Is it time for a TSE 'sticky" post?
That's the second schematic error I've apparently re-discovered since I embarked on this adventure and there are a number of parts list changes that are discussed in diverse places. I understand George's position is that the TSE 'never was intended as a beginners project' and 'never intended to be a commercial product' but at this point that dog don't hunt. It is commercially available to anyone with $50 and many have been and apparently will continue to be sold.
I'm not ragging on George; he's been very generous with his time, skill and knowledge and has done more than any 'amateur' builder I know of to share and educate - but he needs some help here, I think. At least many of us building his amp need some help.
Is anybody interested in a cooperative effort to produce a squared-away guide to the TSE? What I think is needed is and editable file of the schematic (in Visio or whatever) and perhaps some sort of annotated parts list. From what I can tell only the silk screen is accurate so might become the "check print" for this effort.
I'd be willing to try creating the first drafts but I'll need help with review, error correction, and definitely with administration (how to post, where to post, how to keep the post at the top of the forum so anybody with questions sees it first).
Anybody interested?
That's the second schematic error I've apparently re-discovered since I embarked on this adventure and there are a number of parts list changes that are discussed in diverse places. I understand George's position is that the TSE 'never was intended as a beginners project' and 'never intended to be a commercial product' but at this point that dog don't hunt. It is commercially available to anyone with $50 and many have been and apparently will continue to be sold.
I'm not ragging on George; he's been very generous with his time, skill and knowledge and has done more than any 'amateur' builder I know of to share and educate - but he needs some help here, I think. At least many of us building his amp need some help.
Is anybody interested in a cooperative effort to produce a squared-away guide to the TSE? What I think is needed is and editable file of the schematic (in Visio or whatever) and perhaps some sort of annotated parts list. From what I can tell only the silk screen is accurate so might become the "check print" for this effort.
I'd be willing to try creating the first drafts but I'll need help with review, error correction, and definitely with administration (how to post, where to post, how to keep the post at the top of the forum so anybody with questions sees it first).
Anybody interested?
Hi cddeluca,
Great idea
I have a TSE board and all the parts, but I did not start building it yet. Your guide will be very useful. I do not think I have the skills to review the guide, but I can add my share of newbie questions
Will the guide include tips to build the TSE with all the parts on the bottom side of the PCB (except the sockets of course) ?
Great idea
I have a TSE board and all the parts, but I did not start building it yet. Your guide will be very useful. I do not think I have the skills to review the guide, but I can add my share of newbie questions Will the guide include tips to build the TSE with all the parts on the bottom side of the PCB (except the sockets of course) ?
Annotated TSE Parts List
Hopefully this will upload - incorporates what I've found to date.
Also: This morning I replaced the grid stoppers (formerly 4.7K metal film) with 1K carbon comps. The power transformer (Angela Universal) is now noticeably cooler - as in room temp - formerly it was warm to the touch - clearly the 4.7K metal film was too inductive, causing oscillation.
Hopefully this will upload - incorporates what I've found to date.
Also: This morning I replaced the grid stoppers (formerly 4.7K metal film) with 1K carbon comps. The power transformer (Angela Universal) is now noticeably cooler - as in room temp - formerly it was warm to the touch - clearly the 4.7K metal film was too inductive, causing oscillation.
I think he should move the important parts of his board instructions to his forum here, like the schematics and parts lists. The latter is especially important, since it tends to be a live document as part supplies dwindle and change. There are also international considerations. The information is already here, but it is spread across many threads. I can see how a new builder can become very confused and order the wrong parts.
Georges site became largely stale a few years ago when his ISP dropped support for Microsoft's Frontpage extensions. MS loves the "embrace and extend" approach to web standards, which has the effect of locking your content into their system. Frontpage has some "handy" menu features that make the site really tedious to maintain without it. If you search around, you'll see that he's mentioned a few times that he is rewriting his site using MS's "Expression Web" replacement, but I suspect that won't be done any time soon.
Georges site became largely stale a few years ago when his ISP dropped support for Microsoft's Frontpage extensions. MS loves the "embrace and extend" approach to web standards, which has the effect of locking your content into their system. Frontpage has some "handy" menu features that make the site really tedious to maintain without it. If you search around, you'll see that he's mentioned a few times that he is rewriting his site using MS's "Expression Web" replacement, but I suspect that won't be done any time soon.
That was just one of many things that have lead to a comatose web site and zero amplifiers built in 3 years.
About 4 years ago my mother had to be moved into a nursing home about 250 miles away in Tampa. At the same time Sherri's mom contracted Melanoma. Melanoma is an extremely aggressive cancer that usually claims their victims within 6 months of diagnosis. She also required full time care. Her sister (70 years old) and Sherri took turns playing nurse at her house 1200 miles from here. This was expected to last 6 months.
Sherri's mom volunteered for human experimentation at the university of Pittsburgh which required driving her to Pittsburgh every day (150 miles). During this time Sherri was gone more than she was home, I had to drive to Tampa every other weekend to see my mom, and maintain a 50 hour work week. I also took several trips to West Virginia every year to see Sherri and her mom and to help out. This went on for 4 years, draining our finances, and straining relationships.
My mom (90 years old), Sherri's mom and her sister (brain tumor) all passed last year. All 3 estates are still not settled, but progress is being made. Sherri and I have been together for over 3 months, for the first time in years, but she leaves for West Virginia again on Thursday.
Sherri has been in favor of closing Tubelab down for over a year now (since the legal threats). Tubelab has shown a small profit in one of it's 5 years, and lost money every other year. We discussed it again and we agreed that Tubelab will continue for now but my priorities MUST be on keeping my current job for as long as possible, eliminating unneccessary expenses, and preparing for the inevitable "retirement". The company where I have worked for the past 39 years has shed nearly 100,000 employees in the last 10 years.
I have always tried to build one of each of my boards each year to verify parts lists and make necessary changes. This has not happened recently.
I did build two Simple P-P boards early last year to verify the parts kits that are now being sold.
I have purchased most of the parts for a SSE kit, but have not had the time to build a board and I will not sell kits until I have built one myself.
The Tubelab SE is by nature a somewhat different build for each user since there are 3 different tube sets and a wide range of build costs. I started a build to test several new mosfets but sadly only minimal Tubelab activity occurred last year except for several "paper designs".
During my down time (hospitals, passenger in the daily trip to Pittsburgh....) I laid out several test boards for new designs. I need to build and test them.
While Sherri was here, we cleaned out one room of our house. I need to now pick what I am keeping from our rental warehouse, move it into that room, and sell or trash everything left.....Yes there are a lot of tubes and other goodies there. Unfortunately the rent is now $2500 a year. Eliminating that expense would have turned Tubelab black for all of its 5 years. It's got to go.
And yes, I need to fix the web site. I should start to have some more Tubelab time in the next few weeks.
Good idea, and I have the power to do that. I will be gone this weekend. The following weekend will be "build a TSE" weekend. I have about a dozen mosfets to test and the parts list does need some help. Please drop any suggestions here, and I will create a sticky for each of the 3 boards.
Got to go.... it's late here.
George,
A sticky is a start, but can you setup a Wiki here? The community can help you by offering alternatives to some of the components and keeping a master list updated. Parts seems to come and go quite often. There are also some of the resistor values on the TSE that should be tweaked based on the desired B+ voltage. That information is actually on your site, but it's not part of the instructions and is often missed. Putting that right in the parts list would make that clear. We can also provode things like a list of cathode resistor values for folks wanting to optimize multiple tube types in the SSE.
Just some ideas.
A sticky is a start, but can you setup a Wiki here? The community can help you by offering alternatives to some of the components and keeping a master list updated. Parts seems to come and go quite often. There are also some of the resistor values on the TSE that should be tweaked based on the desired B+ voltage. That information is actually on your site, but it's not part of the instructions and is often missed. Putting that right in the parts list would make that clear. We can also provode things like a list of cathode resistor values for folks wanting to optimize multiple tube types in the SSE.
Just some ideas.
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