Joe wrote:
Do you wind up having to re-solder some of the battery wires in the battery module in order to use the 12 V 5 AH batteries or will they just swing to the other side since it appears that the (+) and (-) terminals will wind up on the same side, instead of opposite sides with the 6 V 4.5 AH batteries?
Sorry, I don't recall. Obviously, you need to remove some of the wires since you only have 4 terminals. You also need to use a nibbler to enlarge the holes for the terminals. All of that will be instantly apparent when you have the batteries and the battery pack in front of you. I've only converted one myself, which was not mine -- all of mine have Fluke stickers on the back that say, "EXTENDED BATTERY LIFE," which I believe is Fluke's way of indicating that they did the conversion.
I have not faced the shipping question yet, but, as David pointed out, there is an issue with shipping batteries.
I use FedEx overnight with "first thing" delivery and have not had any problems. They slap some colorful stickers on the box and off it goes. My external battery box is internally fused and has a Hypertronics panel-mount connector identical to the one on the 732A, so I use a cable with one of the Hypertronics plugs at each end to connect them. I built a padded wooden shipping crate with separate compartments for the 732A and the external battery pack and a channel for the cable.
Speaking of the Hypertronics connectors, I expect to know more about how to order them from Fluke in the weeks to come. You may recall I asked a couple of weeks ago for confirmation that the panel-mount connectors on all 732As have male pins (by "all" I mean all of the newer ones with circular connectors for DC input, leaving aside the older ones with 4mm banana jacks). They do, which means the plugs need female contacts. This is backwards from the way these connectors are traditionally assembled.
The part number I posted back on 12/30/13 is a current number, but it is a part used by the BioMed division and is NOT the connector we need -- the BioMed division assembles them the "traditional" way -- male contacts in the plug, and female contacts in the panel-mount connector.
All of this came to light after I gave that part number to a friend and, like some others have reported, he received the plastic body parts but no contacts. He called Fluke and eventually received the contacts -- but they were male. After many e-mails and phone calls, it became clear (i) that Fluke had a supply-chain problem that caused the plastic bodies to be stocked and shipped without contacts, but (ii) the contacts that were supposed to come with that part number are the wrong gender for a 732A in any case. Fluke reports that the supply chain problems are fixed, so the plugs under that part number should now come with [male] contacts, but they have not yet created a new part number for the plug that 732A owners need (plug body with female contacts). When they do, Fluke will tell him, he will tell me, and I will post the details.
All this was news to me, because my records show that the part number I posted is the one I ordered 8 or 10 years ago, and at that time I received plugs that work with the 732A. Puzzling. But in any case, my friend says Fluke understands the issue and will fix it.
It took some effort, but in the end Fluke was very responsive to an individual volt nut hobbyist looking for parts for an instrument that went out of production in 1992 (I had no idea it was that long ago). They deserve high praise for this, particularly when you compare it to reports about support from other instrument makers.
Best regards, Charles _______________________________________________ volt-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/volt-nuts and follow the instructions there.
