- 2026
- Jan
- 25
The Sabtronics 2010A DVM Part 3: Fixing the display.
The Sabtronics 2010A Meter on the bench has a bad display, and I was able to find some NOS parts for it. Let’s put it in!
The dead segment in the unit was working for a while after I acquired it, even though the vendor said it wasn’t. Perhaps this was due to the device sitting in hot sun for a while and warping whatever was broken in the display back together. Regardless, it didn’t last long.
The unit comes apart with four coarse screws, and then the display board unmounts using two short screws. There’s enough cable attaching the mainboard and display board so it’s easy to pull back and identify what needs replaced, and where:
In order to remove the solder, I hit it with a bit of fresh solder and then used my good wick to take the solder off. It came off nicely and cleaned up with a bit of alcohol.
Then it was just a matter of verifying the new part and the old part were identical, which they were as they were both Fairchild FND-357 displays. I did have to clean up the legs on the new part by scraping them down, as there was 40 years of oxide on them. That was just a matter of a hobby knife blade run across each leg a couple times.
The display worked perfectly, as expected.
I also took the time to clip and cover the leads to the old battery box, which was broken beyond use. I may put another one in later, but there’s really no need.
That’s all for this one, it’s back on the bench and ready for use.
Previous part of this series: https://wereboar.com … s-and-documentation/