Products > Test Equipment
Restoring / Repairing an old Fluke 8000A
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joeqsmith:

--- Quote from: med6753 on January 12, 2020, 05:19:12 pm ---
--- Quote from: joeqsmith on January 12, 2020, 03:57:23 pm ---
I wonder how we ever made it to the point where the first step in troubleshooting electronics is change all the capacitors.   

--- End quote ---

Apparently you have not attempted to restore vintage vacuum tube equipment. You can be assured, with 100% certainty, that all the wax tubular and electrolytic capacitors will be leaky and require replacement. SOP is to replace before the first power up is even attempted. The only general exception to this rule is vintage vacuum tube Tek and HP equipment. They tended to use much higher quality capacitors which last near indefinitely.

When it comes to vintage Flukes such as the 8000A, 8600A, 8800A, etc my personal experience is that at least one electrolytic capacitor in the power supply is shorted. So it makes perfect sense to replace all of them as insurance for trouble free operation.

I could go on concerning beaded tantalums in Tek equipment from the 1970's thru 1990's but I think you get my point.

--- End quote ---

No doubt that changing the caps is now commonly the first thing many do.   I wonder how we got to this was what I was asking.   

Not to hijack OP's thread, but we still use this old radio on a regular basis. 
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/old-console-radio-repair/msg1455644/#msg1455644
med6753:

--- Quote from: joeqsmith on January 12, 2020, 06:36:56 pm ---
--- Quote from: med6753 on January 12, 2020, 05:19:12 pm ---
--- Quote from: joeqsmith on January 12, 2020, 03:57:23 pm ---
I wonder how we ever made it to the point where the first step in troubleshooting electronics is change all the capacitors.   

--- End quote ---

Apparently you have not attempted to restore vintage vacuum tube equipment. You can be assured, with 100% certainty, that all the wax tubular and electrolytic capacitors will be leaky and require replacement. SOP is to replace before the first power up is even attempted. The only general exception to this rule is vintage vacuum tube Tek and HP equipment. They tended to use much higher quality capacitors which last near indefinitely.

When it comes to vintage Flukes such as the 8000A, 8600A, 8800A, etc my personal experience is that at least one electrolytic capacitor in the power supply is shorted. So it makes perfect sense to replace all of them as insurance for trouble free operation.

I could go on concerning beaded tantalums in Tek equipment from the 1970's thru 1990's but I think you get my point.

--- End quote ---

No doubt that changing the caps is now commonly the first thing many do.   I wonder how we got to this was what I was asking.   

--- End quote ---

Quite simply we got there because they are the most common fail point and have the least life expectancy of most other components.
joeqsmith:

--- Quote from: edavid on January 12, 2020, 06:10:56 pm ---I like it too (I have 5 of them), but if I had one as trashed as yours seems to be, I would just buy another one  :-//

--- End quote ---

It does sound pretty bad which is why I wondered what it looked like.   

OP, if you do decide to find another one in better condition, I strongly suggest you pull some of the parts from this one.  Those custom IC's, LEDs....
joeqsmith:

--- Quote from: med6753 on January 12, 2020, 06:42:25 pm ---
--- Quote from: joeqsmith on January 12, 2020, 06:36:56 pm ---
--- Quote from: med6753 on January 12, 2020, 05:19:12 pm ---
--- Quote from: joeqsmith on January 12, 2020, 03:57:23 pm ---
I wonder how we ever made it to the point where the first step in troubleshooting electronics is change all the capacitors.   

--- End quote ---

Apparently you have not attempted to restore vintage vacuum tube equipment. You can be assured, with 100% certainty, that all the wax tubular and electrolytic capacitors will be leaky and require replacement. SOP is to replace before the first power up is even attempted. The only general exception to this rule is vintage vacuum tube Tek and HP equipment. They tended to use much higher quality capacitors which last near indefinitely.

When it comes to vintage Flukes such as the 8000A, 8600A, 8800A, etc my personal experience is that at least one electrolytic capacitor in the power supply is shorted. So it makes perfect sense to replace all of them as insurance for trouble free operation.

I could go on concerning beaded tantalums in Tek equipment from the 1970's thru 1990's but I think you get my point.

--- End quote ---

No doubt that changing the caps is now commonly the first thing many do.   I wonder how we got to this was what I was asking.   

--- End quote ---

Quite simply we got there because they are the most common fail point and have the least life expectancy of most other components.

--- End quote ---

I can't imagine wasting a bunch of time changing every cap in a product before hunting down the root problem.  Maybe the lack of troubleshooting skills drove us there.   
med6753:
It's not a time waster. It's a time saver. Why troubleshoot the obvious? And why risk damaging other components if you have shorted capacitors. Sorry, but I'm in the opposite camp...it's smart troubleshooting. Then you'll be able to go after the real issues.

And in ref to your vintage radio....most likely has wide component tolerances. Not unusual in consumer gear. But I'll bet if you DID recap it the performance would improve. 
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