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| Voltcraft 6010 DMM (NOS from 1984) unboxing and teardown [picture heavy] |
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| frozenfrogz:
Today my Voltcraft 6010 arrived! It has been sitting in some warehouse for 30+ years and finally will serve its intended purpose. This will be an unboxing and teardown with lots of images that I have upped to an imgur album (in case you want pics without the talking). Edit: This meter was introduced in 1982 and was a real game-changer here in Germany, since it incorporated all state-of-the-art technology and features, but was 60% cheaper than the competitors (we are mainly talking Fluke 8020 here I guess). Keep in mind, digital multimeters just appeared on the market for the first time back then. There is a German article from the 30st anniversary of this DMM. /Edit So there it is, lying in its styrofoam bed, sleeping for the past 30 years... Included in the package is the meter, two test-leads with threading (roughly one meter and 20 centimeters, or about four feet in length), two screw-on alligator clips, a nine volt battery, certificate of guarantee and a manual. In case you want to take a look at the manual, I took photos and merged them into a .pdf that you can get here: https://document.li/oK4g - sorry, I was a bit lazy and did not do proper scans. Awesome Korean battery still going strong after sitting in a box for more than 30 years! Who needs batterisers if you can have that? * Alligator clips screwed on and disassembled. Front view of the 6010. Back view of the 6010. Made in Korea (obviously). WARNING WARNING CAUTION WARNING OK, I get it. I will be cautious. Arrow pointing towards battery eliminator jack, but this unit does not have one. CAUTION This Instrument contains no operator serviceable parts. Read operating instructions before use. I guess, we will see about that :) Battery compartment. First look under the hood. I forgot to mention, that I really like the Star Wars AT-AT look and color scheme. And as a first nice feature (from a product designers view) we encounter brass threadings molded into the case! I was missing these on the Fluke 8020B I got last week. Also another WARNING + CAUTION, because: Why not? Side-note: There is a spare fuse tucked in the back of the case, wrapped in foam. The bottom part of the case incorporates a separate strip of molded plastic that sits under the switches. Back view, opened (sorry about the disastrous lighting). Some shielding, close-up of the threaded inserts and battery connector. Label on the shielding, let’s further disassemble and reveal the internals. With the shield removed and terminals disassembled, we can remove the internals form the upper casing. Product designers side note: Nice screw-in terminals for the win! Front view of the PCB - not much to see here, apart from the injection molded clear plastic cover of the LCD maybe. Teledyne TSC7106CPL (made in 1984?) - 3 and 1/2 digits A/D convertor, DIP-40 package for driving the LCD. SGS Thompson HCF 4030B quad exclusive-or gate (made in 1982?) Partly convenient way of an on-the-fly strain relief. Some more close-ups of the input side. The white resistor networks read: Sunics 410A - HC-DMM-V (big one in front) Sunics 409A - HC-DMM-S Now, that we have seen the internals, let’s go figure if it actually works. Remember that awesome battery from the beginning? But it said 9.23V! What is going on? *In case you don't know what is happening here, go watch Daves batteriser video again. This cell is dead as door-nail - not too surprising after 30 years of self-discharging, even though alkaline 9V blocks can be quite impressive in this regard. Dropping in a fresh China made battery and... It’s working! :box: Side-by-side voltage measuring with the old Fluke 8020B. Side-by-side measurement of a resistor clamped to the alligator clips with 8020B and UT139C So there you have it, the vintage Voltcraft 6010 new old stock that no one wanted to buy for 140 Deutsche Mark and 93 Pfennig (51.04USD back in 1984). The price translates to roughly 132 Euro or 124 USD when comparing purchasing power now and then, taken from some calculator on the web. I purchased the old Voltcraft, because my father owns one from since I was born and still uses it regularly today. There is some sentimental value to it and I really like the look and feel. I can see why most DMMs on the market feature a turning knob selector, because these are way cheaper to manufacture and auto-ranging is OK, but nothing compares to being able to simply select the range you need by one press of a button compared to switching through various modes on a dial. The manual states 1000V DC or AC peak voltage non-switched, 750V AC peak voltage switched, but I probably would want to test it... Also from the manual: "Overload protection is guaranteed in all areas (except 20A range). To protect against excessive voltages, a gas-filled spark gap is used, which has proven itself better than devices with varistors. A pair of fast silicon diodes as well as a fuse ensure excellent protection in all current areas. Furthermore, the input of the alternating current transformer is protected against overvoltage." This is translated from the manual p.6 To conclude, here is a better shot of the schematic I tried to clean up a little. Thank you for your patience in scrolling through this picture-heavy post (is there a way to resize the images, or some other convenient way to make it all a bit more readable?), hope you could enjoy it at least a little :) Feel free to ask and comment! All the best, Frederik |
| frozenfrogz:
Short follow-up, because I forgot to talk about the test leads that came with the device. The test leads can be fully disassembled, so in case of a broken wire you can fully repair it *yay* There is some serious amount of copper in them, I measured a little over 1.6mm in diameter aka 14 AWG! The insulation is rubbery to the touch and has a nice matte finish. Compared to my Fluke TL71(?) they are very stiff, but that is to be expected I guess - given the wire gauge. Insulating plastic parts may be PVC or ABS, but that is just a wild guess. Casing of the meter is also some basic polymer - no glass reinforcement or anything fancy. The flip-up stand in the back serves its purpose, but it is a little flimsy, especially compared to the very sturdy one on the 8020B. As capt bullshot pointed out in the "what did you buy today" thread, the meter was produced by Hung Chang in South Korea. Some website stated, that the 6010 was originally designed by CTC (Conrad Technology Center) and their first big invention, going to be sold under the Conrad Electronics label Voltcraft and a huge success on the German market. But since there is the Hung Chang 6010 or HC601 (absolutely identical) and the HC markings are all over the PCB of the meter, I doubt that it was really a CTC invention. But who knows... Conrad Electronic by the way is similar to Radio Shack, but here in Germany. |
| GeorgeOfTheJungle:
Beautiful! And the Intersil... I remember that! There was another to drive led displays. But IIRC it dates back to the 70's not the 80's... (?) |
| frozenfrogz:
As far as I have read, Fluke originally invented the 429100 which was produced by Intersil. Intersil then basically counterfeited Flukes chip and sold it as their own product, the ICL7106. Where and when Teledyne started manufacturing the TSC7106, I don’t know. But both the latter seem to be rip-offs of the original Fluke design. P.S.: If you like to investigate a little further, here is the thread on the history of the Fluke 8020 that I just found (again). Edit: Oops, wrong tag on url :/ |
| retiredcaps:
History of Fluke and ICL 7106 explained by one of the original Fluke 8060A team ... https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/old-fluke-multimeters/ |
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