Older lab equipment was often designed to be durable and, if properly treated, can provide decades of service. It is often so popular that when a part fails, it is advisable to repair it instead of replacing it with something new. [Michael] That’s exactly what happened, with its Fluke 8050A multimeter getting a shiny new display.
The Fluke 8050A is a versatile device capable of measuring voltage, current and resistance in addition to decibels in various impedances and conductivity. The actual display doesn’t show any details, so [Michael] He was chosen to improve it when he installed a new 2.2 ″ graphical LCD that basically replaces the basic 7-segment LCD that comes with hardware.
To install, the original LCD display module was removed from the chassis. A piggyback device sitting under Fluke’s microcontroller was then used to break the signal for a new graphical LCD without the need to change the meter’s PCB. An Atmega32u4 microcontroller then receives these signals and then drives the graphical LCD accordingly.
This is a great hack that makes the old multimeter easy to use and the new white-green display is also much more kind to the eye. We have seen that other multimeters can also do screen transplants. Of course, if you’re new to the world of segmented LCDs and want to learn more about how they work, [Joey Castillo]Last year’s Remotecon’s talk will take you fast!