Vacuum tube tester, do you own one?

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Hi riffer3,
Are there any testers under $200 or so that can adequately test 6SN7, 6AS7, 6DJ8, AT7 etc?
No.

The cheaper testers only check emission. That figure is useless. If those testers show a tube to be bad, it's complete toast. If it shows good, could very easily be bad. So why bother?

Up here you can more easily find the Stark 9-66. That is an excellent tester and made under license from Hickok. I use one of these. These have gone up greatly in value as of late.

The best test is to install the tube in a known good working circuit.

-Chris
 
anatech said:
Hi riffer3,

No.

The cheaper testers only check emission. That figure is useless. If those testers show a tube to be bad, it's complete toast. If it shows good, could very easily be bad. So why bother?

Up here you can more easily find the Stark 9-66. That is an excellent tester and made under license from Hickok. I use one of these. These have gone up greatly in value as of late.

The best test is to install the tube in a known good working circuit.

-Chris

I have an EICO 667, paid $120 on ebay. It's a dynamic mutual conductance. Very nice to use : metal case, can be switch to test "unknown tubes".
Look at this URL very instructive : http://www.tone-lizard.com/Tube_Testers.html
 
soundbrigade said:
I have spotted a tube tester - Precision apparatus 912. Is this something worth buying?

Hi All

While they are not in the league of the Hickoks the Precision 910, 912, 920, etc series are very useful... They use a dynamic test circuit that supplies AC to the control grid, which means they aren't just emission(diode) testers, all elements are utilized in testing... The Eico 666/667 and Jackson 648 use similar circuits...

Main draw back is, the last ones were produced in '47 so only a few late ones have a 9 pin socket(very early versions do not have a miniature 7 pin)... Precision supplied a 9 pin to octal adapter that works just fine, maybe 25% of the ones I've seen on ebay include it... If you want to test Compactron,s Nuvistors etc, that requires another adapter that must be used in the 9pin socket(or adapter)... Unfortunately those can be a bit hard to find often bringing as much if not more than the tester it's self...

Tom
 
Hi soundbrigade,
Would it be possible to make adapters for 9-pin and 7-pin sockets?
Sure. Most have similar pinouts. The only real problem is figuring out the other settings. You are probably further ahead to get the one that does what you need.

Define the tubes that you need to test. Some of the newer tube testers might fit the bill. Alas, no good tube testers are cheap.

-Chris
 
here is mine

here is a picture of mine
 

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More testers!

Since last year, I have restored & calibrated a few more; 1 x Hickok 533A, 1 x Hickok 752 + 1 x Hickok 752A.
And finally got an AT-1000 in house.

Arne K
 

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I have a SICO emission tester... Not sure how useful, as it has
"passed", just barely, every tube I seem to throw at it... Cept
one with an open filament... I still have one or two with white
getters I could probably expect to fail, but I'm not sure I would
want to subject the meter to that kind of torture test.

My book and scroll lack many common tubes, such as 6DJ8/6922.
Its always a guessing game what reading for these is "normal".

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyways, my Labview certification training starts in September.
But I been screwing around blindly with ver8.5 on my own.
It would be dirt simple to make a virtual tube tester in Labview.

Biggest trouble right now is lack of a GPIB interface card. Some
of our scopes and function generators can talk to Labview by
existing Ethernet or USB. But I want to abuse our HP/Agilent
power supplies and Kiethley current sourcemeters. Those all
seem to require the GPIB bus, which I don't yet have. And
probably won't be getting one till after I am "trained".

None source higher than 63V, I need to figure how to add onto
that voltage without screwing current readings or any huge risk
of blowing up expensive test equipment... I would like to graph
curves out to at least 250V.
 
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