• WARNING: Tube/Valve amplifiers use potentially LETHAL HIGH VOLTAGES.
    Building, troubleshooting and testing of these amplifiers should only be
    performed by someone who is thoroughly familiar with
    the safety precautions around high voltages.

Unison S8

Hi I am in need of some help repairing a unison s8. The symptom is the front end valves, 3 of, do not light. The output valves do light. I could use a circuit diagram but unison won't supply one, henley services the company that supply's and provides repair work on them do not appear to help and just won't me to send it to them. My friend who owns the amp is against this as the amp is over 20 years old and he afraid it might get damaged in the post. He is also afraid it it might be more expensive then he can afford. Iam sure with a circuit diagram I can fix it. Can anyone help. Many thanks Cliff.
 
The smart thing to do is to trace the heater circuits from the transformer to the tube pins. Somewhere along the way you will find a broken wire.
Since it effects 3 tubes the fault should lie before the wiring separates to each of the three tubes. The heater pins of the tubes are normally obvious from the thick wiring but the data sheet will tell all.
A simple DMM would be helpful.

Jan
 
When it is in series it is even easier. Just measure the voltage along the chain, from the transformer to the 1st tube, then after the 1st tube, then to the 2nd tube, then after the 2nd tube, and so on.
All you need to do is follow the wiring.
Or even more simple: measure the heater voltage across each tube. The open one will have all the voltage across it.

Jan
 
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When it is in series it is even easier. Just measure the voltage along the chain, from the transformer to the 1st tube, then after the 1st tube, then to the 2nd tube, then after the 2nd tube, and so on.
All you need to do is follow the wiring.
Or even more simple: measure the heater voltage across each tube. The open one will have all the voltage across it.

Jan
Hi Jan l have been repairing valve amps for years and now how simple an O/C heater chain should be to repair. However this one is like nothing lve seen before. The chain starts from a full wave rectifier block and has 75v out put, each valve has a zenner across its heaters and the chain is continuous to an ouput plug which then heads off to go to another power supply, which appears to have nothing to do with the heaters. I cannot find any return to the other end of the full wave block. All components in the circuit check OK and there are no bad joints or oc wire connections l can find, all voltages appear to be present and that includes the 750v for O/P valves. Of course being double sided print it makes circuit trace a bit more difficult. I keep thinking lve missed something obvious, but l'am the second engineer to look at this as the first one gave up. Many thanks Cliff.
 
Hi Jan, not quite sure what you mean. I have wth my multi meter check from one valve to the next and all are connected, if l do an ohms reading from top to bottom of the chain wth the valves in place l get an ohms reading of 48 ohms showing me that all is continues. What would reading the voltage across each valve tell me, if there was an O/C in the chain the ohms reading would shown that. I am going away for 10days tomorrow so the amp will now have to wait till l return. I really appreciate your help in this matter and wish to carry on with the investigation when l get back. I will have access to the Internet while away but not the amp. I hope we can continue this on my return so thank you for your help to date. Cliff.
 
You have a bunch of tubes with the heaters in series, right, and some (all) of the heaters do not glow.
Measuring between the two heater pins on each tube will tell you which one is open, because all of the heater voltage will show on that tube, while the voltage between the heater pins of the good tubes will read zero (because there is no current flow).

The other thing is that maybe the whole heater supply is gone. In that case you measure zero volts between the very first heater pin in the series and the very last one. If you have problems finding the start and end of the heater string, pick a heater pin and trace in both direction until you find the heater source.

Jan
 
Hi Jan,the valves have been replaced to no avail. The problem as l see it is there's no complete circuit as there is no current flowing. But l cannot find how the circuit from the end of the heater chain returns to the negative end of the rectifiers. A circuit would be a great help. Many thanks Cliff.
 
All the heater pins are known from the tube data sheet. It's really a no-brainer to follow the chain and find where the heater is open (that one has all the voltage)...

... or find the way back to the heater supply to check if the transformer is defect. No need for any schematics.

Jan
 

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Hello. I also encountered the problem that the three signal tubes at the front of my s8 are not bright. Later, I checked that there was a problem with the central high-voltage board. You can check this part, and I hope this will help you. Good luck.
 
  • 非常感謝您的幫助。我只需要這個示意圖。但是我的DRIVER板上的幾個電阻都燒壞了。我好苦惱。因為我不知道那是一種什麼樣的反抗。

Mod edit:

Thank you very much for your help. I just need this schematic. But several resistors on my DRIVER board burned out. I'm so distressed. Because I don't know what kind of rebellion that is.
 
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Unison S8 Bill of material, copied from manufacturer paper :

no liability from my side

RESISTORS​

R1 L / R Resistor 10 MOhm 1/2W

R2 L / R Resistor 150 kOhm 1W

R3 L / R Resistor 10 MOhm 1/2W

R4 L / R Resistor 150 kOhm 1W

R5 L / R Resistor 136 Ohm 1/3W 1%

R6 L / R Resistor 150 kOhm // 150 kOhm 1W

R7 L / R Resistor 15 kOhm 1/3W 1%

R8 L / R Resistor 1.8 kOhm 1/3W 1%

R9 L / R Resistor 330 kOhm 1W

R10 L / R Resistor 1 kOhm 1W

R11 L / R Resistor 22 Ohm 5W

R12 L / R Resistor 22 Ohm 5W

R13 L / R Resistor 330 Ohm 10W

R14 Resistor 56 kOhm 3W + 56 kOhm 3W

R15 Resistor 2.2 kOhm 3W

R16* Resistor 46.4 kOhm 1/3W 1%

R17* Resistor 20 kOhm 1/3W 1%

R18 L / R Resistor 0.1 Ohm 5W

R19 Resistor 3.3 Ohm 5W

R20 Resistor 3.3 Ohm 5W

R21 Resistor 3.3 Ohm 5W

R22 Resistor 220 Ohm 7W

R23 Resistor 220 Ohm 7W

R24 Resistor 220 Ohm 7W

R25 Resistor 220 Ohm 7W

R26 Resistor 220 Ohm 7W

R27 Resistor 220 Ohm 7W

R28 Resistor 470 kOhm 3W

R29 Resistor 1M 1/2W

R30 Resistor 1M 1/2W

R31 Resistor 1M 1/2W

R32 Resistor 4.7 Ohm 5W





Rn1 Resistor 330 kOhm 3W

RA Resistor 1MOhm 1/3W 1%​

RB Resistor 100kOhm 1/3W 1%​

RV Varistor 250V (or 150V)​

R16* and R17* F ECC82 Adjustment​

CAPACITORS​

C1 L / R Capacitor 0.47uF 63V

C2 L / R Capacitor 0.22uF 400V

C3 L / R Capacitor 100uF 100V

C4 L / R Capacitor 0.22uF 400V

C6 Capacitor 100uF 400V

C7 Capacitor 1.000uF 63V

C8 Capacitor 100uF 100V

C9 Capacitor 100uF 100V

C10 L / R Capacitor 10.000uF 16V

C11 L / R Capacitor 10.000uF 16V

C12 L / R Capacitor 100uF 400V

C13 Capacitor 220uF 400V

C14 Capacitor 220uF 400V

C15 Capacitor 220uF 400V

C16 Capacitor 1.000uF 400V

C17 Capacitor 1.000uF 400V

C18 Capacitor 1.000uF 400V

C19 Capacitor 1.000uF 400V

C20 Capacitor 1.000uF 400V

C21 Capacitor 1.000uF 400V

C22 Capacitor 470uF 400V

C23 Capacitor 470uF 400V

Cn1 Capacitor 680nF 275Vac

Cn2 Capacitor 680nF 275Vac

Cf L / R Capacitor Feedback Adjustment

Ci L / R Capacitor 47pF 50V

OTHER COMPONENTS​

BR1 Bridge Diodes 1.000V 1.5A

BR2 Bridge Diodes 600V 4A

BR3 Bridge Diodes 600V 4A

BR4 Bridge Diodes 600V 4A

CK Choke 5H

D1 Diode BY255

D2 Diode BY255

D3 Diode BY255

DS L / R Schottky Diode

DZ1 Zener Diode 14V 5W

DZ2 Zener Diode 14V 5W

DZ3 Zener Diode 14V 5W

DZ4 Zener Diode 200V 5W

DZ5 Zener Diode 200V 5W

F Fuse T500mA 250V

F1 Fuse T1.25A 250V

F2 Fuse F500mA 250V

F3 Fuse F315mA 250V

F4 Fuse T6.3A 250V (V = 100V😉 mains fuse

Fuse T3.15A 250V (V = 230V😉 Mains fuse

P120 + 20 KA Potentiometer

SW1 Input Switch

SW2 Tape Monitor Switch

SW3 Switch

TA Power Supply Transformer

TU L / R Output Transformer

V1 845

V2 845

V3 L ECC 82

V4 R ECC82

V5 L / R ECC82

NTC (mains)


Suppressions parts


NTC (mains)



RV Varistor 250V (or 150V)



Rn1 Resistor 330 KOhm 3W



Cn1 Capacitor 680nF 275Vac


Cn2 Capacitor 680nF 275Vac
 
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  • 非常感謝您的幫助。我只需要這個示意圖。但是我的DRIVER板上的幾個電阻都燒壞了。我好苦惱。因為我不知道那是一種什麼樣的反抗。

Mod edit:
Thank you very much for your help. I just need this schematic. But several resistors on my DRIVER board burned out. I'm so distressed. Because I don't know what kind of rebellion that is.
 
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