Having problems with 2 units not holding a charge or just plain not charging.
There are several sites on line that you can download the manual for the Fluke 8050A.
I'm sure it's the Ni-Cads. Amazed yours have lasted this long if you haven't replaced them yet. We get them made for us by a local battery specialist, which hasn't been in a while come to think of it.
I have 2 one the battery charge light is on but the batteries do not seem to be charging the other one the battery light is not on but the batteries are still charged up. I could trouble shoot them if someone walked me through it but have not really done any repair work in about 16 years so I need a hand....
Looking at the one whose bat chg light is not on the batteries have a part number of 405151-000 on them and a date code of 1890 (probably the year this meter was built lol!) so I am thinking these batteries are from 1990??? anyways tried hooking up to the points on the board that the battery hooked up to and getting no voltage so I am assuming there is something wrong with the charging circuit? Thats all on meter 1
On meter 2 the battery charge light is on the batteries are rigged together so it looks like they where replaced with new batteries at some point which I might have done but I forget? when I hooked up to the charge point on this meter it was putting out like 14.7 volts dc?? seems high to me?I did that on both sides it also seems to read the same when it is unplugged from ac power? Anyone out there have any answers for me?
Ah yes, those wonderful pieces of test equipment.....
Um, the EXTREMELY "UNOFFICIAL" method for rejuvenating those batteries that was taught to me about a decade ago was to hook em up to the good ole high current DC power supply and zap the crap out of them. Believe it or not, it works! Is it right to do it? Well, that's up for you to decide.
As far as replacement batteries go (sometimes even zapping the batteries didn't work), I know the Army stocked em as of a couple of years ago.......
Oops, just realized that the batteries don't seem to be your issue.
The cost of the 8050As was always negligible so we never repaired them. Sorry I can't help. But at least now you can honestly say someone else out there "juices" their batteries too! (Or at least used to, I haven't seen an 8050 in several years)
Ya I do not want to take the chance of one of them blowing up on me. I found em on ebay for $20 for the set I just need to figure out how to pay for them.
We still buy generics and put them together as required in the DMM. Our guy is on 2 weeks vacation until next week. Let me know if he can try to help. I believe we buy them from a local supplier. What are those, C or D cell NiCads... Can't quite remember. We've replaced battery packs within the last couple of months.
We have a stack of spare part units in our store room.
Another "UNOFFICIAL" way to zap these batteries is to charge up a large capacitor then use a current limiting resistor in series when you zap them.