Figured it fits here.
Originally shared by Jasper Janssen
When taking my new Fluke 15B apart, I noticed an intriguing thing: the buttons that the 15B model has fewer of than the 17B appear to be physically present on the PCB and the rubber button thingy, but just not exposed on the front of the meter. So I tried it out, with the PCB held by hand against the battery compartment, and brilliantly they just work! The remaining feature of the 17B, temperature measurement, requires a couple of opamps and a temp sensor and some calibration pots that just aren’t on the board, so that’s not gonna be happening.
I drilled a couple of 8mm holes using a standard spiral wood bit, right in the center of where the buttons would have been. I used the slow speed, and they came out pretty nice. Not terribly user friendly though, poking something through a hole to press the button beneath. I whipped up a quick plastic button in Sketchup and printed a few copies out (you want multiples because otherwise the layers don’t cool quickly enough on objects this small). Turned out I’d underestimated the room for the rectangular bit that holds them in place (very rattly), and overestimated how tall they needed to be, so I increased one by a mm and decreased the other by another mm, and tried again. Result is just fine.
I love 3D printing.
