Fluke 8050a

[Eddystonepete]

HI All. I,ve just found a very interesting thing about the Fluke 8050A, It autoranges !. If you leave all the range buttons in the out position just the V button depressed, the display shows any voltage you apply to the input terminals. Ive onlly tried it between 0 and about 35v and it gives an accurate reading with slightly less resolution than manual. The only thing wrong is that the decimal point is in the wrong position, (1 place to the right). More than that the same thing works on ohms and milliamps but the DP seems to be in the correct place. At first I thought this was just a fluke (sorry !) So I phoned a friend who also owns an 8050, he finds the same thing.  I,ve searched the net but nobody else claims to have noticed this effect. The lack of autorange prevents the 8050 being a very useful bench tool, with a little engenuity this Fluke coulld be best bench meter yet.

Peter

[Refugee]

I have got an 8800A but it really is switchable for auto or manual ranging.

[Alistair D]

Just checked my 8050A and it behaves exactly the same as yours. It is pity that the decimal point doesn't move.

Al

[Eddystonepete]

Hi All, further thinking about 8050a "autorange". After spending a lot of time reading the Fluke service manual I realised that the all range buttons out is the same as selecting the 200v range. this range reads low voltages (1 to 10) to 0.01v. So its easier to use the 200v range for general purposes and the decimal point is in the right place!. I modified my 8050a display using the Mr Modemhead drawings, Quite easy but I made the mistake of using led seriies resistors slightly larger than 0.1 in dia. resulting in an untidy pile up of resistors .Great display, bright enough even driving leds with an LCD driver chip.  Peter