Tube just for show...

lorriman · 14th December 2011, 08:27 AM

I'm hoping to rig up a tube on top of a solid state amp. The tube is just to glow at me and make me feel warm all over.

However, I'm not an electronics person and so I'm looking for a little advice. My naive notion is that this would require rigging up a PSU with a few resistors. Beyond that I haven't a clue. Should the PSU be AC or DC, do I really need some more complex electronics?

Any suggestions?

Enzo · 14th December 2011, 08:49 AM

You don;'t need much circuitry at all. This is a piece of eye candy, not a working circuit. For all the world it is just a light bulb. Pick one with a nice shape, and one that has a fairly visible heater. Then apply appropriate voltage across the heater pins. The heater is the only visible function of a tube.

Oh, if you wanted to get REAL fancy, you could put a high voltage in the tube and get some glow in the gas, a nice subtle blue.

AC or DC doesn;t matter, since there is no signal in the thing, nothing to distort or add noise to. If the wiring is anywhere near your actual circuits, then DC would be less likely to radiate any hum.

A small tube like a 6C4 would only need 150ma at 6v to light up. A larger tube, like a coke bottle 6L6 would want 900ma. How big you want your eye candy? Pay the price in current.

You could cheat, and just mount a tube up there dead, then put a orange LED behind it to illuminate it from behind. LED wants maybe 20ma. You could steal that from the amp circuit easy.

Will this be for others to see as well?

A tube with a cap on top and a wire trailing down will look more electrical to the onlookers, in my view. There are numerous old tubes with a plate cap on top - sweep tubes for TV sets, high power pentodes, whatever. MAybe a couple of wires coiled up would make it look even more Frankensteinish.

I appreciate silly projects like that. I once put a power cord on a large plastic flower urn - voila, an electric flower pot. People would see it and, "But, why is it electric?" Well, it plugs in. "Yeah, but why does it have to plug in?" Well, because it is electric, of course. "But what does it do?" It's a flower pot, it holds flowers. "But..."

Magz · 14th December 2011, 01:43 PM

You could use one of these 2C22/7193 tubes - they have two top caps.

tomchr · 14th December 2011, 10:20 PM

If you're looking for eye candy, how about a 5AR4 rectifier tube? The 5 V, 1.9 A provides a quite bright glow. Sovtek make some pretty nice ones that don't cost a fortune and won't get you lynched for using a rare tube for eye candy...

All you need to do is to hook up the filament/heater to a 5 V supply (AC or DC).

Otherwise, a carbon filament light bulb would be cool as well.

~Tom

ChrisA · 15th December 2011, 12:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lorriman

I'm hoping to rig up a tube on top of a solid state amp. The tube is just to glow at me and make me feel warm all over.

However, I'm not an electronics person and so I'm looking for a little advice. My naive notion is that this would require rigging up a PSU with a few resistors. Beyond that I haven't a clue. Should the PSU be AC or DC, do I really need some more complex electronics?

Any suggestions?

Get a 6 volt, 1.5A "wall wort" plug-in power supply. AC or DC, don't matter. connect this to the heater pins of a tube socket. Plug the tube in and it will get hot. I'd use a Chinese "coke bottle" type 6L6. They use 6V and only 1A.

If you don't like wasting 6W of power and yu really don't like something that is hot enough to cause a burn then you can drill a hole up from the bottom of any tube and insert a red LED. Just go slow as you are drilling through glass

But why bother, just to look goofy? Anyone who sees it will know it's fake.

lorriman · 17th December 2011, 07:29 AM

Guys, thanks for the replies. Very amusing plant-pot story: the GF was rolling about.

I'm putting the tube on to a very small amp. Would anyone have any recommendations as to appropriate tubes?

The main things is to get them to glow and to look pretty, although cheapness would be good too.

Rembulan · 02:39 PM

What about loooking for 12AX7 and put under it a orange LED or use 24v small bulb with 12 volt supply like here http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/T1952.aspx and you will see a very nice glow

Evenharmonics · 17th December 2011, 03:11 PM

This may fit your bill.

Vacuum Tube Clock Kits

Etocynned · 18th December 2011, 04:07 PM

Holy laughter Enzo! That was awesome i wanna go put an electrical cord on something now.

The plunger looks bored...

toprepairman · 18th December 2011, 04:41 PM

Loved the electric flower pot!
Lorriman, we're almost neighbours, which part of Surrey?

14th December 2011, 08:27 AM	#1
lorriman diyAudio Member Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Surrey	Tube just for show... I'm hoping to rig up a tube on top of a solid state amp. The tube is just to glow at me and make me feel warm all over. However, I'm not an electronics person and so I'm looking for a little advice. My naive notion is that this would require rigging up a PSU with a few resistors. Beyond that I haven't a clue. Should the PSU be AC or DC, do I really need some more complex electronics? Any suggestions?

14th December 2011, 10:20 PM	#4
tomchr diyAudio Member Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Greater Seattle Area	If you're looking for eye candy, how about a 5AR4 rectifier tube? The 5 V, 1.9 A provides a quite bright glow. Sovtek make some pretty nice ones that don't cost a fortune and won't get you lynched for using a rare tube for eye candy... All you need to do is to hook up the filament/heater to a 5 V supply (AC or DC). Otherwise, a carbon filament light bulb would be cool as well. ~Tom __________________ "50 % of the game is mental and the other 50 % is being mental. I've got that part down, no problem." http://www.neurochrome.com/audio

17th December 2011, 02:37 PM	#7
Rembulan diyAudio Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: near Borobudur temple	What about loooking for 12AX7 and put under it a orange LED or use 24v small bulb with 12 volt supply like here http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/T1952.aspx and you will see a very nice glow Last edited by Rembulan; 17th December 2011 at 02:39 PM.

17th December 2011, 03:11 PM	#8
Evenharmonics diyAudio Member Join Date: Apr 2007	Something that actually has a function This may fit your bill. Vacuum Tube Clock Kits

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14th December 2011, 08:49 AM	#2
Enzo diyAudio Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Lansing, Michigan	You don;'t need much circuitry at all. This is a piece of eye candy, not a working circuit. For all the world it is just a light bulb. Pick one with a nice shape, and one that has a fairly visible heater. Then apply appropriate voltage across the heater pins. The heater is the only visible function of a tube. Oh, if you wanted to get REAL fancy, you could put a high voltage in the tube and get some glow in the gas, a nice subtle blue. AC or DC doesn;t matter, since there is no signal in the thing, nothing to distort or add noise to. If the wiring is anywhere near your actual circuits, then DC would be less likely to radiate any hum. A small tube like a 6C4 would only need 150ma at 6v to light up. A larger tube, like a coke bottle 6L6 would want 900ma. How big you want your eye candy? Pay the price in current. You could cheat, and just mount a tube up there dead, then put a orange LED behind it to illuminate it from behind. LED wants maybe 20ma. You could steal that from the amp circuit easy. Will this be for others to see as well? A tube with a cap on top and a wire trailing down will look more electrical to the onlookers, in my view. There are numerous old tubes with a plate cap on top - sweep tubes for TV sets, high power pentodes, whatever. MAybe a couple of wires coiled up would make it look even more Frankensteinish. I appreciate silly projects like that. I once put a power cord on a large plastic flower urn - voila, an electric flower pot. People would see it and, "But, why is it electric?" Well, it plugs in. "Yeah, but why does it have to plug in?" Well, because it is electric, of course. "But what does it do?" It's a flower pot, it holds flowers. "But..."

17th December 2011, 07:29 AM	#6
lorriman diyAudio Member Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Surrey	Guys, thanks for the replies. Very amusing plant-pot story: the GF was rolling about. I'm putting the tube on to a very small amp. Would anyone have any recommendations as to appropriate tubes? The main things is to get them to glow and to look pretty, although cheapness would be good too.

18th December 2011, 04:07 PM	#9
Etocynned diyAudio Member Join Date: Dec 2011	Holy laughter Enzo! That was awesome i wanna go put an electrical cord on something now. The plunger looks bored...

18th December 2011, 04:41 PM	#10
toprepairman diyAudio Member Join Date: Nov 2010	Loved the electric flower pot! Lorriman, we're almost neighbours, which part of Surrey?

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