Products > Test Equipment
Old Fluke Multimeters
Napalm2002:
Awesome info keep it coming dr!
retiredcaps:
I noticed in the 8060A manual that the aluminum caps have mfg supply code 89536 which is John Fluke Manufacturing. Did Fluke make its own brand of caps or just buy them in bulk and put their own part number on them?
retiredcaps:
@drtaylor, If it is not a trade secret anymore, can you share the budget for your bill of materials? For example,
$1 for pcb
$2 for molded plastic
$5 for caps
$5 for custom MAC
$5 for transistors
etc
If not, I totally understand. I'm asking because I saw a comment on youtube that claims the Fluke 87V has a $6 BOM??
drtaylor:
--- Quote from: retiredcaps on November 08, 2013, 11:51:51 pm ---I noticed in the 8060A manual that the aluminum caps have mfg supply code 89536 which is John Fluke Manufacturing. Did Fluke make its own brand of caps or just buy them in bulk and put their own part number on them?
--- End quote ---
I originally spec'd in those parts from Panasonic, if I recall correctly. They were low leakage for aluminums which was a fairly new thing back then. Too bad they weren't low spewage. But they were standard off the shelf parts when I first designed them in. Fluke purchasing no doubt made a huge buy and had them custom marked. From who I don't know, but I'd guess it was Panasonic. My units all have the original off the shelf caps on them.
In another topic, I've been asked about the "new RMS converter" that went into 8060s after I had left Fluke. My understanding is that Motorola no longer wanted to make the Fluke custom RMS converter and Fluke made a last time buy that was supposed to cover the remaining year or so of production. Because the 8060 was still quite popular, someone at Fluke had to make a subcircuit using the Analog Devices TRMS chips with additional components the original unit did not require. I had nothing to do with that circuit, and I can only assume it works as well as the single chip approach did. I personally have never seen one. I only have the schematic that was published on EEVBLOG and other locations.
I had a call from Norm Strong around 1987 who wanted to ask me about design aspects of the components around the TRMS converter. I remember kind of laughing with him because he actually designed the Silicon. I said "com'on Norm, you're the one who helped me optimize it for wide bandwidth. How am I supposed to remember?" I told him to check my design book, and I never heard from him again. Only much later did I realize that I had my design book, not having left it at Fluke when I left. It must have been some time after that that the Analog Devices part went in as a module. It had to have increased the price significantly.
Someone told me recently that they were still selling new 8060s as recently as 1998. Does anyone have confirmation of that? If true the production run of 8060s went from 1982 to 1998, over 16 years. I wonder if any other DMM had such a long reign.
drtaylor:
--- Quote from: retiredcaps on November 09, 2013, 12:10:30 am ---@drtaylor, If it is not a trade secret anymore, can you share the budget for your bill of materials?
--- End quote ---
I might have had that information long ago, but no longer. But the precision divider from Caddock cost more than $6 all by itself. The gang switches weren't cheap and might have been the single most expensive part, and the LCD was over $4. I'm not sure if they even knew accurately what the MAC cost. If they amortized Fluke Labs into the cost, they cost thousands each (LOL), at least at first. The TRMS converter was around $3.
The main complaint I got from FLuke management was that the meter was too expensive. I admit I was on a bender to get my perfect audio DMM and didn't really try to make the cheapest thing I could. The 8062 only came into existence because some marketing wonk was convinced they would sell a lot better at a lower price. By taking out dB and freq counting with little or no parts cost savings, the 8062 was really a loss leader. You can turn any 8062 into an 8060 if you know what to do (and I do). But unless you can find a case with the other two holes and figure out how to get the other two elastomeric switches, it won't be pretty. Having a 4 layer board in a handheld was also a first at the time. I took advantage of the inner layers to bury high impedance traces and fully protect them from humidity. Getting of subject...suffice to say, that it probably totaled somewhere in the range of 80-100 dollars in parts and labor which is why it had to sell for $349.95 to allow those salesmen their rich cut.
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