[volt-nuts] A Fluke 732A: Return it or keep it?

[J. L. Trantham]

Charles,

What size batteries did you use for your external pack and where are you
located?  In other words, how long can your external battery pack 'survive'
keeping the 732A 'hot'?  Is the external pack recharged at Fluke or does it
have to make a round trip on the initial charge?  Once I am convinced my
unit is stable (which will probably be another six months or so, after I get
my 3458A's re-calibrated by Agilent), I hope to be able to send it to Fluke
for calibration.

Fluke made a transit case (732A-7002) and a Battery Charger and Auxiliary
Battery Case (732A-7003).  However, I have never seen a picture of either of
these.  Does anyone have any information on these?

How did you make your case?  Did you include a charger?  Combination of
battery pack and shipping container or separate battery pack and shipping
container?  

I was thinking of building a case with built-in charger, fuse, and AC
connector and cord such that when the unit arrived at the CAL facility all
that would be needed would be to plug it in and allow the external battery
pack to recharge while the unit being calibrated was plugged in, recharge
the internal batteries, and calibrated.  Or does the 732A also charge the
external battery pack along with the internal batteries?

The connector you need (complete with female contacts) is a Hypertronics P/N
D01PB306FSTAH and is in stock at Kensington Electronics at $8.96 each (plus
tax and shipping).  Only problem is their $50 minimum order.

The 'shell' only is P/N D01PB306NT and the female contact is P/N
YSK006-010ANH (three needed).

http://ecommerce.keiconn.com/hypertronics/D01PB306FSTAH

I ordered two of the connectors from Fluke using a P/N that one of the Fluke
folks in their eCal facility gave me, noting that someone else had asked the
same question a couple of weeks earlier, with Fluke Item# 2181497, described
as '100-166, PLUG - MALE, HYPERTRONICS'.  They were $12.31 each (plus tax
and shipping) and arrived as the shell only, no contacts.

If Fluke solves their supply chain problem, I sure would like to get the six
female contacts I need to make my connectors 'complete'.  When I got on the
phone with Fluke, I could never find anyone that had any knowledge about
this.  Is there anyone there I should ask for that might understand my
question? 

I look forward to your posting the update from Fluke.

Thanks.

Joe