Application Note

5 Fluke Corporation Event recording (or logging) with a Fluke 287/289 Digital Multimeter
near midnight on Thursday
morning. First, the running
current was near 5 amps, and
then the following cycle lasted
for much longer than normal.
What we have discovered is the
occasional defrost cycle that is
a feature of this refrigerator. The
5 amp portion is the operation
of the defrost heater, and the
longer next cycle is an extended
compressor run to remove the
excess heat.
A similar event might be the
operation of an ice dispenser as
it crushes ice, or the ice maker
as it refills and freezes new ice
cubes.
FlukeView Forms has a Zoom
feature that allows us to look
closely at an event of interest in
greater detail. You can click and
drag a box around the area of
interest, or you can right click
anywhere on the graph to see
a pop-up window with several
Zoom choices as well as many
other options affecting the graph
(Figure 7.)
The highlighted Manual Zoom
allows you to precisely locate
the area of interest using the
time scale at the bottom of the
graph. In our example in Figure
8, we show the period from
10:00 PM on Wednesday to 2:15
AM Thursday morning—when
the defrost cycle occurred.
Here you can see a few nor-
mal cycles, then the defrost
cycle and recovery, and finally
the return to normal cycles.
There are three more features
in FlukeView Forms that you
should be aware of. The first
allows you to examine the detail
for a selected point on the graph.
This feature is revealed by mov-
ing your screen cursor to the
point of interest until the cursor
changes to a pointing finger. For
our example, we’ll choose the
beginning of the 6 amp read-
ing. Then, left-click and hold
to see a pop-up window with
detailed information for the
selected sample. (Figure 9.)
This feature gives you instant
detail regarding a point of inter-
est in your recording. You’ll note
that reading 298 was an Interval
which only lasted 11+ minutes
rather than the normal 15 min-
utes. The likely reason was that
the interval was interrupted by
a sudden change in the meter
input.
Second, to look at the detailed
information recorded around
the event of interest, look to
the Logged Reading Table just
below the graph on your form.
(Figure 10.)
Scrolling to reading 298, we
see the interval in question in
detail. And, reading 299 was
an unstable event that shows
the time the defroster heater
turned off.
Figure 7.
Figure 8.
Figure 9.
Tip:
To copy FVF information to
other documents, right-click
on the Logged Reading Table
and or other Fluke View
Forms graph and use the
“copy” option.
Third, notice the extensive
file naming and storing options
in the meter hinted at in the
Data Session selection win-
dow in Figure 4. Note that the
meter stores multiple sessions
with the user-selected Ses-
sion Name, Session Type, Start
Time, and Number of Readings.