Sounds excellent. As I said before, I'd be down for 4 boards if the option for PP is available (probably 2 if not) I'd be more than happy to be one of those early adopters you speak of...
A new SSE board revision? Are there any major changes planned, or just more of a housekeeping thing?
It started out to be a legal thing. Last year it was determined that I had to change the name. The trademark owner of a similar name agreed that I could continue to sell my existing stock of PC boards until it was depleted. New stock couldn't display the old name. Last year I did a new layout with only the name change, however the PC board vendor screwed up and used the old artwork. There are a few of those boards left, and new ones in house.
This year I submitted a new layout with the name change and two additions. A pair of small silicon diodes has been added in series with the 5AR4 plates, and a CL140 inrush current limiter has been added in series with the HV CT on the power transformer. Both additions are intended to improve rectifier tube reliability. Both can be jumpered out if desired to make the board exactly the same as the old one. Some users don't want silicon or other nonlinear devices (the CL140) in their amp. Yes, you can build it without the 10M45 too.
The rectifier tube in the SSE can operate at the edge of peak current spec with a Hammond power transformer and some of the current production tubes blow up.
These changes can be added to an existing SSE, but if someone has a good working amp, don't mess with it. There was a rash of bad 5AR4 batches about 2 years ago and it wasn't uncommon for a builder to try 1 or 2 tubes and watch them spark out on power up before finding a good one. It seemed that JJ and Shuguang were having problems at about the same time. Todays tubes seem OK, but it could happen again.
I wish I could commit to being an early adopter, being keen to have a Tubelab Spud. Until I square away my employment situation and get back on someone's payroll, I can't.
If that changes, I would dearly love to be an early adopter. I do agree with 'pso' from the earlier thread about the tube rectifier, it does look rather nice in a spud, even though it would then be a 'one and a shared' tuber. Someone's gonna hafta come up with a name for that...I'd rather have the board.
BTW: the potential to convert one of these into a guitar amp has dramatically increased the WAF (i.e. wife acceptance factor) when I do finally have the funds to play with my hobbies again...she plays a Jackson rather loud on a sand-based Peavey currently. A push-pull unit based on 6LR8's would be a conversation piece for her gigs.
Glad the Tubelab collective has responded to this thread positively. Keep it up.
It works the other way here. The louder ANYTHING is the less the WAF. I can't play the guitar at all when she is home unless I am in the other end of the house without an amp. As we plan out our retirement house it will have a "music room" as far as possible from the living quarters with as much soundproofing as possible. I have my daughters old drum set stashed under the staircase in the house in West Virginia. She hasn't found it yet. Kinda hard to turn down the drums.
The Spud SE as it exists now uses a silicon rectifier in bridge configuration without using the transformer CT. This allows operation from cheap Antek toroids. It can be wired for a power transfoirmer with a CT also. I am not planning to put a rectifier tube on board since that will increase the board size and drive up the cost. I believe it is possible to wire an off board socket for a 5AR4 without any additional components using the on board filter caps. I will have to investigate this since I will need a negative voltage for the CCS....if I even use one. I am experimenting with just a big resistor and a fairly large negative voltage. Tube rectifiers are almost mandantory for guitar amps, so I'll look into it.
Just take a small, portable generator into the hills and scare the local fauna with some power chords. You might even make the news and get some free publicity.
My buddy in Kingston plays the drums (among other things) and uses practice to drive away the demons of a day at work writing software for a life insurance company.
With the inexpensive board services out there, perhaps a peripheral board would be easiest to maintain cost and size control, while giving some flexibility to the overall design, even swapping rectifier tubes for the more advernturous. That way, you could keep the Pi filter in place after the current bridge rectifier design, pop in some jumpers and add the extra stuff like the CL140 and the bypass diodes to a small (say 5mm by 5mm) rectifier board. Just a thought.
So is your next project vacuum tube based noise cancelling headphones? Maybe THAT is the use for those pencil sized hearing aid tubes mentioned earlier in this thread...an UNhearing aid. Hmm...
Ahh yes I'd forgotten the whole trademark debacle. Yeah, no plans to alter mine, works beautifully. Why mess with a good thing? That said, I've never tried 5AR4's in it, solid state for the first few months and NOS 5U4GB's since then.
Hmm hadn't really thought about a tube rectifier, but the more tubes the merrier I guess
Not one I'd really push for either way - if the option's there I'd probably go for it, but otherwise no need. Unless, as George says, you make a guitar amp out of it, then it's hard to go without (just not then same with SS now, is it?)
I must report that there has been no progress on anything related to Tubelab since June. We did clean out the warehouse, but now there is "stuff" in every room of the house except the bathrooms and kitchen. Sherri is of course not happy with this situation.
Tubelab sales have died with the economy and even with the elimination of warehouse rent Tubelab is on track to lose money again this year. Sherri and my acountant are both trying to convince me that it is time to give up
My job has become more demanding, and I who just turned 60 yesterday find myself working more hours to keep up with the younger people in my group. I have worked in the same place for 40 years....I never expected to last that long, but due to compettitive pressures the employment outlook is looking better than it has in 10 years. After 11 years of laying people off, our group was allowed to hire 2 replacements for people who left this year. We are still very short staffed for what we do.
Our group designs custom RF IC chips. I am not a chip designer, but I am one of the few guys that tests, evaluates, designs evaluation boards, and prototype products for these chips. We taped out two new chip designs last month, and silicon is due back in December. I have 3 boards to design and lay out, and some software to write to drive them before then.
My daughter was about 3 months pregnant with our 3rd grandchild when she began leaking amniotic fluid. The hospital said there was only one possible course of action....terminate the pregnancy. They said that there was NO chance of carrying the baby to term. She told them where to go, and they told her to leave since she was not following sound medical advice. The folowing 6 months were full of ups and downs that had her and Sherri on the verge of a nervous meltdown. I can happilly report that my daughter gave birth to a healthy baby boy about 3 weeks ago, and we just got back from visiting them in Seattle.
In some of the few random moments of calm amongst the insanity I have got two new potential Tubelab projects in partial breadboard state. The original Spud SE board has parts sky wired all over it, but I can't honestly remember whether I was happy with it yet. There is a SMALL low cost guitar amp head in the same state. It actually works good, but I have not done a feasibility study to see if it is worth completing. A guitar amp must be "so easy even a drummer can build it" and sold as a COMPLETE kit...including a case.
Given the situation at work I don't see either of these projects seeing much action this year.
I must go out of town this weekend, and Sherri will be away for a few weeks, so I will start listing some of my excess "stuff" on Ebay next week in an attempt to show a profit or at least break even this year.
Tubelab sales have died with the economy and even with the elimination of warehouse rent Tubelab is on track to lose money again this year. Sherri and my acountant are both trying to convince me that it is time to give up
My job has become more demanding, and I who just turned 60 yesterday find myself working more hours to keep up with the younger people in my group. I have worked in the same place for 40 years....I never expected to last that long, but due to compettitive pressures the employment outlook is looking better than it has in 10 years. After 11 years of laying people off, our group was allowed to hire 2 replacements for people who left this year.
We are still very short staffed for what we do.Our group designs custom RF IC chips. I am not a chip designer, but I am one of the few guys that tests, evaluates, designs evaluation boards, and prototype products for these chips. We taped out two new chip designs last month, and silicon is due back in December. I have 3 boards to design and lay out, and some software to write to drive them before then.
My daughter was about 3 months pregnant with our 3rd grandchild when she began leaking amniotic fluid. The hospital said there was only one possible course of action....terminate the pregnancy. They said that there was NO chance of carrying the baby to term. She told them where to go, and they told her to leave since she was not following sound medical advice. The folowing 6 months were full of ups and downs that had her and Sherri on the verge of a nervous meltdown. I can happilly report that my daughter gave birth to a healthy baby boy about 3 weeks ago, and we just got back from visiting them in Seattle.
In some of the few random moments of calm amongst the insanity I have got two new potential Tubelab projects in partial breadboard state. The original Spud SE board has parts sky wired all over it, but I can't honestly remember whether I was happy with it yet. There is a SMALL low cost guitar amp head in the same state. It actually works good, but I have not done a feasibility study to see if it is worth completing. A guitar amp must be "so easy even a drummer can build it" and sold as a COMPLETE kit...including a case.
Given the situation at work I don't see either of these projects seeing much action this year.
I must go out of town this weekend, and Sherri will be away for a few weeks, so I will start listing some of my excess "stuff" on Ebay next week in an attempt to show a profit or at least break even this year.