DIY Valve Tester

Amp tinkerers and people who aren't afraid of 700 volts or so in here....

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Cdog
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DIY Valve Tester

Post by Cdog »

Finished today!

A neat little project, & I pretty much cloned his one exactly... credit to Grant for his design at http://www.valveheaven.com.


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The noval and octal sockets are wired in parallel to numbered banana leads allowing me to set up for the pinouts of different Valves. Onboard metering for Plate current and Grid Voltage.

Features:
-Shorts test
-Emission readings
-Gas test
-Gm (indirectly by readings)
-Various datasheet Plate/Screen Voltages up to 250VDC using a DC voltage multiplier and switching.
-Adjustable Grid Voltage by Pot.

I recently bought a box of old radio valves on trademe, so this will be useful to comb through when I get time. It seems there's a lot to learn about valve testing, so this will be a great learning tool. (Nice to have it off the bench, now I can resume the SR build!) :)

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Re: DIY Valve Tester

Post by PaulWD »

Hey, nice work. I built one of these a couple of years ago. Works really well. You'll find it useful for sorting. You will also get really good at reading datasheets!

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Re: DIY Valve Tester

Post by Cdog »

Cheers Paul! :)

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Re: DIY Valve Tester

Post by sizzlingbadger »

Looks like fun, I may have to build one at some point.
Tube amp and guitar tones straight from 1958… amazing how believable the sounds were back then, even without the modellers...

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Re: DIY Valve Tester

Post by jeremyb »

Neat use of budget multimeters for displays!
Slowy wrote: That's the problem; everything rewarding is just such hard work. Regret takes much less effort.

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Re: DIY Valve Tester

Post by jeremyb »

Ahhh it's the lamington tin amp guy, like the look of his new 10W amp, might be a good first build!!
Slowy wrote: That's the problem; everything rewarding is just such hard work. Regret takes much less effort.

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Re: DIY Valve Tester

Post by Capt. Black »

The baking tin is inspired!

Reminds me of one of the first fuzz units I got from Fuzzy Bro. Inspired by a fuzz-face so he used an overturned, small non-stick frypan for the case. And a 7" vinyl record for the bottom cover. Brilliant! :lol:

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Re: DIY Valve Tester

Post by Cdog »

Cheers lads!
sizzlingbadger wrote:Looks like fun, I may have to build one at some point.
It was a neat find, well designed project... Really glad I don't have to compete for one of those delapidated old testers that occasionally pop up on TM now.
jeremyb wrote:Ahhh it's the lamington tin amp guy, like the look of his new 10W amp, might be a good first build!!
Now you're talking... Make it so! 8)
Capt. Black wrote:The baking tin is inspired!

Reminds me of one of the first fuzz units I got from Fuzzy Bro. Inspired by a fuzz-face so he used an overturned, small non-stick frypan for the case. And a 7" vinyl record for the bottom cover. Brilliant! :lol:
Vinyl mojo ftw! I miss seeing the Bro's creations. Baking tin concept is the designer's idea. Cheaper than a normal enclosure, but as I discovered requires a bit more care to build with.

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Re: DIY Valve Tester

Post by mrmofo »

Capt. Black wrote:The baking tin is inspired!

Reminds me of one of the first fuzz units I got from Fuzzy Bro. Inspired by a fuzz-face so he used an overturned, small non-stick frypan for the case. And a 7" vinyl record for the bottom cover. Brilliant! :lol:
7 inch of "the Calling" from Melbourne?
pressed in 1990
only 500 pressed.

seven years I`ve been lost at sea, the sirens are calling me.
There are still some that think the neck PU is moved to accommodate the extra frets which only proves they cannot detect the difference in length of each.

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