Fluke 8060A - Refurbish questions

[retiredcaps]

As you can see below, either the interconnect has grown, or the plastic shrunk?  It will not lay flat.  What's the trick here?

I have never disassembled it that far so I don't know.  I think modemhead is home on Sunday so he might be able to give some feedback.

Excavatoree is the only other person that I know of that might have disassembled the meter to that level.

[ModemHead]

The interconnect is I believe supposed to rest flat in the channel so the LCD can be snapped back in to place.  As you can see below, either the interconnect has grown, or the plastic shrunk?  It will not lay flat.  What's the trick here?

No trick, it's supposed to fit nicely, as shown.  The later models have rectangular strips instead of the round ones.  The only problem I've noticed with these round ones is some flattening, so that I had to try rotating the strip a bit until finding the sweet spot where it made best contact.

This reminds me of an internet discussion about Beckman meters where someone suggested soaking the elastomeric strips in water to get them to swell up, and make better contact.  So, warm air to dry it out maybe?

[mbear2k]

Thanks ModemHead.  My shop space has been very humid.  Maybe let it dry out as you mention.  Mine is slightly oblong, so once I get the fit, I'll try rotating as well.

And if I'm reading the manual correctly, I hook the aligned LCD assembly on the left side then press down on the right to snap under the tab.

One more question - I have not separated the lens, gasket or polarizer.  Should I leave well enough alone, or is there recommended cleaning of some kind for these?

[ModemHead]

And if I'm reading the manual correctly, I hook the aligned LCD assembly on the left side then press down on the right to snap under the tab.

Yep, that usually works best.  I hold my breath for the "snapping" part, because that old plastic can be brittle. You can see a crack in the screw post on mine above.

One more question - I have not separated the lens, gasket or polarizer.  Should I leave well enough alone, or is there recommended cleaning of some kind for these?

I'm surprised it did not fall apart, never had those components stick together.  But if it's clean and no FOD, then I suppose there's no need to mess with it.  BTW, only the oldest models have the separate polarizer.  Later ones have a more modern LCD with the top polarizer built-in.

[mbear2k]

Yes - my concern as well as one of my screw posts has a crack as well...

My LCD assembly was all loose.  In fact I'm trying not to slide the pieces around too much to avoid scratches.  I did pull the lens and polished it with Novus.  Looks great.

Ok - so working on shrinking the interconnect.  Will report back.

[mbear2k]

Well - had a catastrophe here.  I was able to get the interconnect to shrink by chilling it in the fridge.  Fit perfect.  However, at the snapping in of the LCD part, the LCD cracked. It was going so well - has it all lined up and got the LCD and gasket below the tab, gave it one last gentle push to get the lens in place and the LCD cracked.

So - closing this one out until I find a parts unit.  Thanks for all the help! 

[ModemHead]

Oh no!  I could have prevented this, I'm now sorry for not adding this information to the thread.  Some time after this morning's posting activity, I went to put mine back together after the photo. I realized at that point that it was better to "slide" the LCD glass part in under the tabs, then "snap" the rest of the stuff (lens, gasket, polarizer).

Well here's a somewhat amusing story that you may yet come to appreciate.  I did not mention that this last IBM-branded unit that I fixed had a bad LCD. Back polarizer is shot, plus there is the "bleeding" effect inside the glass sandwich. So I monitored eBay for months looking for a wrecked 8060A with a decent-looking LCD.  Finally scored one for $20, shipped.  When I got it, it turned out to work perfectly, and is a much newer unit than the other couple that I had. The case even cleaned up like-new.  So instead of the parts mule I needed, I ended up with another working meter that I did not want to part out. So instead I robbed an older unit with an uglier exterior of it's LCD and finished restoring the IBM unit.

This has happened to me for other things, I look for a parts unit and end up with an easier repair than the one I was working on.  So I hope you can find an LCD...

Edit: accidentally a word

Edit #2: The refurb job I mentioned above is now documented in a blog post.

[Don Hills]

... However, at the snapping in of the LCD part, the LCD cracked. It was going so well - has it all lined up and got the LCD and gasket below the tab, gave it one last gentle push to get the lens in place and the LCD cracked.
 ...

I feel your pain. I once managed to destroy the LCD in a mint HP 100LX by mishandling. Now, how do I say this in the nicest possible way? You should have RTFM.

The picture in the manual that you posted yesterday (post 24) shows that you slide the LCD in then snap the rest in.

(Following this thread because I have an 8060A/AA that still works OK.)

[vindoline]

Well - had a catastrophe here.  I was able to get the interconnect to shrink by chilling it in the fridge.  Fit perfect.  However, at the snapping in of the LCD part, the LCD cracked. It was going so well - has it all lined up and got the LCD and gasket below the tab, gave it one last gentle push to get the lens in place and the LCD cracked.

So - closing this one out until I find a parts unit.  Thanks for all the help!

I may have an LCD assembly I can send you. I just moved though, and the lab is in a state of "flux!" Send me a PM if you're interested.

-John

[mbear2k]

Very nice of you to offer John - I will send you a PM.

I have a couple of spare voltage converters (ICL7660CPAZ-ND) if anyone needs one.

Mark

[mbear2k]

Very happy ending!  John (vindoline) was kind enough to send me a display and all is working well!

Thanks to John and all that assisted!

[vindoline]

Very happy ending!  John (vindoline) was kind enough to send me a display and all is working well!

Thanks to John and all that assisted!

Outstanding! I'm glad I could help and I hope you enjoy the meter as much as I do.

[ModemHead]

 

[ogdento]

I know this is an ancient thread but with all the lcd assemblies that have been scavenged for their display glass, are there any extra micro boards and/or mainboard-to-micro elastomeric strips kicking around?

After seeing Dmitri's awesome LED mod on Modemhead's site, I'm considering an OLED mod... I have an 8060a with an early-style lcd (no built-in polarizer) and it's OK but not great - there's no bleeding but some segments aren't 100% solid... there's almost specs of missing fluid if that makes sense.  Fwiw, I got this unit doa with a blown-short vr3 and puked caps... I re-capped it, replaced vr3 and the mac socket and everything has been lathered/rinsed/repeated many times in IPA.

My OLED plan is to solder wires to the lcd pads of the micro board, sample the output and translate it to a small OLED.  I think it'll be a fun project but since my unit works fairly well I don't want to mess with my only micro board.  The mainboard-to-micro strip is wonky too (unit hangs a lot) so unless I can find another I'm going to solder a pluggable header onto the mainboard and junk the elastomer (thanks to Dr Taylor for using .1 pitch!)

Anyway, I can't find anything for sale on the usual sites so I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask here - I've got some parts I could trade too.  Cheers!

[vindoline]

Ogdento, is this the part you need? I don't have  the zebra strip, but it should be easy to fit a generic replacement if you want - or just go with the mod you proposed.
Send me a PM if you're interested.

[Fungus]

are there any extra elastomeric strips kicking around?

You can probably use generic ones. All you need is the correct height, you can easily cut them to the right width.

[ogdento]

vindoline, that's exactly what i'm looking for!  pm sent

and great point about generics.  I couldn't find any at digikey or mouser but I've found a catalog from Fujipoly who makes the Zebra brand strips.  There's also a bunch of parts on the usual Chinese supply sites so I'll dig through some of those.

I found a $4 Cypress psoc arm m0 kit in a drawer... it's overkill for use as the oled adapter but i had it handy and am itching to get started.

[ogdento]

Wow, thanks to John for the extra micro board and associated bits.  I got the parts yesterday and on a whim I threw my lcd on it, using my mainboard-to-micro elastomer (after 6 or 7 cleanings) and the lcd elastomer from John... the darned thing worked! 

The display isn't 100% perfect so I'm still going forward with an OLED swap, but it's 100% usable and I'm able to revert it to "stock" if I want to.

[vindoline]

Wow, thanks to John for the extra micro board and associated bits.  I got the parts yesterday and on a whim I threw my lcd on it, using my mainboard-to-micro elastomer (after 6 or 7 cleanings) and the lcd elastomer from John... the darned thing worked! 

The display isn't 100% perfect so I'm still going forward with an OLED swap, but it's 100% usable and I'm able to revert it to "stock" if I want to.

You're welcome    Now it's a bit less daunting to go for the OLED mod! I'm looking forward to seeing how it comes out.

[OH2LIY]

I just opened my trusty Fluke, probably third time to check capasitors. Meter is made 1987 or 1988 and capasitors have 8611 markings (11/1986?). What I look under capasitors and checked randomly couple capasitor capasitance&esr, I don't see any reason to change them, everything looks to be ok (after 32 years)?

[retiredcaps]

What I look under capasitors

When you look under, are you physically removing them to do a visual inspection and test with the ESR meter?

Most of the problems with the 8060A are the caps go bad and leak from the bung (bottom) and not obviously visible to the naked eye until you remove them.

[ogdento]

+1 to Retiredcaps... the last two 8060a meters I re-capped looked great until I pulled the caps out... only then did I see that they had indeed puked their guts onto the pcb.  One was an 86 and I think the other was from 91.  I had to replace the MAC socket on both as well.

[ogdento]

Update on my OLED mod... wired up this nifty adapter so I could sample the lcd output and drive an OLED, but I've apparently screwed something up.  On another 8060 with the LCD removed, I see a 40kHz output at TP9 - but I don't get that with this adapter. 

Not sure what I've done - maybe I broke the board when I soldered the wires on, but I use an anti-static strap and I've never damaged a CMOS chip before.