Test Equipment Resources

[megger mike]

Thought I would do a little post just to give everyone some usefull links and info I have found over the past few years on the different manufacturer's

They are all Instrument related and most are just the Main Sites but I thought I would show the Pro's & Con's of the different suppliers.

If you intend to have a meter for 3-5 years (and at the price of meters you probably do!) the manufacturer is a key part. Spares, repairs and updates to firmware, accesories and software are all major factors of a meters lifespan, so it's important to choose the right meter from the right manufacturer.

Hope it helps!

Fluke/Robin:

Fluke are by far the most well known brand but from my experiance the comapny is hard to deal with and slow when it comes to getting items repaired under warrenty. Some repairs are done in Norwich, some are sent to Holland where repair times for meters can be up to 4 weeks. The small single function robin testers are still good testers but wont be about for much longer. They are cheap, very easy to repair and most problems are adjusted when you get the meter calibrated.

Kewtech:

A great Fluke/Robin equivalent. Kewtech's single function meters are made in the same factory as Robin. They are the same meter but in a grey box and half the price! They also do a good range of test leads which will fit most single/multi function meters and again are alot cheaper than Fluke.

Megger:

There multifunction tester (The MFT1550 series) are by far the most poppular multifunction at the momment. They hardly ever break, have a 3 year warrenty and repair times at Megger are usually less than 3 weeks. As a company they are easy to deal with and thier products are some the most reliable around.

Seward:

They have started to branch out into the world of multifunction testers but have not done that well. Thier Powertest 1557 is the same as the Di-Log's 9083p and about as reliable headbang . Seaward do however specialize in all things PAT and you can do alot worse than any of the Primetest series. Also the Supernova is one of the cheapest meters to power 110v appliances for PAT testing.

Martindale:

Old old Martindale still sell test lamps and do a very good range of voltage indicators and proving units. To just get the job done on a budget you can find alot of cheap equipment from them. Can't praise thier single function meters that much though. Although alot of people seem to like the HPAT600.

Metrel:

Hard to say with Metrel. Alot of people like the inovations they bring to testing and they have a massive back catalogue of Installation aand PAT testesr. Company is reliable and very realy see them back for repair.

Flir:

If your looking to buy a thermal camera, buy a Flir one. I am a qualified Level 1 Thermographer and have used both cameras frequently. The Fluke thermal camera is rich in features but seems only to use these features to cover it's shoddy performace in thermal pictures. Flir's cameras have the ability to change the emistivity, has built in E tables and is alot lighter. Seems silly but makes a difference when using it all day everyday. The msot important fact is that Flir is more accurate than Fluke's cameras, and all pictures get saved as a .jpeg so they are easy to manipulate and move about. All in all Flir wins :Applaud

That will do for now, hope this helps someone looking to buy kit for the first time. Any questions about any other suppliers of test equipment let me know.

Cheers All

Mike

:innocent

 

[MajorOak]

Hi

I just thought I would throw another product into the discussion.

I have been working as a sparks for about 20 years and around 10 years ago started using Thermal Cameras for my predictive maintenance jobs.

Have a look at Thermoteknix's VisIR, they are based in Cambridge UK, I have been using Thermoteknix's Products for the last 10 years and the new VisIR640 which in my experience beats FLIR hands down, it's an excellent bit of kit, have a look at the VisIR here

I can post some images if anybody would like a look. I am always amazed at what a thermal camera will show up.

Cheers

 

[ianmacd]

Megger:There multifunction tester (The MFT1550 series) are by far the most poppular multifunction at the momment. They hardly ever break, have a 3 year warrenty and repair times at Megger are usually less than 3 weeks. As a company they are easy to deal with and thier products are some the most reliable around.

Mine needed a repair after it failed calibration (had issues null'ing and just a year old) and that was done by the calibration company after Megger got involved. Added an extra day or so onot the calibration so I was more than happy with Megger's performance.

 

[MajorOak]

The automatic RCD testing on the MFT1553 is worth its weight in gold, especially on long cable runs. Saves having another body on the job and my legs!!

 

[megger mike]

As I said, it does seem that Megger have multifunctions in the bag.

 

[megger mike]

Hi Have a look at Thermoteknix's VisIR, they are based in Cambridge UK, I have been using Thermoteknix's Products for the last 10 years and the new VisIR640 which in my experience beats FLIR hands down, it's an excellent bit of kit, have a look at the VisIR

Had a look and they seem to be quite good. Any features that stand out for your which put it above the Flir's cameras. Also ahve you ever used any of the Fluke Cameras?

Testo and Ideal all do thermal cameras now. REally seems to be taking off in this country :^O

 

[MajorOak]

Yeah I have had a play with the FLUKE camera; I was at SPIE in Florida a year back and watched a presentation by FLUKE. The blend mode between IR and Visual was pretty impressive, but that has become standard now on most thermal cameras.

The resolution is what really sells this camera, it just looks stunning as well as the practical implications of being able to recognise items easier. Thermal images do have the unfortunate disadvantage of looking nothing like what they are pointing at. Having a camera with both visible and thermal sensors helps a lot. The visir has a few image fusion options available for combining both visible and thermal images together. The visir acts just like a visible camera until something in the field of view is a above a predetermined temperature, then that area is replaced/fused with the thermal image, very nice feature.

On another note, not really to do with the camera but software that complements the camera, they do a system called Condition Red. This takes a lot of the work out of your predictive maintenance work-flow. If you deal with several sites, with 100s of items at each site, it's worth considering.

Once all the items/assets at a site have been captured and logged, the next survey, say in 3 months time, is automatically generated for you. The camera will then guide you round all the assets of a site, step by step, with a reference image of the asset from the initial inspection.

Over time Condition Red will generate trends on items and inform you of any abnormal temperature rises on any of the assets. It will auto generate a report that you can then submit to the Engineering Manager, who can then schedule the work/replacement items into their planned shutdown.

Condition Red will work FLIR and I think FLUKE images too, so if you have an existing camera it could be an option? But I don

 

[MajorOak]

Hi SparkyMike

I have not had a play with the new Flir hand held/torch style camera. So i can't say if the fusion stuff is unique to the visir camera, maybe you can let me know.

Cheers

 

[batty]

As I said, it does seem that Megger have multifunctions in the bag.

I would disagree with this the cm500 may have a lot of functions but cannot perform an accurate low current loop test well mine can't anyway and its been away to megger when I first got it and has been at a repair company for months now trying to be sorted out.

 

[sparkytim]

Non of them seem to in my experiance (CM500, 1552 and 1553) as the low current test sample method never gives as precise a reading as normal Loop test range.

 

[batty]

Non of them seem to in my experiance (CM500, 1552 and 1553) as the low current test sample method never gives as precise a reading as normal Loop test range.

My Fluke 1652 gives a fairly accurate reading cm500 is about .5ohms out.