Question about Ooooold Fluke meters

[Nolatone Ampworks]

Hi all,

I just bought an old Fluke 8502A bench multimeter off of Ebay. It's huuuuuuuuge and you have to have option cards for the different functions. The damned thing has a backplane, which is NUTS compared to the hand held Fluke I'm used to.

The other thing about this though, it's got the old timey LED display that doesn't adjust to show the denomination of the measurment (i.e. mV, kV, kohms, mohms, etc).

In stead, there is an "exponent" display. In ohms mode it has either 3 or 6 (or nothing). I think I've figured out that you move the decimal the number of places to the right to calculate the actual value.

I'm not sure I understand why it needs to work that way. Pretty confusing to me.

Anyone have any experience with this type of meter and can offer any advice to make this sort of thing easier to deal with?

 

[52ftbuddha]

Yes they are a bit old but they can be good. I hope you did not pay a lot they can provide 6.5 digits of accuracy but you have to spec them with options to make them a tru multimeter. They are real overkill for anything but lab work. First go to Flukes website and download the manual it will help you with most of your questions. The digits of resolution the stability and accuracy are more than you will need in almost all measurements. The challenge with benchtop meters like the 8502a is they are only as good as the calibration.

rob

rob

 

[Nolatone Ampworks]

Yes they are a bit old but they can be good. I hope you did not pay a lot they can provide 6.5 digits of accuracy but you have to spec them with options to make them a tru multimeter. They are real overkill for anything but lab work. First go to Flukes website and download the manual it will help you with most of your questions. The digits of resolution the stability and accuracy are more than you will need in almost all measurements. The challenge with benchtop meters like the 8502a is they are only as good as the calibration.

rob

rob

Yeah, I already downloaded the manual. It really didn't clear up much!

Hey, worse case, I could prolly build an amp outta the parts from this sucka! I paid $7 for it (plus $30 shipping...doh!)

 

[52ftbuddha]

Let me try and answer the one question, the exponents you see in the display are the SI unit so in Ohms 6 would be Mega Ohms. 3 would be kilo Ohms. -3 mili -6 micro. I will go to work tomorrow and see if we still have one hanging around. Ask any more questions you have and I will try and get you an answer.
rob

 

[Nolatone Ampworks]

Let me try and answer the one question, the exponents you see in the display are the SI unit so in Ohms 6 would be Mega Ohms. 3 would be kilo Ohms. -3 mili -6 micro. I will go to work tomorrow and see if we still have one hanging around. Ask any more questions you have and I will try and get you an answer.
rob

That was the main thing.

I will say, it's a very MANLY machine to use. You hit the buttons and you get a really satisfying RELAY "CLACK", and you can hear the LED segments flicking on and off. Kindof makes my hand held meter seem candy assed

 

[mark norwine]

Take good care of it. If the display module goes bad [and they do...], you can NOT get a new one.

Been there, done that.