5 Volt Damper Diodes?

[kegger]

Trying to find out if there are any and I'm coming up empty.

Anybody?

[kevinkr]

I don't recall ever seeing a 5V damper diode, lots of 6V, 9V, 12V, 19V, and even 21V - 23V damper diodes. I even looked in some of my old tube manuals - they all seem to start at 6.3V and go up from there.

IIRC Only very early tv receivers used 5V rectifiers in their power supplies and since the emphasis was on economy the rectifiers and dampers in the better sets with power transformers generally ran on 6.3V. Higher voltage tubes were generally used in transformerless sets with series string filament circuits.

[Tom Bavis]

5V4 - I have seen it used a a damper. Why would they design a 5V damper when they could choose from existing rectifiers?

[kegger]

Here's the thing, I want to use a pair of damper diodes for a stereo
amp but don't really have the extra 6.3 volts but do have a 5volt 4a
winding for a triditional rectifier setup.

If there was such a thing as a 5volt damper diode that drew like 1.5a
to 2a a piece that would be cool and I have exactly what I'd like to use
but alas it looks like there is no such thing, bummer 6.3 is it.

There so many 6.3 dampers I was kinda surprised I could not find any
5volt ones, just didn't realize none were made, woulda been great too.

A 5volt version of a 6DM4 would be really sweet! AHH one can dream!

[Peter Menting]

The Svetlana 6D22S will run on 5V with minimal loss in output. I have a pair if you are interested.

Regards
Pete

[sorenj07]

would it make sense to rectify the 5V to 7V then bring down the voltage, with some resistance or something?

[tubelab.com]

Rectifying 5 volts won't give 7 volts due to diode drop. I get about 7 volts with a schottky bridge off of a 6.3 volt winding that actually puts out 6.9 volts.

You are in the US, if you use a Hammond transformer on our typically high line voltage, you will probably get almost 6 volts out of the 5 volt winding. You might get away with it if you aren't asking for maximum current from the tubes.

If you use the big Antek toroids from Ebay, damper diodes are the way to go, since the Anteks have 2 6.3 volt windings, and no 5 volt winding.

[Eli Duttman]

Kegger,

Except for the very high PIV, the behavior of a 5AR4 is similar to that of damper diodes. The 5AR4 will tolerate filter capacitance that causes other vacuum rectifiers to arc over. The forward drop in a 5AR4 is low too.

5AR4 data sheet here.

[kegger]

Peter thanks for the offer! Not sure what I'm gunna do yet.

Tubelab I see what your saying, and with a 5 volt 4a winding using 2
1.2 amp tubes and not trying to kill them I just may get away with, humm!

I'm gunna have to see how this shakes out and actually measure my 5 volt windings.
Just might get lucky and have a high one!

[kegger]

Got yu ELI, thanks, 5ar4 is what I'm using now but was looking for a
replacement that was a little beefier as far as current capabilty goes.

A pair of 6DW4's (or there close cousins) was what I was really thinking.