Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[tggzzz]

Today I had a parcel delivered by Parcel Force. It was left in a "safe place",  outside the back door. Fortunately it wasn't raining, and no damage was done. Mind you, given that the contents was several ex-MoD Fluke 25s, it probably wouldn't have mattered if it was raining

I was expecting that some would be cannibalised, but (except for broken/missing cartridge fuses) they all seem to work.

[Specmaster]

Nice, Ebay?

[tggzzz]

Nice, Ebay?

You don't normally see multiple items on fleabag

But there's already too much competition; dealers have woken up and I paid much more than the first batch!

Fluke 25s are surprisingly pleasant bricks.

[Specmaster]

Everything on flebay is getting to expensive at the moment, may have to cease looking until after Christmas when prices should fall again. I'm looking for a reasonable Fluke 27 at a sensible price too.

[bd139]

Yeah I've given up. March the best time. Everyone is broke from Christmas apart from me as I get paid bonus end of Feb for some stupid reason.

So he was a Scottish dwarf then, obviously looking a free bowl of porridge to dip his spoon into  Did you give him a Christmas tip at all to prevent him from destroying even more of your deliveries next year 

I don't tip. I'm not an American 

[Specmaster]

Neither do I, they are paid to do a job and do it well and ensure the items arrive as they were collected. 

[tggzzz]

I'm looking for a reasonable Fluke 27 at a sensible price too.

I've just taken a Fluke 25 apart, and it appears to be identical to a Fluke 27, except for the two extra push buttons (delta and min/max). There is a common service manual for the 25 & 27.

There are a couple of extra pads on the Fluke 25's PCB in the right position for the delta and min/max buttons, and by playing with those pads it looks like it is acting as a Fluke 27.

So, depending on your requirements, that might be a way to hack together a poor-man's 27:)

[Specmaster]

I'm looking for a reasonable Fluke 27 at a sensible price too.

I've just taken a Fluke 25 apart, and it appears to be identical to a Fluke 27, except for the two extra push buttons (delta and min/max). There is a common service manual for the 25 & 27.

There are a couple of extra pads on the Fluke 25's PCB in the right position for the delta and min/max buttons, and by playing with those pads it looks like it is acting as a Fluke 27.

So, depending on your requirements, that might be a way to hack together a poor-man's 27:)

That might be an idea, they are pretty rugged. Its the min/max that I really thought might useful for monitoring supply rails, so a 25 might be hackable to do that function, I've got a manual and I think it includes service info which I down loaded in anticipation of bagging one of those blighters.

[Specmaster]

It seems that the gods might be with on the T12 iron front, just checked the tracking info and apparently it has been dispatched from the warehouse, arrived at the outbound sorting office and now has been accepted by the airline so it might taking off soon with any luck. Seems that maybe Aliex might just have got their tracking system sorted out because to be honest I stopped using them because their tracking service never showed anything until after it had been delivered, so was as much use a chocolate teapot. 

[neo]

To all nixie tube fans, you may want to stone me after i say this.

The 8400A, despite its nixie tubes, is a poorly designed, unsucessful concept model which was quickly replaced with something better. I've gotten two and both are kaput.

To pat specifically, want one? Buy two or better yet three, quantity is your only shot at a working one. That is to say that if you want a working one you have to make one from several.

Now good news, i fixed my 8800A mostly. The ohms is screwed now and it wasn't before but one set of tants on the main board later and it measures DC voltage good as ever. I direct you here https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/fluke-8800a/ with the note of i have learned at list a little bit since then.

More good news i got an 8400A to light! The display is stuck however and the buttons are knacked so i guess this is parts mule time. I direct you here https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/fluke-8400a-no-display/msg1367739/#msg1367739

In closing my number of broken to (at least semi) working test equipment in now even.

[mnementh]

It's not a matter of needing this level of absolute accuracy; it's a matter of having something you know is close enough to the absolute standard to be sure your own gear isn't totally out to lunch, or at least for me that's the case anyways. Most everything I work with anymore are relatively simple digital projects; STM32 and occasionally Atmel 8-bit, so anything more than 3 digit accuracy is pretty much unnecessary.

Actually, the RPP series Diodes are part of the original design; this model has them on both the BATT and Coax Power circuits. I just massaged the existing design a little. 


mnem
*Rare moment of pragmatism*

Just received mine. It does have the 'L' version and the diodes as well. But my desk, no my whole lab!, is piled up with stuff right now, so I can't even do a quick test. I'm currently packing resistors (E96 series) into little bags so I can clean the magazine drawers and make a plan how to sort them into the cleaned drawers. There's certainly not going to be space for 5 or 6 decades of 96 values each. There'll be some tough decisions ahead of me. 

Great! I think that bang/buck wise, this is one tool that is pretty hard to beat. Just be mindful of Mark Henessey's warning about the excessively large caps causing excessively long stabilize times; I think that most of us are going to let such a tool idle for at least 10-15 min to stabilize before use, so still should not be a problem.

Just out of curiosity, did you receive any kind of "calibration certificate" with yours? I did not.

It seems that the gods might be with on the T12 iron front, just checked the tracking info and apparently it has been dispatched from the warehouse, arrived at the outbound sorting office and now has been accepted by the airline so it might taking off soon with any luck. Seems that maybe Aliex might just have got their tracking system sorted out because to be honest I stopped using them because their tracking service never showed anything until after it had been delivered, so was as much use a chocolate teapot. 

I use 17Track.net to keep tabs on my China-Direct orders; they seem to be the most on the ball. Problem with that is a lot of my orders come via ePacket, and even when they're processed correctly it usually takes ~3 days for the USPS to update once it arrives here on the plane, by which time it is often already in my hand or out for delivery.

Yeah I've given up. March the best time. Everyone is broke from Christmas apart from me as I get paid bonus end of Feb for some stupid reason.

So he was a Scottish dwarf then, obviously looking a free bowl of porridge to dip his spoon into  Did you give him a Christmas tip at all to prevent him from destroying even more of your deliveries next year 

I don't tip. I'm not an American 

We may be vulgar and barbaric as a lot, but I at least try to tip well to make up for the inevitable social offenses that follow in my wake.


mnem
*Toddles off to ded*

[Specmaster]

To all nixie tube fans, you may want to stone me after i say this.

The 8400A, despite its nixie tubes, is a poorly designed, unsucessful concept model which was quickly replaced with something better. I've gotten two and both are kaput.

To pat specifically, want one? Buy two or better yet three, quantity is your only shot at a working one. That is to say that if you want a working one you have to make one from several.

Now good news, i fixed my 8800A mostly. The ohms is screwed now and it wasn't before but one set of tants on the main board later and it measures DC voltage good as ever. I direct you here https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/fluke-8800a/ with the note of i have learned at list a little bit since then.

More good news i got an 8400A to light! The display is stuck however and the buttons are knacked so i guess this is parts mule time. I direct you here https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/fluke-8400a-no-display/msg1367739/#msg1367739

In closing my number of broken to (at least semi) working test equipment in now even.

So you managed to get 3 of those pesky things then, hmm I wonder if that accounts for their extremely short production run? Maybe you now own one of the greatest collections of all time of 8400As [emoji23]

Sent from my SM-J510FN using Tapatalk

[tggzzz]

I'm looking for a reasonable Fluke 27 at a sensible price too.

I've just taken a Fluke 25 apart, and it appears to be identical to a Fluke 27, except for the two extra push buttons (delta and min/max). There is a common service manual for the 25 & 27.

There are a couple of extra pads on the Fluke 25's PCB in the right position for the delta and min/max buttons, and by playing with those pads it looks like it is acting as a Fluke 27.

So, depending on your requirements, that might be a way to hack together a poor-man's 27:)

That might be an idea, they are pretty rugged. Its the min/max that I really thought might useful for monitoring supply rails, so a 25 might be hackable to do that function, I've got a manual and I think it includes service info which I down loaded in anticipation of bagging one of those blighters.

Here's a picture of one 25's guts, showing the maximum voltage that had been applied before visible(!) removal of the voltage.

As you can see, the two centre pads are easily accessible, and it would be easy to find a location to non-destructively attach wires running to extra switches. There are no particular obstructions in that area, since there needs to be space for Fluke's rubber membrane switches.

[Specmaster]

I'm looking for a reasonable Fluke 27 at a sensible price too.

I've just taken a Fluke 25 apart, and it appears to be identical to a Fluke 27, except for the two extra push buttons (delta and min/max). There is a common service manual for the 25 & 27.

There are a couple of extra pads on the Fluke 25's PCB in the right position for the delta and min/max buttons, and by playing with those pads it looks like it is acting as a Fluke 27.

So, depending on your requirements, that might be a way to hack together a poor-man's 27:)

That might be an idea, they are pretty rugged. Its the min/max that I really thought might useful for monitoring supply rails, so a 25 might be hackable to do that function, I've got a manual and I think it includes service info which I down loaded in anticipation of bagging one of those blighters.

Here's a picture of one 25's guts, showing the maximum voltage that had been applied before visible(!) removal of the voltage.

As you can see, the two centre pads are easily accessible, and it would be easy to find a location to non-destructively attach wires running to extra switches. There are no particular obstructions in that area, since there needs to be space for Fluke's rubber membrane switches.

Or indeed a dead 27 to donate its cover with buttons. Is that display ruined now then?

Sent from my SM-J510FN using Tapatalk

[SeanB]

My local post office calls me when a parcel arrives. I am probably the best customer for this small branch office, and I do not want them to be closed down. Did have to go collect a parcel at the main office for the district this week, it got lost in the sorting office, and had spent 3 months in transit, so I went to fetch it once it had shown up at the sorting office. Took 2 hours for them to find it in the pile, I went off to do other things while that occurred.

[bd139]

Wasn’t it South African post who promoted that they delivered 99% of packages? This equates to losing about 250,000 packages or something 

[tggzzz]

Here's a picture of one 25's guts, showing the maximum voltage that had been applied before visible(!) removal of the voltage.

As you can see, the two centre pads are easily accessible, and it would be easy to find a location to non-destructively attach wires running to extra switches. There are no particular obstructions in that area, since there needs to be space for Fluke's rubber membrane switches.

Or indeed a dead 27 to donate its cover with buttons. Is that display ruined now then?

Sent from my SM-J510FN using Tapatalk

The display is fine; the clamps are merely to ensure adequate contact between the zebrazone strip and the PCB.

In the case, the compression is provided by mounting screws holding the PCB against the zebrazone.

Sent from my PC using a good old fashioned keyboard and mouse, without WhackaWhine.

[Russ]

Not seen a purple.

Here you go:

I like the color. What brand?

[tautech]

Sent from my PC using a good old fashioned keyboard and mouse, without WhackaWhine.

 

[Specmaster]

Here's a picture of one 25's guts, showing the maximum voltage that had been applied before visible(!) removal of the voltage.

As you can see, the two centre pads are easily accessible, and it would be easy to find a location to non-destructively attach wires running to extra switches. There are no particular obstructions in that area, since there needs to be space for Fluke's rubber membrane switches.

Or indeed a dead 27 to donate its cover with buttons. Is that display ruined now then?

Sent from my SM-J510FN using Tapatalk

The display is fine; the clamps are merely to ensure adequate contact between the zebrazone strip and the PCB.

In the case, the compression is provided by mounting screws holding the PCB against the zebrazone.

Sent from my PC using a good old fashioned keyboard and mouse, without WhackaWhine.

Sent from my SM-J510FN using Tapatalk because just sometimes I find its not possible to carry a trusty PC and old fashioned keyboard and mouse about with me and the power cord and ethernet cable are limiting factors but specially for your delight, this message was sent from a not so old PC and keyboard combination with a really weird mouse that I doubt you have come across before.







As you can see the mouse is not very pocket friendly 

[tautech]

Sent from my SM-J510FN using Tapatalk because just sometimes I find its not possible to carry a trusty PC and old fashioned keyboard and mouse about with me and the power cord and ethernet cable are limiting factors but specially for your delight, this message was sent from a not so old PC and keyboard combination with a really weird mouse that I doubt you have come across before.

When on a mobile device use the normal forum view and this Tapatalk BS doesn't pop up in any posts.

[Specmaster]

Its far quicker to use tapatalk on occassions..

[Specmaster]

Sent from my PC using a good old fashioned keyboard and mouse, without WhackaWhine.

 

I think I have turned off the Tapatalk BS and this message is a test.

[neo]

To all nixie tube fans, you may want to stone me after i say this.

The 8400A, despite its nixie tubes, is a poorly designed, unsucessful concept model which was quickly replaced with something better. I've gotten two and both are kaput.

To pat specifically, want one? Buy two or better yet three, quantity is your only shot at a working one. That is to say that if you want a working one you have to make one from several.

Now good news, i fixed my 8800A mostly. The ohms is screwed now and it wasn't before but one set of tants on the main board later and it measures DC voltage good as ever. I direct you here https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/fluke-8800a/ with the note of i have learned at list a little bit since then.

More good news i got an 8400A to light! The display is stuck however and the buttons are knacked so i guess this is parts mule time. I direct you here https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/fluke-8400a-no-display/msg1367739/#msg1367739

In closing my number of broken to (at least semi) working test equipment in now even.

So you managed to get 3 of those pesky things then, hmm I wonder if that accounts for their extremely short production run? Maybe you now own one of the greatest collections of all time of 8400As [emoji23]

Sent from my SM-J510FN using Tapatalk

No i don't have three... yet. It is definitely going to be one sacrificing itself for the good of the other at this point.

[Specmaster]

No i don't have three... yet. It is definitely going to be one sacrificing itself for the good of the other at this point.

At this point it makes you wonder if it is all worth it and what the long term prognosis is for the working 8400A if you're successful in getting one working.