Fluke8050A with 320x240 display

[kek]

Here is my project for the handfull of Fluke 8050A's that I have acquired since reading this forum.
https://sites.google.com/site/kenselectronicsprojects/fluke8050a_display

Ken

[PA0PBZ]

Very nice! I like the way you abused the PIC!

Now, since you only use the top half of the display why not create a trend line on the bottom half? 

[free_electron]

aaaand you doubled the value of the old fluke !

very cool ! but i don;t like the font nor the color. mimic real 7 segment displays ( or better starburst displays ! )

[c4757p]

Ooh! I've a spare display about the right size, and an 8050A. Added to the project list

[kek]

I chose the font to resemble the new bench agilent meter, that should delay me from having to get one. The colours are close to what the fluke has on it's selector buttons; green for volts, red for mA, yellow for Ohms, blue for dB.

I did a project a while back with a fluke 17B where I tried to mimic the display closely. It's sitting in a box somewhere....unfinished.

Ken

[steve30]

Looks good. I rather like the choice of font

[saturation]

 

Very good job! 

[scopeman]

I know that this is a necropost but I have to add that I made some PCB's to do this and I built my first one over the last couple of days and the work that Ken has done here is pretty damn slick if you ask me. Currently I am waiting for the RTV to cure so I can work out a bezel for the display and put it back on my bench.

I bought one of these meters new from Fluke in the 80's when I did not have much free cash for $339.00 U.S. and it has served me very well.

 Almost two years after I got it I was using it to repair my Dad's AC on a really hot summer day in Newport News VA when the display went black and stayed black.

It seems that the vendor that supplied the LCD's used the wrong fluid causing the displays to fail at high temperature. I then called the closest Fluke field office in Gaithersburg and explained the problem and that is when they told me if I brought the instrument in they would replace the display with a new one and would also check and calibrate it as well.

I arrived at Fluke around 11:30am and dropped off the meter. The local Fluke rep that covered my area offered to take myself and my friend to lunch and said that when we got back my meter should be ready. So on that day I got my meter repaired and a free lunch!

I will never forget their concern and hospitality on that day. That meter still is in service today with the same display that had been replaced in the 80's. I believe that the ones that you see today with bad displays had the original displays not the updated high temperature displays.

In any event Ken's upgrade for the Fluke is the best of the ones that I considered when looking for a solution to my additional Fluke 8050A's.

One note on these meters: I have probably worked on 100 of these meters over the years and with the exception of units that had been electrically damaged I have never found one out of calibration. One thing Fluke meters seem to have over cheaper products is that they are very stabile products.

Sam
W3OHM