Out in Front: May 9, 1996
As competitors labor to topple Tektronix from its position of market-share leadership in digital oscilloscopes, Tek is working to displace a respected competitor from a similar position in another area of instrumentation: Fluke Corp has long held the largest market share in handheld digital multimeters (DMMs). Now, Tek is introducing its own line of handheld DMMs, offering a list of features and prices intended to woo customers who have for years considered Fluke to be synonymous with handheld DMMs. The first battleground will be in electronics, where Tek has outstanding brand recognition and where, from the time of its introduction last year, Tek's THS family of handheld digital scopes has been beating Tek's own market forecasts. Many distributors that carry the THS line will also carry Tek's new DMM800 family.
Among the features of the DMM800 line is a dual display that lets you, for example, simultaneously read an ac waveform's rms voltage and frequency. All members of the family, even the lowest priced unit, the $199 DMM830, let you choose a full-scale resolution of ±4000 counts (33/4 digits) or ±40,000 counts (43/4 digits). All units meet IEC, UL, and CSA safety standards. All measure true-rms ac values and, unlike most other handheld DMMs, offer a true-rms ac+dc function. The $289, top-of-the-line DMM870 measures capacitance from 4000 pF to 4000 µF and ac or dc current from 400 µA to 10A. With the aid of a thermocouple probe, this unit also measures temperature in Celsius or Fahrenheit with a maximum error of ±2°C. The unit's basic dc voltage error is ±0.06% of reading plus 10 counts (in the 40,000-count mode). The DMM870 and the $249 DMM850 also perform high/low limit tests and have a time-stamp function that indicates how long a test had been running when the meter acquired the highest and lowest readings.
Besides the DMMs, Tek's handheld digital-meter line now also includes a temperature meter, several clamp-on ac ammeters, and a full line of probes and accessories.
—by Dan Strassberg
Fluke Corp, Everett, WA. (800) 873-5853.
Tektronix Inc, Beaverton, OR. (800) 479-4490.