Fluke 8060A repair – DOA meter brought back to life – pictures - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: frozenfrogz
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 30, 2017, 10:16:23 am
content: Lately I acquired two old Flukes, namely an 8050A in perfect condition, together with an 8060A that was DOA and sold as spare parts donor for a small token.Some sort of liquid found its way through the display cutout and did some nasty things to the upper part of the PCB. Photos taken are after my initial clean-up, so sadly I can not give you the complete tour :/ I need to work on properly documenting things like that...The victimThe 8060A won’t turn on.InvestigationIn this stage, I already cleaned the protective plastic window on the display and started cleaning the back part of the case.Broken power railAfter some thorough cleaning of the back of the main PCB with rubbing alcohol and a glass-fiber pen, I found a trace to be corroded away (+9V from the battery). I soldered in a piece of wire, but that did not fix anything. (vertical wire next to the green on/off switch)After obtaining a Solder Peak SP-1010DR desoldering station, things move forward...Here you see the DIP40 socket removed and some corrosion removed (the PCB was eaten away and maybe shorted due to nasty brown goo (next to the via in the upper middle section between the yellow resistor network and the resistors on the right.Also, you can seem some of the brown nastyness that is still sitting on the PCB.The suspectThe +9V power trace is corroded on the front and back, the via is completely eaten away.An easy fixDue to the awesome performance of the new desoldering tool – sucked all the corroded gunk right out of the via through-hole – I could use a piece of wire to rebuild the trace.The verdictAfter dropping in the DIP socket and some further cleanup (I opted to also remove the resistor network and clean the pads there, because of brown nasty stuff between the legs), the initial test seemed fine.For the winAfter reassembly, the meter passed the self test, all segments are working and it displays correctly.I still need to check through all the measuring modes, but in a first look, it seems to still be spot on! All the buttons work, the continuity tester is quick and latching (however I like the frequency of the 8020B beeper a lot more) and the few measurements I have taken agree with all of my other meters.I call it a win for today!Shoutout to mr.modemhead for providing a lot of info on the meterBest regards,Frederik

author: Huluvu
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 30, 2017, 10:55:08 am
content: Congrats to the refurbished Fluke 8060I would have exchanged all the electrolytic capacitors to ensure it will last the next 20 Years

author: frozenfrogz
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 30, 2017, 11:07:15 am
content: Thanks Huluvu,I was thinking about changing the caps, but that might be happening later on since I did not have the right values of Rubycon / Panasonic / Nichicon... in stock.The caps from the later models do not seem to have the leaking problem as did the ones from the 80s, so it might be ok to leave it as is for the moment.

author: rsjsouza
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 30, 2017, 11:46:23 am
content: Congratulations and thanks for the walk through.When replacing caps, keep close attention to their height as well - a few years ago I bought a few Nichicons to replace the caps on mine and found out that one of them (I forgot which one) could barely fit under the display assembly.

author: frozenfrogz
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 30, 2017, 12:00:01 pm
content: Quote from: rsjsouza on April 30, 2017, 11:46:23 amYes, the caps are more or less all the stubby type. Some might be replaced with the smaller diameter and longer ones, but when ordering parts that is definitely something to look out for

author: carl_lab
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 30, 2017, 06:53:44 pm
content: Well done, but maybe you should remove the flux residue by washing in IPA.These instruments are a bit sensitive for surface leakage current.

author: retiredcaps
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 30, 2017, 07:20:12 pm
content: Modemhead has a list of capacitors athttp://mrmodemhead.com/blog/ibm-8060aaa-fluke-8060a-refurbish/