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Tube Bench Supply
I need to buy or build a bench power supply to test & design various tube
equipment (audio & ham). I would like it to be something like a Heathkit HP-23 with voltage & current meters. The major problem with the supplies I've come across such as the HP-23, is that the B+ current is appx. 100ma. The bias & filament supplies are OK, but at times I need around 400ma for the B+ out. Is there such a PS available, perhaps with tube regulation & rectification or do I need to build from scratch? Any answers will be most appreciated. Cordially, west AF4GC |
#2
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Tube Bench Supply
"west" wrote in message news I need to buy or build a bench power supply to test & design various tube equipment (audio & ham). I would like it to be something like a Heathkit HP-23 with voltage & current meters. The major problem with the supplies I've come across such as the HP-23, is that the B+ current is appx. 100ma. The bias & filament supplies are OK, but at times I need around 400ma for the B+ out. Is there such a PS available, perhaps with tube regulation & rectification or do I need to build from scratch? Any answers will be most appreciated. ====================== An excellent design for a HV power supply unit can be found in QEX July /August 1999 pages 50 -55 "A regulated 2400V power supply" ,by Al Williams VE6AWX Even if you don't need such a high DC voltage ,the design is universal and the output voltage is adjustable. The design includes 2 SCRs in the transformer's primary winding circuit , with DC feedback resulting in a very stable DC supply voltage under large load variations . Another feature is the 'soft' start preventing large surge currents. The author uses the unit to supply 2x813 tubes in a RF amp. requiring up to 1kW of power , with the no-load voltage of 2400V-DC dropping to 2397V when load is 1kW. Frank GM0CSZ / KN6WH |
#3
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Tube Bench Supply
If you don't want to DIY it, consider using a Sorensen -- some of their HV
switching supplies are incredibly inexpensive on EBay. You can also look for the older Lambda and Kepco supplies with 6550 or 6L6 pass elements -- the one pictured on the link below will do 300 ma -- voltage is controlled by a variac -- you have to look both at the Business+Industrial section of the Bay as well as "Vintage Electronics". http://www.tech-diy.com/images/lambda2.jpg I use this microprocessor controlled power supply modification for the Heath IP-17 -- but I figured out the compensation network so it is now beautifully regulated: http://www.tech-diy.com/MCTracer_no_...webversion.htm you can (and should) increase the current capacity for the big IRFPG40's by paralleling several units (with appropriate modifications) so that they operate in the SOA. One is not enough for your application. "west" wrote in message news I need to buy or build a bench power supply to test & design various tube equipment (audio & ham). I would like it to be something like a Heathkit HP-23 with voltage & current meters. The major problem with the supplies I've come across such as the HP-23, is that the B+ current is appx. 100ma. The bias & filament supplies are OK, but at times I need around 400ma for the B+ out. Is there such a PS available, perhaps with tube regulation & rectification or do I need to build from scratch? Any answers will be most appreciated. Cordially, west AF4GC |
#4
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Tube Bench Supply
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#5
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Tube Bench Supply
I own a Heathkit IP-17 which had identical rating to the HP-23 that you
have. For higher amounts of current, I cobbled together the combination of a Variac, a salvaged TV set power transformer, bridge rectifier, and filter capacitors to do the job. Although unregulated, it performed its job well for many years. Sorenson and other firms manufacture large, regulated power supplies that will do arguably better work, but even used these generally command a price of several hundred dollar, compared to the $30 or so that I invested in my home built variable voltage supply. Try periodically checking on eBay. Good luck. Harry C. |
#6
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Tube Bench Supply
) writes: I own a Heathkit IP-17 which had identical rating to the HP-23 that you have. For higher amounts of current, I cobbled together the combination of a Variac, a salvaged TV set power transformer, bridge rectifier, and filter capacitors to do the job. Although unregulated, it performed its job well for many years. There have been a few threads recently about regulated tube supplies, and each time I see them, I keep wanting to post "but most supplies in the days of tubes were not regulated". It's almost as if people have lost that fact, so used to solid state where regulation is the norm, though regulation there often means a different thing. Now it's used to get a low impedance out of the power supply, or because the devices are finicky over a wide range of voltages (or outright can be damaged by too much voltage, as in the case of ttl). Of course, three terminal regulators made it easy to add regulation to just about any sold state design decades ago. But of course, for most consumer equipment there were no regulators (though that may mean little since there was little consumer electronics around the house up till about forty years ago) If there was regulation it was a VR tube, and for a specific stage or stages, liked an oscillator stage that would change frequency with voltage variation, rather than making the whole supply regulated. It was in the lab that most regulated supplies were seen. All that test equipment is a prime example. You wanted reproduceability for that DC coupled scope, so you'd want it well regulated. I guess in the lab you'd see variable voltage regulated supplies but that would have been the key place. Michael VE2BVW |
#7
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Tube Bench Supply
Michael, excellent point all.
Years back I used Lambda regulated H.V. supplies in the workplace, but only for critical application in experimental physics apparatus where the accuracy and stability of the voltage had an important impact on our research. (I still own a comercially produced 0-5 Kv regulated supply, whose use is largely limited to powering photomultiplier tubes used in nuclear research applications.) Like you, I don't recall voltage regulation ever playing a significant role in vacuum tube electronics, except for those instance that you mention using VR tubes (as in my Hallicrafters SX-71 receiver to stabilize the local oscillator). Still, stabilizing that sucker required much more effort than simpy a VR tube! Sadly, I gave away the original Variac adjustable power supply to a student that had greater need for it than myslef. Then too, very little of the vacuum tube work I do today requires more than a few mils which My Heatkit IP-17 supplies. Kindest regards, Harry C. |
#8
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Tube Bench Supply Ping Harry
wrote in message
ups.com... Michael, excellent point all. Years back I used Lambda regulated H.V. supplies in the workplace, but only for critical application in experimental physics apparatus where the accuracy and stability of the voltage had an important impact on our research. (I still own a comercially produced 0-5 Kv regulated supply, whose use is largely limited to powering photomultiplier tubes used in nuclear research applications.) Like you, I don't recall voltage regulation ever playing a significant role in vacuum tube electronics, except for those instance that you mention using VR tubes (as in my Hallicrafters SX-71 receiver to stabilize the local oscillator). Still, stabilizing that sucker required much more effort than simpy a VR tube! Sadly, I gave away the original Variac adjustable power supply to a student that had greater need for it than myslef. Then too, very little of the vacuum tube work I do today requires more than a few mils which My Heatkit IP-17 supplies. Kindest regards, Harry C. What a small world, Harry. I was a field engineer for 25 years working mostly on Gamma Cameras. I sold a business a few years ago that primarily retrofitted Nuclear Medicine Gamma Cameras. I heard that there was a man in the Chicago area who set up a photomultiplier tube to track the moon for EME. I never found out his name, but probably could, if I made an effort. Are you a physics professor? Cordially, west AF4GC |
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