I tend to learn much better from a lecture than I do from books. I've found a few good videos that explain a few basic aspects of how tubes work on YouTube. Particularly from AllAmericanFive and the three part series starting with this one.
I was wondering if anyone knew of any other videos that they though were good and / or informative. What I'd really like at the moment is to find some stuff that would help me understand the use of load lines, designing an amplification stage, and how to properly connect two stages...you know, how to design a tube amplifier...or maybe an explication of a well known circuit.
And really, I know there are a bunch of people here who really know what they are doing. I'd like to put the thought into your heads that maybe you are the person to produce such videos
I was wondering if anyone knew of any other videos that they though were good and / or informative. What I'd really like at the moment is to find some stuff that would help me understand the use of load lines, designing an amplification stage, and how to properly connect two stages...you know, how to design a tube amplifier...or maybe an explication of a well known circuit.
And really, I know there are a bunch of people here who really know what they are doing. I'd like to put the thought into your heads that maybe you are the person to produce such videos
Actually the thought has been in my head for some time now and I have been tinkering with some videos. Mostly playing around blowing stuff up, but I am trying to learn how to edit video. I have also realized that my 9 year old Sony still camera does OK (640 X 480 30 FPS max) but the sound sucks. I will have to get something better before uploading anything.
Great plan George!
A request though... please use a clip-on lapel mic, not a camera's built-in mic that's 8 ft away, picking up all the street traffic louder than the talking head. It's a pet peeve with me.
Heck, those little Panasonic WM-61a microphone capsules for $2 from Digi-key would probably kick the butt of any video cam microphone, if you're into doing a little DIY before you start shooting.
..todd
A request though... please use a clip-on lapel mic, not a camera's built-in mic that's 8 ft away, picking up all the street traffic louder than the talking head.
It's a pet peeve with me. Heck, those little Panasonic WM-61a microphone capsules for $2 from Digi-key would probably kick the butt of any video cam microphone, if you're into doing a little DIY before you start shooting.
..todd
That would be awesome! I don't know how many hours I've spent reading discussions in which Dr. G. Blow-!t-Up has been a major contributed and I've been left wishing I understood a bit more about what was being discussed. If nothing else it would be entertaining .
Would a flip-cam work? They are dead simple to use and now dirt cheap since cell phone cameras have supplanted them. My wife still uses one to record the student teachers she supervises when she does her school visits. I'd be willing to spearhead an effort to procure some "community" equipment that could be passed around to whomever was willing to record some interesting or informative video if that would help.
The fact that there seems to not be much out there in the way of recordings of people actually talking about how these things work in anything but a very rudimentary fashion suggests that anything that does get produced might have a significant lifespan and distribution.
.Would a flip-cam work? They are dead simple to use and now dirt cheap since cell phone cameras have supplanted them. My wife still uses one to record the student teachers she supervises when she does her school visits. I'd be willing to spearhead an effort to procure some "community" equipment that could be passed around to whomever was willing to record some interesting or informative video if that would help.
The fact that there seems to not be much out there in the way of recordings of people actually talking about how these things work in anything but a very rudimentary fashion suggests that anything that does get produced might have a significant lifespan and distribution.
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I am experimenting with my old Sony still camera. It does not have a connection for an external mic. Since I am not capable of doing more than a few seconds of anything without screwing up, video lectures or demonstrations will probably be done as multiple takes and pieced together (after I figure out how). I have the capability to add fresh audio after the fact if it is needed.
I made the statement yesterday that the sound sucks on the Sony. After reviewing several hours of videos taken over the 9 years I have owned the camera, I realize that is not the case. Many videos have clear sound and good video quality for the age and intended use of the camera. The videos that have terrible sound were ones I tried to shoot for the Hundred Buck Amp challenge. They were of me attempting to play the guitar and the volume level was too high for the camera's mic. Outdoor videos were good and indoor videos of kids and grandkids were good with reasonable sound.
I bought one for my daughter a couple of years ago so I would get videos of the grandkids. I played with it and found that the videos weren't any better than the old Sony and had less detail. It offered no ability to focus close up on something. The old Sony will work down to about 10 inches and was used to shoot all the pictures on my web site, and most of the pictures I have posted here. I will get a real HD video cam eventually if for no other reason than the wider aspect ratio.
I set up a YouTube account and "channel" yesterday and posted two videos from a car show's burnout contest. They were taken with the Sony at full zoom from the top of the grandstands and are a bit shakey. All the stuff shot for Tubelab will be on a tripod.
At this time there is no Tubelab related content worthy of posting. I posted these videos just to see how it all worked. I now know that a better internet connection will be needed before going too far down this road. Those videos took about an hour each to upload. I will also need a new computer, because Vista sucks, but I have known that for a while, and it is almost done. The YouTube channel is (tubelab was already taken):
http://www.youtube.com/user/TubelabCom
I believe there are a few reasons for that. YouTube has a very large user base. How many of them are technically inclined? How many of those care anything about vacuum tubes? And how many of those really want to know how stuff works? How many people are out there that really understand how they work are actually capable of teaching the fundamentals at a level where the newbie can actually understand? Have you ever watched a YouTube "basic" theory demo where the first thing seen is a schematic diagram. NO, first you need to understand how to READ a schematic diagram.
Spend a day or two searching YouTube for words related to vacuum tubes. I was surprised to find a few Tubelab amps, but most of the posts are related to guitar amps. Only a very few were technical and they had fewer views than the guitar amp metal shredding videos.
So, it seems that the demand is fairly small, but as you say, there isn't really much quality out there today. The real problem is the scope of the task. There is a large volume of material to cover from zero to building your own tube amp. That would be just the steps to get a beginner up to the average technical level of the users of this forum. From there we need to go from building an amp from a schematic, to actually understanding enough to design your own amp. Now, where in all of this do you start?
Obviously basic electricity, reading a schematic, how tubes work, and why they don't are the necessary fundamentals. We also need to cover how to test an amp, and how to use all the common test equipment. This stuff would get boring to a lot of viewers and the guy making the videos, so there must be some "edutainment" like blowing up a few tubes.
Start at the very beginning, and bore most of the forum users? Start in the middle, and go both ways? Start an the PHD level and lose everybody but sound impressive
? Do we restrict ourselves to only tubes, or cover some sandy state stuff as well? How deep in the sand do we go? Any ideas??????Well I like the idea and like it a lot.
I am probably the most inexperienced and uneducated vacuum tube builder on the forum (though I am pretty good at assembling things ) and would like nothing more than to have an archive of videos to browse to understand basics and -not-so-basics.
Also videos concerning instrument use (oscilloscopes/DMM/signal generators ecc) would be a HUGE hit in the forum. Many can understand a theoretical lesson on tubes but to understand how to obtain reliable results from measuring instruments that is another matter.
The equivalent of the difference between understanding the theory behind endothermic race engines and teaking AFR/spark advance ratios.
I know tubelab.com knows what I am talking about.
I think we could have 3 "containers".
1) basics about thermoionics (maybe something visually enticing like huge transmitting tubes used as models)
2) more advanced videos about specific topics: ie load lines/topology/transformer matching
3)instrument usage and measurements.
More advanced topics would really defeat the purpose and scope of these videos, also, at the top level a written exchange on tthe forum might just be enough. I would try to keep the "type 2" videos just complex enough to make the average user able to follow most of what is discussed in the most advanced threads.
Just one question (an don't take it the wrong way tubelab.com) will you be starring in guitar-hero-shirtless mode?
(just kidding)
I am probably the most inexperienced and uneducated vacuum tube builder on the forum (though I am pretty good at assembling things
) and would like nothing more than to have an archive of videos to browse to understand basics and -not-so-basics. Also videos concerning instrument use (oscilloscopes/DMM/signal generators ecc) would be a HUGE hit in the forum. Many can understand a theoretical lesson on tubes but to understand how to obtain reliable results from measuring instruments that is another matter.
The equivalent of the difference between understanding the theory behind endothermic race engines and teaking AFR/spark advance ratios.
I know tubelab.com knows what I am talking about.
I think we could have 3 "containers".
1) basics about thermoionics (maybe something visually enticing like huge transmitting tubes used as models)
2) more advanced videos about specific topics: ie load lines/topology/transformer matching
3)instrument usage and measurements.
More advanced topics would really defeat the purpose and scope of these videos, also, at the top level a written exchange on tthe forum might just be enough. I would try to keep the "type 2" videos just complex enough to make the average user able to follow most of what is discussed in the most advanced threads.
Just one question (an don't take it the wrong way tubelab.com) will you be starring in guitar-hero-shirtless mode?
(just kidding)
The camera should be pointed at something that draws the viewers attention and is useful. I am neither. A smoking circuit maybe
Here in California I don't think it's legal for circuits to smoke indoors.....
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some food for thought....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE2j9uUbtIc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sl16ZSUZYQ4&feature=related
obviously these are not specific videos but something of the sort could help people out.
I think either two video sources (one of the speaker/one of the bench) would be required together with some editing to obtain a good product
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE2j9uUbtIc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sl16ZSUZYQ4&feature=related
obviously these are not specific videos but something of the sort could help people out.
I think either two video sources (one of the speaker/one of the bench) would be required together with some editing to obtain a good product
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Either that, or I will be hiding from view of the camera. Summer is coming. Not here yet and already high 80's in the afternoons.
Here in Florida it's OK for them to smoke inside their own home, or a public bar that does not have a dedicated restaraunt.
Granted, I don't speak Russian, and didn't understand, but what does a PC motherboard have to do with a large transmitting tube? Lots of idle test equipment in the background too.
I would prefer to have the camera centered on the active scene, whether it is a tube, circuit, scope screen, or whatever. While talking in general it would zoom out to show the entire bench. There needs to be a whiteboard, or a digital equivalent for discussing schematics. There are probably a dozen things that I am forgetting, but the first is a clean workspace. That's going to take some time.
My point was to show that you (or any other forum guru) may want to keep a videocamera pointed at yourself during the "narrated parts" (maybe the introductory lessons)
I don't speak russian myself but I do appreciate these videos to acquire some insight con real dimensions of tubes. In other videos the guy does actually do some explaining...
I got that point. Maybe its just me but I have a hard time listening to a person narrating somthing without other visual cues.
While getting my masters degree in electrical engineering, several of the classes were held in auditoriums and captured on video, live. These classes were sent out via microwave relay links to the other school campuses and to some of the major electronics plants in South Florida including the one where I worked. I found that I could not focus my attention on a guy speaking into a TV camera for an entire lecture, but I had no problem attending the same lecture in a live classroom. So I left work twice a week, drove 40 miles, and sat in the classroom. I did however build a receiver to capture and videotape some of the hard math classes so I could review stuff over and over multiple times until it soaked through my blonde head.
During the same time I took a video systems engineering class and found some of the material incorrect or extremely dated. The discussion was about how TV stations sent data to the end user's equipment hidden inside an ordinary NTSC video transmission (this was before digital TV). I had an argument with the teacher and wound up doing two lectures for that class. I produced them in the same lab where I melt tubes today using a VHS based videotape recorder. I may still have a copy. My voice is heard, but I am never seen and the lectures were used for each class for several years after I had graduated. Some students asked about having me for a teacher. I did discuss doing a class on vacuum tube technology during negotiations for a possible PHD, but the faculty just laughed. I plan to start with the same approach, since I have done this before.....about 15 years ago. If it doesn't work, or can be improved, I can always change things.
Tubelab has existed for 7 years. It has lost money for 6 of those years. An analysis of expenses has shown that the single biggest expense that can be eliminated is warehouse rent, $2500/year. Sherri has been in favor of closing down Tubelab for a while now since it loses money and takes up a lot of my time. We agreed that If I could eliminate the warehouse expense in time to show a profit for 2012 that Tubelab would continue. This means that 2400 cubic feet of "stuff" has to go, including tubes, lots of tubes. At one time I had over 100,000 tubes. Now there are somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000. At first I sold off or gave away all the tubes that I realized that I would never use in my lifetime. Then I decided that the tubes that sold for $4 or less should be sold since I could buy new ones later for less than it cost me to keep these. Those are mostly gone, sold at local hamfests.
I have several boxes, each with large quantities of a given tube in used condition. I plan to rig up a test fixture to evaluate those tubes for condition, and usefulness in audio applications. I also need to evaluate some test equipment. Maybe I can video some of these experiments as trial runs.
There are about 20 833A tubes which are about the same size as the big tube in the Russian video. Do you want to see me sit it on the table and talk about it with one, or a dozen PC motherbaords in view? I can do that, but wouldn't you rather see the tube connected up, glowing red or yellow and watching the plate glow change as I turn the knobs on the equipment, pointing the camera at the individual meters or the scope screen while explaining what I am doing? Some of it will be pretty advanced material, but maybe useful?
How about ripping apart a dead vintage Park (Marshall) guitar amp, fixing it, and putting it back together again? A vintage Gibson? Maybe even just ripping apart some vintage test equipment to salvage the tubes and transformers?
I am sure my ugly face will be seen enough, especially when guitar amps are involved, but I don't see being in every video if it is not necessary or advantageous.
OK, several possible starting points have been proposed, any comments?
I am sorry I guess my observations did not come out the way I wanted them to
I have no desire to watch a guy flipping a large xmitting tube around "per se". What I mean to say is that even the most "static" tube related video can have some potential usefulness. Obviously such videos are NOT srtictly needed in a forum like this.
I'll have a couple of GM100 in the following days. Right now I could just turn them on and show the pretty light they emit but I can assure you that a video series on how to conceive an amplifier based on such a tube would score a huge hit.
Aside from these monsters I think one of the most important things in this context is to guide people through the most "practical" aspects of tube designing.
For example.....how do you correctly trace a triode loadline? I imagine all you'd need would be a camera, paper, pen and a photocopy/printout of a tube's datasheet to educate most of us in the basics.
I 'd be the first to jump in and check what I've learned on google
I just think videos like these should be useful yet entertaining. It is not a business for at least 70% of this forum. I am not (and did not) suggest that you (or any other person infact) would be the star attraction of the videos. I was just suggesting that the more basic introductory videos could benefit from a little visual aid like large transmitting tubes used for educational purposes and or animations included in the editing fase (simple graphical inserts like images of schematics ecc)
I have some friends in the tv sector. One in particular works in a program creating team. It did come up once that a big mistake with technical documentaries is the lack of "refreshing pauses". I am sorry but I can't find a better translation. In other words a camera can and must be pointed at the work bench but for the observer it is much better to have some "pauses" in between these moments.
You could try editing the videos so as to include:
1. Yourself explaining some aspects of tube design
2. schematics superimposed on the screen
3. animated schematics showing signal path and/or other aspects.
I have no desire to watch a guy flipping a large xmitting tube around "per se". What I mean to say is that even the most "static" tube related video can have some potential usefulness. Obviously such videos are NOT srtictly needed in a forum like this.
I'll have a couple of GM100 in the following days. Right now I could just turn them on and show the pretty light they emit but I can assure you that a video series on how to conceive an amplifier based on such a tube would score a huge hit.
Aside from these monsters I think one of the most important things in this context is to guide people through the most "practical" aspects of tube designing.
For example.....how do you correctly trace a triode loadline? I imagine all you'd need would be a camera, paper, pen and a photocopy/printout of a tube's datasheet to educate most of us in the basics.
I 'd be the first to jump in and check what I've learned on google
I just think videos like these should be useful yet entertaining. It is not a business for at least 70% of this forum. I am not (and did not) suggest that you (or any other person infact) would be the star attraction of the videos. I was just suggesting that the more basic introductory videos could benefit from a little visual aid like large transmitting tubes used for educational purposes and or animations included in the editing fase (simple graphical inserts like images of schematics ecc)
I have some friends in the tv sector. One in particular works in a program creating team. It did come up once that a big mistake with technical documentaries is the lack of "refreshing pauses". I am sorry but I can't find a better translation. In other words a camera can and must be pointed at the work bench but for the observer it is much better to have some "pauses" in between these moments.
You could try editing the videos so as to include:
1. Yourself explaining some aspects of tube design
2. schematics superimposed on the screen
3. animated schematics showing signal path and/or other aspects.
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There are 2 educational efforts out there that I think we could emulate or at least be inspired by.
One is khan academy.
Khan Academy
The other is the TED talks.
TED: Ideas worth spreading
Both are fantastic. They are short, focused and clear. Not too much to digest in each video.
Youtube would be alright but it would be really nice to have videos included into this site somehow.
MrKramer
One is khan academy.
Khan Academy
The other is the TED talks.
TED: Ideas worth spreading
Both are fantastic. They are short, focused and clear. Not too much to digest in each video.
Youtube would be alright but it would be really nice to have videos included into this site somehow.
MrKramer
I run a video production company here in the UK, we are doing a documentary on Valve amplifiers, if anyone wants to take part, we are looking for candidates
P.
http://facebook.togethia.tv
http://youtube.togethia.tv
P.
http://facebook.togethia.tv
http://youtube.togethia.tv
The trouble with all the videos linked here is that they are incredibly dull... We are working on videos with real life examples, and rear world equivalents to make the valve theory interesting. For the opening sequence, we used a drift car going around the track as an analogy to the workings of parts of a valve.... you have to make it interesting, otherwise no one will take note.
As former BBC veteran, stuff like this inspired me
James Burke : Connections, Episode 1, "The Trigger Effect", 1 of 5 (CC) - YouTube
As former BBC veteran, stuff like this inspired me
James Burke : Connections, Episode 1, "The Trigger Effect", 1 of 5 (CC) - YouTube
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