How the heck do I solve this problem????

djn · 01:59 PM

Hi All, I am building a RatRod amp with the 6LR8 compactron tube. As you can see by the pix it will be flat black and I will pin stripe it with white and red....just like a RatRod. Anyway, the two outboard holes on the front are for Oil Pressure and Oil Tempature gauges. How can I make those two gauges work as VU meters?????

kevinkr · 21st September 2010, 04:14 PM

Purchase a set of those round Chinese made VU meters that show up on eBay from time to time?

djn · 21st September 2010, 04:16 PM

At first I was going to do that but then realized that this is a RatRod amp and it should have car gauges.

kevinkr · 21st September 2010, 04:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by djn

At first I was going to do that but then realized that this is a RatRod amp and it should have car gauges.

Most car gauges I am familiar with have hot wire mechanisms which probably have too long a time constant to work well for this application. (I could be wrong)

I think taking some meters and modifying them to look like car gauges would work a lot better.

I'd look at Stewart Warner's automotive electric gauges and see if they have anything that might work..

Arnulf · 21st September 2010, 04:25 PM

I don't see any red and white stripe

Michael Koster · 21st September 2010, 05:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by djn

At first I was going to do that but then realized that this is a RatRod amp and it should have car gauges.

Get some round meters and make new dial scales for them marked "oil temperature" and "turbine inlet temperature" , "EGT", or whatever with green and red segments...

Meter - from Tonne Software

Cheers,

Michael

Frank Berry · 21st September 2010, 05:25 PM

You could purchase or borrow the Oil Temperature and Turbine Inlet Temperature gauges and scan the faces of the gauges. Glue the scanned images to a couple of VU meter movements.
As for connecting the VU meters, all you'll need is a bridge rectifier (using Schottky or Germanium diodes) fed from the secondary side of your output transformers and a 1k pot so that you can adjust the sensitivity of the meters.

Please share a photo after you have completed the project. It looks good so far.

Wavebourn · 21st September 2010, 05:30 PM

Thank you Michael, nice software!

djn · 21st September 2010, 06:19 PM

Nope, no stripes yet. I just now finished all the drilling and whacking and now taking it to Ron's for pin striping.

Thanks all for your suggestions. I really don't care for VU meters, I just thought that since I was messing with it, I could turn the car stuff into VUs. When I get the meters, I see what I can do but it sounds like it might not work as I'd hoped.

taj · 21st September 2010, 11:48 PM

Heck, I can draw up anything you can imagine. Let me know if you need a custom meter dial done up (nicely.)

Wavebourn, ... nice. :-)

..Todd

21st September 2010, 04:14 PM	#2
kevinkr diyAudio Moderator Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Boston, Massachusetts Blog Entries: 6	Purchase a set of those round Chinese made VU meters that show up on eBay from time to time? __________________ www.kta-hifi.net

21st September 2010, 04:25 PM	#5
Arnulf diyAudio Member Join Date: Feb 2009	I don't see any red and white stripe __________________ mod verb, transitive /mod/ to state that one is utterly clueless about the operation of device to be "modded" and into "fixing" things that are not broken; "My new amplifier sounds great so I want to mod it."

21st September 2010, 05:25 PM	#7
Frank Berry diyAudio Member Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Midland, Michigan	You could purchase or borrow the Oil Temperature and Turbine Inlet Temperature gauges and scan the faces of the gauges. Glue the scanned images to a couple of VU meter movements. As for connecting the VU meters, all you'll need is a bridge rectifier (using Schottky or Germanium diodes) fed from the secondary side of your output transformers and a 1k pot so that you can adjust the sensitivity of the meters. Please share a photo after you have completed the project. It looks good so far. __________________ Frank

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21st September 2010, 04:16 PM	#3
djn diyAudio Member Join Date: Oct 2004	At first I was going to do that but then realized that this is a RatRod amp and it should have car gauges.

21st September 2010, 06:19 PM	#9
djn diyAudio Member Join Date: Oct 2004	Nope, no stripes yet. I just now finished all the drilling and whacking and now taking it to Ron's for pin striping. Thanks all for your suggestions. I really don't care for VU meters, I just thought that since I was messing with it, I could turn the car stuff into VUs. When I get the meters, I see what I can do but it sounds like it might not work as I'd hoped.

21st September 2010, 11:48 PM	#10
taj diyAudio Member Join Date: Feb 2005	Heck, I can draw up anything you can imagine. Let me know if you need a custom meter dial done up (nicely.) Wavebourn, ... nice. :-) ..Todd

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