Flukeview 3.04

strantor

Joined Oct 3, 2010
6,782

:mad: Please DO NOT pay more than $1 for this horrid software. I am still nursing the $4600 wound 3 years later. My review:


strantor

2.0 out of 5 stars I expect more from a Fluke product.
October 17, 2014
Style: Fluke 190-104/AM/S|Verified Purchase
I expect more from a Fluke product. I am (or was) a Fluke loyalist which is why I chose this scope. Countless hours of retrospective research indicates that what I SHOULD have bought is the AEMC OX7104.

I bought this scope to use for remote monitoring of power glitches caused by, or affecting, a customer's 3phase 480V equipment sporadically, every week or month. The idea was that I could set it up in ScopeRecord mode set to trigger on a power glitch, and then periodically remotely log in (via a remote laptop running TeamViewer) to see if it had triggered, and download the trace data to show the customer what was going on with their equipment - whether the equipment was causing the glitches or faulting because of them.

Problem #1 with this - manual states you should not leave the battery in it if powered by AC adapter for long periods, or else the battery will be damaged. Awesome. So I'm looking for power interruptions, but I can't use the battery backup. So every time something happens, most likely the scope will power down and I'll lose the data.

Problem #2 - The FlukeView ScopeMeter 5 software that I paid the extra $290 for is so buggy that it is almost entirely unusable for its intended purpose in my case. Any time you do ANYTHING in the software that interfaces with the scope, it stops the record mode. Say the scope is recording, you open the software and it connects to the scope, scope stops recording. You download a trace, recording stops. You open remote control, recording stops. You close the software, recording stops. You cannot start the recording from the software. You open the remote control menu and press f1 to start the recording, it shows on the mock screen that it is recording, but it isn't; the screen lies to you. So my only option is to use the software to load the channel setups and enter scope record mode, then exit the software and call my customer and request they go out to the equipment, open the 480V panel, and press F1. Then I must ask my customer 2-3 times per week to go out and see if the scope has triggered, because if I try to check it myself, the scope will stop recording and I can't restart it remotely. Very embarrassing for me, as I talked this product up quite a bit and made it sound painless.

Problem #3 - the trigger settings in the scope are a buggy P.I.T.A. - You cannot set the trigger source/level/type in scope record mode. You must go into plain scope mode, set the trigger settings, then go back to scope record mode. Problem is, 90% of the time, transitioning to scope record mode wipes out the trigger settings. So when you get to scope record mode, the trigger is set back to default. Some combinations of trigger settings will transfer, most will not. There is nothing in any Fluke docs which explains what/why will/won't transfer, and there is no rhyme/reason/pattern to it that I could discern. You just have to play around with it (for a couple of hours, with an unimpressed customer looking over your shoulder in my case), swapping between different channels, invert this channel with rising edge trigger to get the falling edge trigger that you really want, etc.

Problem #4 - The waveforms downloaded from the scope do not always have the date/time stamp according to the date/time in the scope. I have used the exact same setup from day #1 when I set this scope up a couple of months ago. every time it loses power, I reload the same setup and go from there. It is set up to record from "date/time" yet 50% of the time, what I get is "from start of recording" so once the trigger happens, the beginning of the recording is time 0:00:00.00, instead of date/time. I cannot use this information; it MUST give me the date/time of the trigger to be correlated with events of the day. Otherwise the data is useless. I have wasted much my own and my customer's time and money with this crap. These events may not happen for 10+ days, and when they do happen, and I have to throw out the data, it is very painful.

problem #5 - the probes that are included do not facilitate the accessories which are needed to clamp onto bus bars. You have to buy entirely new probes to get anything that is compatible with the bus bar clamps.

These are just the problems I uncovered on this one job, one application. I'm sure there are more in store for me once this job is over and I start using the scope for other purposes.

I am very disappointed, Fluke. This is the first time you have ever let me down, and it is a pretty big let-down.
The Scopemeter tool itself is "just OK" and the software is a severe disappointment. If you want a scope with PC link and software to interface with it, get anything but a Fluke Scopemeter.
 

spinnaker

Joined Oct 29, 2009
7,830
:mad: Please DO NOT pay more than $1 for this horrid software. I am still nursing the $4600 wound 3 years later. My review:



The Scopemeter tool itself is "just OK" and the software is a severe disappointment. If you want a scope with PC link and software to interface with it, get anything but a Fluke Scopemeter.

But that is the cost. TS wants it for free.
 

strantor

Joined Oct 3, 2010
6,782
But that is the cost. TS wants it for free.
I'm not advocating pirating the SW. I'm just imploring everyone not to buy it. There is an API for it IIRC. I would recommend writing your own software, no matter how long it takes; it would be time well spent. Time spent using flukeview is time wasted.
 

Thread Starter

bluebrakes

Joined Oct 17, 2009
252
I agree. Flukeview is not very good. After testing a few different pieces of software with my Fluke 99B. I found Metratek Waveform Manager to be the best. It is newer than Flukeview v3, so should run comfortably on more modern Windows operating systems.

Certainly it works on Win 7.

http://metratek.com/products.html
 
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