Classic Fluke chipset of course. Uh, down here, that's their custom Asic. This is a Rev C board. I don't know what one's made into production.

If you know any details, I don't even know if that's a date code 1385 85 Seems, uh, too early for this. But and the classic square Pcb traces? I mean, you know, hey, come on, give me a break. Who laid this thing out? Where's the artistry? There you go. It is.

1985 Copyright Fluke 1985. I thought it was like, oh, like late, really late 80s at the um, earliest. But no, um, did. Maybe that is the date code on the chip? If you do know the actual uh, release date of this thing, then, uh, please let us know.

But yeah, it's as early as 1985. there you go, and the fuse is there. It all goes through our gigantic standoffs. None of that wiring rubbish.

There you go. Beautiful. And they come directly from these input sockets too. Look at that.

I mean, there's just like there's nothing. There's no trace around there at all. it just goes straight through. I mean, you can't get, uh, better isolation than that.

Really, Really, quite nice. But they've got the room to spare and they've removed, uh, some of the solder masks just to get the solder coat on there. I've done a video on that. Uh, just increase the current on a couple of, uh, traces there.

There you go. But as for the wiring, there's the, uh, ground input jack that's actually got wiring buggering off through a little ferrite in there. And um, yeah, that goes off somewhere inside. There's your positive input there.

as I said, your ground. So it's got a wire going over here somewhere we'll see when we get it out. But uh, yeah. basically two input high voltage resistors there.

So uh, yeah, the clearance is phenomenal. No thought given to our creepage in terms of our slots though. and your alloy case like this. It actually has all the adjustments on there and they're actually molded in there.

and they line up with all your adjustment trimmer pots down there. There you go. Okay, it seems like there's a border board interconnect down there, so I think that's all going to lift off there if I pull that out. Wiggle wiggle wiggle.

Yeah, and we're out. we're out there. You go. Two board construction there.

once again. Copyright 1985 John Fluke Manufacturing Co. That's a Rev D and made in the United States of America again. Murata buzzer And we'll check out the front panel.

uh, display board here and there's not much happening here. I mean this. uh, little ceramic trimmer here. It's got to be for the Lcd contrast.

There's an Ico 7611 Op amp over here, a couple of doing some switching or whatnot, and you know, not much else. So yeah, there's no high voltage on that board. it's just a button and uh, Lcd board. and the switch you can see comes through here.

And tada, There it is. There's all the magic. Once again. Copyright 1985.

Uh, it's not a another Pcb mount. uh, range switch. rubbish with the contacts. It's uh, all in one wafer switch.

Thank you very much. Contact's still looking pretty good. Nick down there. Good thing is there, you should be able to get in there and easily.

uh, clean those. But yeah, they look I look not too shabby after. Uh, well. geez, how old is this? Hang on, I need more than 10 fingers.

uh, like 36 years anyone? That's assuming it was actually made in 85. um, it was certainly designed and laid out in 85. you can see the main fluke asic, of course, that's where it all happens. There's basically nothing else in, uh, the fluke multimeters of this.

uh, period. And they've got a nice little cutout there on the back side of the Uh chip that was common in uh, the early 70s series of flukes and whatnot. I can't remember the 27 offhand, I think it's the same anyway. Couple of trimmer caps down here, and another trimmer cap.

trimmer resistor trim. A cap so that you know we're doing all sorts of Ac stuff there. Um, but then we've got a little shield there, thank you very much. Um, and there's our yep, thick film hybrid resistor network in there.

So that's doing all the magic. Those things don't drift over the years. Um, there's our external Dc input jack if you want to use that for your 300 micro amps. Geez.

Anyway, another couple of uh, tag tents. Um, yeah, I don't know. they could go the way of the dodo eventually, but they're still hanging in there obviously. And let's go over and check out the input circuitry because they do claim that this has rugged input circuitry on it.

But anyway, here's the positive input here. And and as I said, two big high voltage resistors there. So that's absolutely fantastic. So obviously they got one for like, a different path here.

And look at all the mobs they've got here. Oh, that one. Okay, that's across both of them like that. So they've got two mods and then do they split that in the middle? I don't know, I'm not gonna, uh, rever and then they go down there.

I don't know. I'm not gonna reverse engineer the, uh, front end. Those playing along at home can certainly do that. Anyway, here's the uh, ground terminal and that um, oh, looks like, yeah, we've got a loop through the uh, ferrite there.

I thought I had another wire, but it's just actually looped over and that's going over here and that's to your Diode standard Diode bridge protection there. But not only do they have the Diode bridge, they've got another what looks like another bridge configuration here. uh, Beulah Mueller. Anyway, there's our 10 amp current shut there.

That'd be our other, uh, shunt resistor there for our other ranges. and uh, that's about all she wrote. By the way, the smaller fuse here are only 250 volt rated. It is uh for a smaller fuse range.

Unless I'm mistaken, I don't see any Ptc's in there. It's just all mobs mobs as far as the eye can see. that's a lot for the day. Have five mobs in there.

But you can see that they do actually have, um, isolation slots cut all in here for your, uh, creepage. But you know they didn't bother to do that around the import. Guess they didn't, you know, deem that they needed that. But anyway, there's not much else to it is there? Um, that's a pretty typical uh construction of like 1980s, uh flukes if you open up any of your Fluke 70 series.

um, you won't see anything too much different in there. Just like all the resistors like this, they come from the factory um actually with the leads bent like that and formed so that they can go into and with the extra insulation on top. Nice. I was a little bit concerned about the strain relief on the battery snaps there, but there you go.

They've got little uh ferrules uh going into the board there like that so that's okay. but I would have you know I would have liked to have seen a better battery solution. But hey, even though you know the Fluke 80 series has still got the same battery snap solution and given our guard trace around there like that, I'm going to assume that that is our voltage reference. Can we get a number on that? So yes, that is very uh, fluke 1980s for sure.

There are some things I like about in terms of like the external uh, fuse board and stuff like that. but you know, the battery holder implementation and some of the layout things it's you know it, It's not as a fluke, were never, uh you know, masters in like actual electronic Pcb design and stuff like that. I mean just the layouts just yeah. but that was you know that was typical of Fluke back in the day, but they actually engineered the circuits well though in this case design well like you know, it's really quite nice.

I can see why you come up the concept of like a sloping front multimeter like that. it has its advantages, but why I don't believe? please leave it in the comments down below if I'm wrong, but I don't believe anyone else has done such a form factor. The Fluke 37 was it? Um, so yeah. I just I just think it's very cool.

So we just whacked that on there like that Bob's your uncle. But there you go. That's a look at the absolutely unique classic Fluke 37. now we know the date from at least designed in 85 at least.

Uh was released in 86 onwards. Hands up, if you had one of these used one, do you like the form factor? Would you like to see this again? Because I just think there's a market out there for a bench multimeter with that sort of form factor. You know, maybe not with like the carry like the probe carry holder and everything. Like everyone goes like pouches and stuff these days in the carry handle and stuff like that.

But let us know I I just think this is a real sexy looking uh, sort of like hybrid bench portable meter. I'd love to see a as I said like many, many thousand hour battery life bench meter on the market. Fluke re-released this in some form. I'd probably buy one with all the modern functionality and stuff would you and then leave it down in the comments Anyway, I just love this thing.

um always have. I thought it was fantastic. The first time I ever saw it, I was just blown away by the form factor. So for 1985 it actually was.

you know, fairly well equipped. Of course it had the uh touch hold and it had uh, conductance mode as well. We can go in there, Nano Siemens if you Nano Siemens fanboys, and uh, you know, relative min max and all that sort of jazz. But is it a useful meter these days? Well yeah it's You know if you can pick one up, it's cheap.

It's still like sit this on your bench. Um, but as I said like, it doesn't seem to have auto power off. Um, so you've got to switch the thing off. Does take a little bit to boot up there, but you know it's not too bad.

And of course I've done a video on the Fluke 27 and how practically identical, uh, functionality and uh, specs. So if you can pick either of these up in a good condition, they'll still serve you well for quite some time to come. So it'd be nice to have a bit more modern, uh, functionality. Like you know, super fast continuity and capacitance and you know, some stuff like that.

But yeah, geez, I don't know. I think it's a winner. Geez, I reckon there's got to be a niche market out there for this form factor. Come on, am I the only one that thinks so? So Anyway, I hope you found that video interesting.

If you did, please give it a big a thumbs up. As always, discuss down below and I'm on all the alternative platforms. Absolutely everything. I'm everywhere like a rash.

Catch you next time you.