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Onelasttime
Junior Member
Username: Onelasttime
Post Number: 13
Registered: 8-2011
| | Posted on Thursday, August 11, 2011 - 1:44 am: | 
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Ok so I am looking at buying my own tube tester. I am looking at one that outside of the meter not working is in like new condition cosmetically and it works. It has a light system that lights to let you know no leaks, no shorts and at lest 60% of rated capacity but the meter does not work so you really do not know how good the tube is as in is just barely at 60% or is it at 100% kind of important to know if you want to try and match old tubes.
It comes with the owner's manual and guide for the controls. I want the meter to work but also do not want to drop a small fortune in it. I have never worked on a tube tester but I am thinking it is full of diodes and resistors and few caps. Would I be making a wrong assumption to think that the circuit going to the meter is a simple one and that just blindly replacing components in the circuit would be fairly routine with regards to just standard diodes and resistors???
The meter has a nasty scar the only blemish on the entire thing. I am not a colector of tube testor's so I have no problem with putting a different meter in. The only problem being I do not have tubes of known values to calibrate it after wards seems like a problem though.
If I get this is their someone that works on these that I could take it too??? Their are not any tech's in my area I would trust most of them are hack's or butcher's as in no scope, no signal generator, no formal training etc.....
My other question would be to ask if their is some way to test and rate tubes with just a VOM??? I am guessing not since you would be putting rated voltage or current through any of the parts but figured I would ask all the same. I am new to tubes.
Thanks for you help I am really outside of my knowledge base with tube tester since I have never worked on one in my life
in fact I never even used one. It is on ebay so I do not have it in hand to take a photo of it's internals and post or to test it etc....I am going on the seller's reply to my questions. |
Lester_elm
Member
Username: Lester_elm
Post Number: 69
Registered: 12-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, August 11, 2011 - 10:10 pm: |
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Hi John.
A tube tester is a great piece of test equipment to have. However, the age of the unit is something you must take into consideration. As you have noted, they contain a number of capacitors, resistors, and other components. The meter issue itself would be a fairly simple fix. The thing I would be more concerned with is the accuracy of the unit. Caps and resistors change values over time and these changes can make the difference in a tube testing strong or weak. If you purchase this tester, I would highly recommend re-capping it and calibrating it to specs. This is NOT a job for the faint of heart or inexperienced tech. If you just want a tester to 'make do' with then it may work fine as is for a general go/no-go test unit. I certainly wouldn't invest a substantial amount of money into the purchase price as it will cost a pretty penny to get it up to snuff as a quality bench unit. Just my two cents worth.
CEF #964 HAM #276
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