Reality Check

Posted on May 14, 2014 by modemhead

Just a note to say that Mr. ModemHead has been occupied with some of life’s realities the last few weeks (well, months actually) and hasn’t been able to respond to all your questions and comments.  The real-life situation is still on-going, but I hope to get more time soon to start updating the blog again.  In the meantime, feel free to keep the comments and questions going and remember there’s always active discussions about test equipment at the EEVBlog forums.  As always, thanks for reading and participating here.

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A Very Unique Fluke 8060A

Posted on March 2, 2014 by modemhead

8060A_LED_S00_introBlog reader “Dmitri” has sent pictures of a very unique and interesting modification he performed on his recently acquired Fluke 8060A.  The LCD was ruined, so he has fashioned a replacement using green SMD LEDs arranged to form 7-segment numerals, with light dissipating film and protective acrylic from a broken iPhone.  The mask was cut with a German desktop milling machine.  The new display board was connected to the processor sub-board with the same kind of teflon-insulated wire used to connect the LEDs and ballast resistors.

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Posted in Modifications, Reader-contributed | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Fluke 80-series Jack Assembly Rebuild

Posted on January 22, 2014 by modemhead

8XJack_S00_introThere seems to be a trend in Fluke repairs here lately.  Other than your occasional fusible resistor, the problems seem to be related to materials instead of electronic bits.  Cracked and broken plastic, and metal fatigue.  Are these design problems, or is it that people use these devices so heavily for so long, that the finite lifetime of these metal and plastic parts is exceeded?  Well you be the judge of that, I’ll just look for a way to make repairs.

Today’s issue concerns the jack assembly for the Fluke 80-series of DMMS including the 83, 85, 87, and 88 models.  Instead of individual 4mm banana jacks, there is a single molded assembly containing all four jack ports.  Each jack consists of two half-round contacts inside a red or black colored shroud.  The two separate contacts are used to detect when a plug is inserted in the A or mA jacks on the left side.  Inserting a plug shorts the two halves, which is detected by the meter and results in a chirping sound when the rotary switch is set for anything other than current measurement.

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Posted in How-To, Repair | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Dirty Multimeter Clean-up

Posted on January 4, 2014 by modemhead

Clean_000Recently someone asked how I get the old used multimeters featured in these blog posts to look shiny and clean.  For the most part, the answer is surprisingly simple: disassemble, scrub parts with soap and water, dry, and re-assemble.

But of course there are many details.  Results are rarely perfect with used equipment, but lots of improvement can often be achieved.  The normal published photo size on this blog is 1024 x 768, which hides some imperfections.  Here’s a couple of before and after photos with a little higher resolution.  Neither of these are perfect, but the improvement is worth the effort.

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Posted in How-To | Tagged , | 16 Comments

Fluke 70-series Knob Removal

Posted on January 2, 2014 by modemhead

F70knobHappy New Year 2014!  Doing some housekeeping and software updates, found this information was buried in the photo galleries.

Here’s how to remove the knob on a Fluke 70-series DMM (the older, rectangular-style meters.) This includes the original and series II models 75, 76, 77, 79, 21, 23, 29, and similar.

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Posted in How-To | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Boo!

Posted on October 31, 2013 by modemhead

trickortreatNot much repair activity lately, but in honor of Halloween, note that a photo gallery of cheap multimeters of the “Harbor Fright” variety has been posted.  New also is a quick look inside the Weston 6100 Roadrunner.

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