https://www.transsys.com/enContents © 2026 <a href="mailto:louie@transsys.com">Louis Mamakos</a> Tue, 03 Mar 2026 17:28:35 GMTNikola (getnikola.com)http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rsshttps://www.transsys.com/posts/fluke8050a/use-and-construction/Louis Mamakos<div><p>So you want to build this yourself? And when you do, how do you use it? Here's some hints; this is a long way from the "Heathkit" experience, but ultimately, not that complex.</p> <p><a href="https://www.transsys.com/posts/fluke8050a/use-and-construction/">Read more…</a> (2 min remaining to read)</p></div>electronicsfluke8050ahardwarehttps://www.transsys.com/posts/fluke8050a/use-and-construction/Sun, 13 Nov 2022 18:58:20 GMThttps://www.transsys.com/posts/fluke8050a/intro/Louis Mamakos<div><p><img alt="Fluke 8040A Main Display" src="https://www.transsys.com/images/fluke8050a/annotated-display.jpg"></p> <h2>Fluke 8050A Multimeter LCD Display Project</h2> <p>This series of web pages attempts to document my project to replace the old monochromatic, 4½-digit, 7-segment LCD numeric display with a 320x240 color TFT graphical display.</p> <p><a href="https://www.transsys.com/posts/fluke8050a/intro/"> more …</a> (10 min remaining to read)</p></div>electronicsfluke8050ahardwarehttps://www.transsys.com/posts/fluke8050a/intro/Sun, 25 Oct 2020 16:00:00 GMThttps://www.transsys.com/posts/fluke8050a/3870pins/Louis Mamakos<div><p>This is a summary of the signals on the 40-pin 3870 "F8" CPU chip in the Fluke 8050A multimeter. It's intended primarily as a reference while wiring up the interconnects from this CPU to the STM32F103 microcontroller. </p> <p><a href="https://www.transsys.com/posts/fluke8050a/3870pins/">Read more…</a> (1 min remaining to read)</p></div>electronicsfluke8050ahardwarehttps://www.transsys.com/posts/fluke8050a/3870pins/Sun, 25 Oct 2020 03:20:50 GMThttps://www.transsys.com/posts/fluke8050a/credits/Louis Mamakos<div><h2>Fluke 8050A software credits</h2> <p>Various software and resources have been incorporated into this project. Here's a list, hopefully complete. If you notice something missing, please let me know so that I might properly credit the work and update this list.</p> <h3>Forth</h3> <p><a href="http://mecrisp.sourceforge.net/">Mecrisp Forth</a> is a core component of this project. It is the low-level software that animates the hardware, and a fast and elegant Forth interpreter/compiler that targets ARM Cortex-M3 based CPUs, such as is used in this project.</p> <p><a href="https://www.transsys.com/posts/fluke8050a/credits/">Read more…</a> (1 min remaining to read)</p></div>electronicsfluke8050ahardwarehttps://www.transsys.com/posts/fluke8050a/credits/Sun, 25 Oct 2020 03:20:50 GMThttps://www.transsys.com/posts/fluke8050a/meter_displays/Louis Mamakos<div><h2>Fluke 8050A Meter Displays</h2> <p>Here are some photos of typical meter displays on the modified Fluke 8050A multimeter with the graphical LCD replacement. Note that the basic functionality of the meter is not changed; it doesn't measure any more frequently, nor with any additional resolution or accuracy. </p> <p>The fancy new display simply captures and manipulates whatever the Fluke 8050A was sending to it's 7-segment LCD display (and various annunciators). The new display also monitors the state of the various switches on the Fluke 8050A to discover the mode and scale the meter has been switched to, and uses that information to annotate the graphical display.</p> <p><a href="https://www.transsys.com/posts/fluke8050a/meter_displays/">Read more…</a> (4 min remaining to read)</p></div>electronicsfluke8050ahardwarehttps://www.transsys.com/posts/fluke8050a/meter_displays/Sun, 25 Oct 2020 03:20:50 GMThttps://www.transsys.com/posts/fluke8050a/install/Louis Mamakos<div><h2>How to install?</h2> <p>You'll need to install minimally a Mecrisp Forth software image. There is a modified <a href="https://github.com/lmamakos/fluke8050a-forth/raw/master/fluke8050a/mecrisp-stellaris-2.2.8-stm32f103xB.bin">binary image</a> supplied in the github repository, which is the standard Mecrisp software, except built to recognize the larger Flash memory available in the Maple Mini clone device that we are using.</p> <p><a href="https://www.transsys.com/posts/fluke8050a/install/">Read more…</a> (3 min remaining to read)</p></div>electronicsfluke8050ahardwarehttps://www.transsys.com/posts/fluke8050a/install/Sun, 25 Oct 2020 03:20:50 GMThttps://www.transsys.com/posts/fluke8050a/hardware/Louis Mamakos<div><p>The <a href="https://www.transsys.com/posts/fluke8050a/intro/">Fluke 8050A Multimeter LCD Display Project</a> replaces the display in my Fluke 8050A Desktop DMM with a TFT LCD bitmapped display.</p> <h2>Hardware</h2> <p>The intent of the project is to replace the ancient 4½ digit LCD display on the Fluke 8050A multimeter with an ILI9341 based 320x240 pixel color graphical LCD display. This just about perfectly fits within the cut-out in the front panel of the device where the old 4 digit LCD mounted in a bezel is present. The intent is to both display additional information (such as the mode of the meter - Volts, Amps, Ohms, etc) and larger and easier to read numerical display of the measured values.</p> <p><a href="https://www.transsys.com/posts/fluke8050a/hardware/">Read more…</a> (5 min remaining to read)</p></div>electronicsfluke8050ahardwarehttps://www.transsys.com/posts/fluke8050a/hardware/Sun, 25 Oct 2020 03:20:50 GMThttps://www.transsys.com/posts/fluke8050a/software/Louis Mamakos<div><h2>Software</h2> <p>The software running on the STM32F103CBT6 microcontroller on the Maple-Mini clone is the wonderful <a href="http://mecrisp.sourceforge.net/Mecrisp%20Forth">Mecrisp Forth</a> Interpreter/Compiler that target ARM Cortex-M3 based CPUs. It also uses FORTH software libraries from <a href="https://www.transsys.com/posts/fluke8050a/software/projects/fluke8050a/credits#forth">JeeLabs</a> which have been modified in some cases to improve performance and add functionality.</p> <p>You can find all the FORTH code running on this board at <a href="https://github.com/lmamakos/fluke8050a-forth">https://github.com/lmamakos/fluke8050a-forth</a></p> <p><a href="https://www.transsys.com/posts/fluke8050a/software/">Read more…</a> (4 min remaining to read)</p></div>electronicsfluke8050ahardwarehttps://www.transsys.com/posts/fluke8050a/software/Sun, 25 Oct 2020 03:20:50 GMThttps://www.transsys.com/posts/fluke8050a/theory_of_operation/Louis Mamakos<div><h2>Theory of Operation</h2> <p>Some excerpts from the <a href="https://www.transsys.com/media/fluke8050a/fluke-8050a.pdf">Fluke 8050A manual</a> are included below. The first is high-level overview of some of the function components, starting with the signal inputs at the left, finally resulting in a value being displayed at the right.</p> <p><a href="https://www.transsys.com/images/fluke8050a/block_diagram2.png" class="image-reference"><img src="https://www.transsys.com/images/fluke8050a/block_diagram2.thumbnail.png" alt="block diagram"></a></p> <p><a href="https://www.transsys.com/posts/fluke8050a/theory_of_operation/">Read more…</a> (7 min remaining to read)</p></div>electronicsfluke8050ahardwarehttps://www.transsys.com/posts/fluke8050a/theory_of_operation/Sun, 25 Oct 2020 03:20:50 GMThttps://www.transsys.com/posts/fluke8050a/iopins/Louis Mamakos<div><h2>STM32F103CBT6 I/O pin assignments</h2> <p>Capture all the connectivity and I/O pin resource assignment here for the STM32F103CBT6 "Maple Mini" clone board.</p> <p><a href="https://www.transsys.com/posts/fluke8050a/iopins/">Read more…</a> (2 min remaining to read)</p></div>electronicsfluke8050ahardwarehttps://www.transsys.com/posts/fluke8050a/iopins/Sun, 25 Oct 2020 03:20:50 GMT