Turret terminal board for line stage construction?

[Original Burnedfingers]

I just purchased some Turret terminal boards and was thinking about using them to build another Aikido P-Point. The boards I purchased will hold 12 components. I was wondering if this would be considered to be a good idea in terms of layout or a waste of money. I figured I can put most of the parts on the board and have something nice looking. Like most sometimes I start out very neat and end up with something a bit less than I wanted.

Your thoughts please..

[arnoldc]

hi, it may be a matter of preference. i was given a bunch of them by a friend. at first i thought they were cool, but in the end i will achieve a nice parts layout, but lots of wires going to the tubes' pins. that, i personally did not like. i like to use the pins of these passive part without hook up wires when i make my projects, which is not quite as good, but can be neat ang tidy.

i just spilled my thoughts

[andyjevans]

I got some old turret strips - the round turrets - and they didn't solder well at all. Also a bit awkward to clean round turrets. I found tag strips generally easy to solder. Some of these old surplus parts are decades old - not sure what yours are like. Andy

[Original Burnedfingers]

Mine were manufactured by the Keystone company. I purchased them from Newark. Newark SKU 94F4170. Keystone PN 15317
Mounting hole dia .120, number of contacts 24 number of positions 24 overall W 2.00" These allow the placement of 12 parts on the board. terminals are clean because part is new.

Cost $6.79 Ea Number needed for Aikido TWO

[EC8010]

You will find that the neatness of your construction with turret board is dependent on the gauge of wire you use to go to the valve sockets. The best wire to use is the multicore single strand wire used by telephone companies. It's thin, forms nicely, and there are lots of different colours so you can colour code grids, cathodes, anodes etc. Provided that your impedances aren't too high, you can lace it all together and make a thoroughly professional-looking job.

If you use stranded wire, expect the wiring to turn out a mess.

Don't forget to do the heaters first with tightly twisted wire.

[andyjevans]

there are lots of different colours so you can colour code grids, cathodes, anodes etc>>

Is there any established colour code? what I use is:
Blue - cathode
Red - anode
White - signal (usually teflon coated silver)
Orange - bias (e.g. -15v for CCS)
Yellow/Green - earth

Does this bear any resemblance to anything? Andy

[ErikdeBest]

The best wire to use is the multicore single strand wire used by telephone companies.

And it's also cheap! Thanks for the tip, but one question, what is the maximum allowable voltage?

Erik

[EC8010]

Well, it was designed to cope with 17Hz 90V ring tone, which could potentially (ouch) put 254V between two conductors. Eyeballing the stuff, I'd certainly be happy to use it up to 300V, and probably 400V, but no more.

[Robert McLean]

andyjevans

The basic colour code I see used most often in old radios and so on is as follows
Function -----------------------------Colour
Grounds, grounded elements---Green
Heaters or filaments--------------Brown
Power supply, B+------------------Red
Screen grids----------------------- Orange
Cathodes -------------------------- Yellow
Control grids------------------------Black
Anodes (plates)--------------------Blue
Power supply, minus--------------Violet (purple)

It is found, along with a lot of other colour codes, in Mil Std 681.
It may have been defined originally in some industry spec, I dont know.

Note: I have tried several times to put spaces between the descriptions and the colours, for a more legible appearance, but anything more than 2 spaces seems to be deleted. Tabs also do not work. OK, duh, I figured it out, use dashes instead.

[anatech]

Hi Joe,
Terminal boards should be fine. I use the tag strips and P to P, or PC boards. You might be able to mount them vertically to shorten wire runs. 90° angle brackets will make that easy to do.

I would suggest a heavier stranded wire for the heaters. I have seen both stranded wire and solid wire used for this.

Take pictures!

-Chris