I recently got out my trusty Heathkit TT-1 tube tester to check a
bunch of tubes that had accumulated here. I've stopped using its roll
chart, because it's starting to show its age, and I assume the roll
chart is not replacable. If it IS, I'd love to hear about it.

In the meantime, I have a tube settings booklet from Heath dated 1976,
which I suspect is their latest version. If anyone has a later version
let me know. Mine is getting a bit shopworn, so I'm thinking about
scanning it and getting copies made. In the process of doing that, I
could also add in any extra tubes that Heath added in some supplements
that I also have.

I can get very nice reproductions made and I was wondering how many
people out there would like copies.

The original booklets came with the plastic "spine" bindings, but I
was thinking that printing on 11 x 17 paper and then center stapling
and folding would be a better way to go, since the holes for the
spines tend to tear and the spines themselves get crushed.

So, any opinions sent now would be appreciated.

thanks,

-
-----------------------------------------------
Jim Adney
Madison, WI 53711 USA
-----------------------------------------------

Jim Adney wrote:

snip
In the meantime, I have a tube settings booklet from Heath dated 1976,
which I suspect is their latest version. If anyone has a later version
let me know. Mine is getting a bit shopworn, so I'm thinking about
scanning it and getting copies made. In the process of doing that, I
could also add in any extra tubes that Heath added in some supplements
that I also have.

Please consider scanning it instead, make a PDF (or just a tarball of
the images) and post it to the files section in the Heathkit Yahoo
group, or provide an url for download instead. This would help
a lot of folks down the road. There are a number of scans of versions
of this data, but yours may be more inclusive or of better visual
quality.

Michael

"Jim Adney" wrote in message
...
I recently got out my trusty Heathkit TT-1 tube tester to check a
bunch of tubes that had accumulated here. I've stopped using its roll
chart, because it's starting to show its age, and I assume the roll
chart is not replacable. If it IS, I'd love to hear about it.




this does bring up an interesting thought, not totally unrelated - with
today's inexpensive computer interfaces, why not build/market a tube tester
accessory that would plug into a USB bus - all you would need is one of each
kind of socket on the unit, and a couple of power sources (filament and
plate/bias voltages) - so a set of SCRs to choose filament voltage and apply
it to the proper pins, 4 or four cheap D/As to create the voltages (maybe
with an HV op amp to create higher voltages), and op amps and A/D with a mux
to scan voltages and currents on all the pins of every socket - this would
probably take no more than 50 to 100 parts and a small PC board and you
could have the tube info read from a computer database and have the test
results displayed graphically - transconductance plots, leakage, emissivity,
all those esoteric parameters.

Done as a labor of love, where the NRE is not amortized, it could be
profitable at the $150 to $300 price range - wouldn't this be a good thing?
it would take less space, be more accurate, faster and less error prone than
using a 40 to 60 year old largely mechanical device.


so, who's gonna make it?


** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **

On Jun 7, 10:41*am, "William Noble" wrote:
"Jim Adney" wrote in message

...

I recently got out my trusty Heathkit TT-1 tube tester to check a
bunch of tubes that had accumulated here. I've stopped using its roll
chart, because it's starting to show its age, and I assume the roll
chart is not replacable. If it IS, I'd love to hear about it.

this does bring up an interesting thought, not totally unrelated - with
today's inexpensive computer interfaces, why not build/market a tube tester
accessory that would plug into a USB bus - all you would need is one of each
kind of socket on the unit, and a couple of power sources (filament and
plate/bias voltages) - so a set of SCRs to choose filament voltage and apply
it to the proper pins, 4 or four cheap D/As to create the voltages (maybe
with an HV op amp to create higher voltages), and op amps and A/D with a mux
to scan voltages and currents on all the pins of every socket - this would
probably take no more than 50 to 100 parts and a small PC board and you
could have the tube info read from a computer database and have the test
results displayed graphically - transconductance plots, leakage, emissivity,
all those esoteric parameters.

Done as a labor of love, where the NRE is not amortized, it could be
profitable at the $150 to $300 price range - wouldn't this be a good thing?
it would take less space, be more accurate, faster and less error prone than
using a 40 to 60 year old largely mechanical device.

so, who's gonna make it?

** Posted fromhttp://www.teranews.com**

Hunh, it should be so simple!
I suppose a wide range switching supply for the filaments would work,
but it needs to be able to supply between 1V@50mA and 120V@100mA as
well as up to 3-4A at around 6V. Likewise you would need 3 variable
DC supplies for plate, screen and grid bias as well a source of AC
signal for the gm measurements. Also some form of 'free-point'
switching to connect the various sources and measure inputs to the
socket pins [at up to 4A and 500V]. Then you need the detectors as you
say. Methinks the parts cost would be a bit above your estimate. Then
the program to run all that stuff and display the results and,
finally, creating the tube test data tables. Sounds like a couple of
man years work.

I am in the process of adapting a Heath IT-3121 output to test tubes,
and that simply needs a bias amplifier to drive the control grid, an
external supply for the screen and a filament supply. It looks like
the IT-3121, an IP-17 and a socket box will do the job along with the
bias amp. That's only about a week's work.

Neil S.

Already available he

http://www.agtannenbaum.com/h_cat.html#HEATHKIT

Already done Bill, but it's not that cheap. Conversions of Hickok's
cardmatic are available and a computer drives that setup section of the
tester. All the tubes are in the system. I don't remember who is doing
that, but you need to supply the tester. Oh and the $1600 bucks.
"William Noble" wrote in message
...

"Jim Adney" wrote in message
...
I recently got out my trusty Heathkit TT-1 tube tester to check a
bunch of tubes that had accumulated here. I've stopped using its roll
chart, because it's starting to show its age, and I assume the roll
chart is not replacable. If it IS, I'd love to hear about it.




this does bring up an interesting thought, not totally unrelated -
with today's inexpensive computer interfaces, why not build/market a
tube tester accessory that would plug into a USB bus - all you would
need is one of each kind of socket on the unit, and a couple of power
sources (filament and plate/bias voltages) - so a set of SCRs to
choose filament voltage and apply it to the proper pins, 4 or four
cheap D/As to create the voltages (maybe with an HV op amp to create
higher voltages), and op amps and A/D with a mux to scan voltages and
currents on all the pins of every socket - this would probably take no
more than 50 to 100 parts and a small PC board and you could have the
tube info read from a computer database and have the test results
displayed graphically - transconductance plots, leakage, emissivity,
all those esoteric parameters.

Done as a labor of love, where the NRE is not amortized, it could be
profitable at the $150 to $300 price range - wouldn't this be a good
thing? it would take less space, be more accurate, faster and less
error prone than using a 40 to 60 year old largely mechanical device.


so, who's gonna make it?

** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **

On Sat, 7 Jun 2008 18:11:02 -0400 "Kim Herron"
wrote:

Already done Bill, but it's not that cheap. Conversions of Hickok's
cardmatic are available and a computer drives that setup section of the
tester. All the tubes are in the system. I don't remember who is doing
that, but you need to supply the tester. Oh and the $1600 bucks.

I was thinking that I'd seen it at SND Tube Sales, but looking right
now, I don't see it.

-
-----------------------------------------------
Jim Adney
Madison, WI 53711 USA
-----------------------------------------------

Jim Adney wrote:
I recently got out my trusty Heathkit TT-1 tube tester to check a
bunch of tubes that had accumulated here. I've stopped using its roll
chart, because it's starting to show its age, and I assume the roll
chart is not replacable. If it IS, I'd love to hear about it.



Jim, if you live in a medium sized city chances are you have a company
that copies architectural drawings. These guys have continuous feed
photocopiers that will copy almost ANY length of paper! Not saying it
will be cheap though, but perhaps if you provide the roll of paper it
might go easier on you? Here in Vancouver a company called TR Trades has
a few of these machines going all day long and they ar every handy for
making long copies of my schematics, plus they can reduce or scan them
as well. However they are in business and do not do this for free.

I have heard that these endless length copiers turn up on eBay from time
to time, perhaps someone here has one?

John :-#)#

--
(Please post followups or tech inquiries to the newsgroup)
John's Jukes Ltd. 2343 Main St., Vancouver, BC, Canada V5T 3C9
Call (604)872-5757 or Fax 872-2010 (Pinballs, Jukes, Video Games)
www.flippers.com
"Old pinballers never die, they just flip out."

On Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:26:31 GMT John Robertson
wrote:

Jim, if you live in a medium sized city chances are you have a company
that copies architectural drawings. These guys have continuous feed
photocopiers that will copy almost ANY length of paper!

Interesting thought. I didn't know that such things existed. I can ask
around. It's likely that if I had more than one made at the same time,
each one might be cheaper.

-
-----------------------------------------------
Jim Adney
Madison, WI 53711 USA
-----------------------------------------------

and, there are plotters available that will plot up to 40 ft long, maybe
longer - not flatbed though -
"Jim Adney" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:26:31 GMT John Robertson
wrote:

Jim, if you live in a medium sized city chances are you have a company
that copies architectural drawings. These guys have continuous feed
photocopiers that will copy almost ANY length of paper!

Interesting thought. I didn't know that such things existed. I can ask
around. It's likely that if I had more than one made at the same time,
each one might be cheaper.

-
-----------------------------------------------
Jim Adney
Madison, WI 53711 USA
-----------------------------------------------


** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **