Author Topic: Fluke 8840A/8842A GPIB/IEEE488 Bus Card Clone  (Read 851 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline KjoTopic starter

  • Regular Contributor
  • *
  • Posts: 85
  • Country: us
    • Hollywood Controls
Fluke 8840A/8842A GPIB/IEEE488 Bus Card Clone
« on: May 15, 2022, 04:00:59 am »
I have been thinking about building clone card for the 8840/8842 meters. Fluke made many variations of the PCB, but they are all interchangeable if you use the correct ROMs. The later 8K ROM boards work in all meters without ROM changing.
My clone idea would use the older 4K PCB design with a UB8840M processor and an 8K ROM with a jumper select for 4K 8840A or 8842A. New PCB with new routing and some SMD parts. Use the MC3447 HPIB interface chips.

What are the thoughts on pricing?

Kevin KO3Y
 

Offline KjoTopic starter

  • Regular Contributor
  • *
  • Posts: 85
  • Country: us
    • Hollywood Controls
Re: Fluke 8840A/8842A GPIB/IEEE488 Bus Card Replica
« Reply #1 on: May 16, 2024, 06:57:36 pm »
My post, my bump....

Well it is finally complete and fully working!
I would no longer call this a clone as it is a fully reworked PCB layout of the "version 2" schematics
supporting all three Fluke meters in this series. (8840A/8840AF & 8842A). Lets call it a replica.

Sourcing all of the parts has been a rather big challenge with some risks, but it is amazing that
after more than 40 years I could still find, if not 100% OEM parts, 99% identical ones.
I am in the process of automating some HPIB programming test to insure that there are no glitches,
but so far I am pleased to say that the 488 bus cannot tell the difference between the red card and the
green card!
 
The following users thanked this post: ch_scr

Offline disago

  • Newbie
  • Posts: 3
  • Country: mx
Re: Fluke 8840A/8842A GPIB/IEEE488 Bus Card Clone
« Reply #2 on: May 18, 2024, 06:07:30 am »
Kjo,

Congratulations, beautiful work!! :) It's borderline a work of art, not just electronics.

And yes, it's impressive. Forty years and you could get the parts to build it!
 


Share me

Digg  Facebook  SlashDot  Delicious  Technorati  Twitter  Google  Yahoo
Smf