Fluke 8050A -- Received it today

[Cubdriver]

I think we may have a budding volt nut on our hands here!   

-Pat

[med6753]

Jennifer, the symptoms you describe look very much like board contamination. I just went thru this very issue with the little brother 8010A which I just recently outlined in the TEA and in fact you commented on it. 

Get some IPA, distilled water, and a toothbrush. Scrub down both sides of the board with the IPA, including the selector switches. Try NOT to turn the trim pots with the brush. Let it dry for a few minutes then follow it up with a scrubbing with the distilled water. Again, don't turn the trim pots.

Now you need to bake the board at no more than 150 degrees F (65 C) for a few hours. Don't get the bake too hot or you'll damage plastic. And if you can separate the LCD from the main board then go ahead and do that. The LCD should not go thru the back cycle.

I could stick the board under a box fan for a few hours.  That really dries stuff out.  When I craft stuff, paint takes like 5-10 mins to dry -- without sometimes  a couple hours.  Yeah of course I'll be careful not to bump the calibration pots--I appreciate the warning though as I am a newb   I see the gear needed to calibrate these.. it's pretty demanding

If you decide to clean the board you really should bake it at low heat to insure ALL the water is evaporated. A toaster oven set at low heat is perfect for the job and the 8050 circuit board will fit.

[JenniferG]

I have the nicest toaster oven built. The Breville.  So yeah I could set it that temp (or even lower) for hours and it will stay put For now, I am just going to take Cubdrivers advice and let it burn in for several days and see how works from then on.

[Cubdriver]

Jennifer, the symptoms you describe look very much like board contamination. I just went thru this very issue with the little brother 8010A which I just recently outlined in the TEA and in fact you commented on it. 

Get some IPA, distilled water, and a toothbrush. Scrub down both sides of the board with the IPA, including the selector switches. Try NOT to turn the trim pots with the brush. Let it dry for a few minutes then follow it up with a scrubbing with the distilled water. Again, don't turn the trim pots.

Now you need to bake the board at no more than 150 degrees F (65 C) for a few hours. Don't get the bake too hot or you'll damage plastic. And if you can separate the LCD from the main board then go ahead and do that. The LCD should not go thru the back cycle.

I could stick the board under a box fan for a few hours.  That really dries stuff out.  When I craft stuff, paint takes like 5-10 mins to dry -- without sometimes  a couple hours.  Yeah of course I'll be careful not to bump the calibration pots--I appreciate the warning though as I am a newb   I see the gear needed to calibrate these.. it's pretty demanding

If you decide to clean the board you really should bake it at low heat to insure ALL the water is evaporated. A toaster oven set at low heat is perfect for the job and the 8050 circuit board will fit.

If you do hit it with distilled water, I'd actually do another IPA rinse afterwards - the IPA will absorb most of the water and wash it away, and the residual IPA will evaporate much more readily than water will.  Oh, and if you have a gas oven, make sure that most of the alcohol fumes are gone before baking it.

-Pat

[eugenenine]

Ohh, you just got it today, did you just bring it into the house and unbox and try it out?  Its probably sat out in the cold mail truck for a while and needs to acclimate to room temperature.

Yeah it was sitting out on the porch in the cold for a few hours too.

This is probably the issue.  When you bring it in from cold outside to warm inside it need time to warm up and adjust to the temp.  Working at a pc shop back in the day, hdd shipments would come in recommending waiting 48 hours before powering up.

[james_s]

I'd like two bench meters and one decent handheld with 6000 count or better , preferbly 20k count.. like an 8060a.

Right now I have a reliable cheapy 2000 count handheld that works better than this fluke at least.

HOw many meters do you guys have? giggle.

I have a Fluke 87 handheld, a Fluke 45 bench meter, and an old Keithly bench meter with a nixie tube display, the latter mostly because it looks cool, I rarely use it. Oh and I have one of those cheap Harbor Freight meters I keep in my car.  I've never found a need for anything fancier than these, for most things 3.5 digits are plenty accurate, 4 digit is nice to have, more than that is specialty territory. Unless you have specific needs or a particular fetish with extreme precision there are other areas where the money is better spent. A very well made dependable meter is more useful than a zillion digits.

[JenniferG]

I'd like two bench meters and one decent handheld with 6000 count or better , preferbly 20k count.. like an 8060a.

Right now I have a reliable cheapy 2000 count handheld that works better than this fluke at least.

HOw many meters do you guys have? giggle.

I have a Fluke 87 handheld, a Fluke 45 bench meter, and an old Keithly bench meter with a nixie tube display, the latter mostly because it looks cool, I rarely use it. Oh and I have one of those cheap Harbor Freight meters I keep in my car.  I've never found a need for anything fancier than these, for most things 3.5 digits are plenty accurate, 4 digit is nice to have, more than that is specialty territory. Unless you have specific needs or a particular fetish with extreme precision there are other areas where the money is better spent. A very well made dependable meter is more useful than a zillion digits.

Was thinking an HP 3478a.  More digits than I'd ever need and I heard it has very good precision and built well.  Hopefully I can solder another battery in parallel and replace the other without losing calibration though.  Hoping to pick one up for about $125 if possible.   I think that's a really good.  I suppose I can use a cheap $10 meter for continuity checks.

[kcbrown]

I have a Fluke 87 handheld, a Fluke 45 bench meter, and an old Keithly bench meter with a nixie tube display, the latter mostly because it looks cool, I rarely use it. Oh and I have one of those cheap Harbor Freight meters I keep in my car.  I've never found a need for anything fancier than these, for most things 3.5 digits are plenty accurate, 4 digit is nice to have, more than that is specialty territory. Unless you have specific needs or a particular fetish with extreme precision there are other areas where the money is better spent.

A fetish with extreme precision?   More than 4 digits is specialty territory???   

Sacrilege!!   

Everyone needs an 8.5 digit multimeter.  How else are you going to tell if your 7.5 digit multimeter is accurate??     

[JenniferG]

I suppose a high digit count and good frequency counter is great for tweaking the pots for 1v / octave VCO's.

[james_s]

A fetish with extreme precision?   More than 4 digits is specialty territory???   

Sacrilege!!   

Everyone needs an 8.5 digit multimeter.  How else are you going to tell if your 7.5 digit multimeter is accurate??     

Well I didn't say there was anything wrong with extreme precision, I just recognize that I myself rarely need more than 2-3 decimal places, for the stuff I do anything more is just superfluous data that I round off in my head. That doesn't mean there are not perfectly valid needs for higher precision, I just haven't generally encountered them. I don't care if the power rail in something I'm working on is 3.30V or 3.2985372V, it's not going to make a difference to circuit operation.

It's also important to differentiate between accuracy and precision.

[kcbrown]

A fetish with extreme precision?   More than 4 digits is specialty territory???   

Sacrilege!!   

Everyone needs an 8.5 digit multimeter.  How else are you going to tell if your 7.5 digit multimeter is accurate??     

Well I didn't say there was anything wrong with extreme precision, I just recognize that I myself rarely need more than 2-3 decimal places, for the stuff I do anything more is just superfluous data that I round off in my head. That doesn't mean there are not perfectly valid needs for higher precision, I just haven't generally encountered them. I don't care if the power rail in something I'm working on is 3.30V or 3.2985372V, it's not going to make a difference to circuit operation.

It's also important to differentiate between accuracy and precision.

It was a joke, son,  a joke!  (said in my best Foghorn Leghorn voice...)

I'm a big fan of using the right tool for the job myself, and agree that most jobs aren't going to require a great deal of precision.   

It's a bit of a trade off as to how much precision to get.  If you have extra precision, you'll have lower precision requirements covered automatically, but if all you have is relatively low precision equipment then you probably won't be able to perform work that requires more, at least not without a great deal of ingenuity.  So I suspect you're best off getting as much precision as you can afford and that you think you might ever use (but see below). 

For myself, I suspect 5.5 digits is sufficient for anything I might do.  So my Instek 8251a and Amprobe 140 should provide enough for even the most precise work I might find myself doing.

It becomes trickier when one is on a substantially restricted budget.  Then you might have to give up a little precision for one thing just to be able to acquire some other capability at all.

It's impressive how much capability you can get for relatively little money these days...


And yes, it is indeed important to be mindful of the difference between precision and accuracy.  Note, however, that precision limits usable accuracy, which is why higher precision equipment generally has better accuracy specs as well (when calibrated, of course).



(Sent with Tapatalk, so apologies for the lackluster formatting)

[eugenenine]

I don't know what you all are working on, I find my Simpson 260 precision to me enough 99% of the time

[rrinker]

 Something for testing the meter would be a good calibrated reference source. I was going to suggest the one I have, but it appears to now be discontinued. I have the DMMCheck-Plus from Malone which has AC and DC calbibrated voltage and current references plus a calibrated set of precision resistors. Not a replacement for actually sending a meter out for calibration but it's all precision parts and he supplies a cal sheet, and also free recal for the first 2 years.
 Bummer this was discontinued, nice to have it all in one instead of a bunch of different devices to manage.