Shoutout to the old Fluke 87V for a weird autopilot fault find

Elliot Thomas · 2026-04-04T09:20:05.203631+00:00

I was chasing a phantom voltage drop on a Citation's pitch trim circuit last week, and my newer meter showed nothing. Grabbed an 87V from the back of the shop, and it caught a 0.3VAC ripple the other meter missed. Anyone else have a go-to piece of older test gear that still finds stuff the new stuff doesn't?

karen_roberts46mo ago

Honestly, is a 0.3V ripple even a real problem for that circuit? Newer meters filter that stuff out for a reason, it's probably just noise. Seems like we're praising old gear for finding ghosts nobody needs to chase.

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sam_thomas6mo ago

Remember my buddy's old Simpson 260? @theac63, it found a ghost ground.

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theac636mo ago

That 0.3VAC ripple is a sneaky find. What kind of newer meter were you using that missed it, a true-RMS one or something else? It's wild how some older gear just has a different feel for noise.

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