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Hack Chat Transcript, Part 2

A event log for Vintage Electronics Hack Chat

Where there's a tube, there's a way

dan-maloneyDan Maloney 01/25/2023 at 21:150 Comments

Dan Maloney12:42 PM
Yeah, he actually doesn't have that much in terms of traditional glassblowing gear. No lathe even.

DrG12:43 PM
on tubes and not capacitors :) ....on this piece they used a tube (maybe called a cat's eye) as a receiver strength indicator.....can you talk about those and can I get them for other aesthetic uses?

Dan Maloney12:43 PM
Dalibor is a great guy, love watching his glassblowing skills! We had him on for a Nixie Hack Chat once.

Keri Szafir12:43 PM
ah, Dalibor - makes me wish I worked for him :)

Bil Herd12:43 PM
Heh, I used to work in the salvage department of RCA back in the 70's, they had a lathe that could hold a full size picture tube and "re-neck" the tube with a new gun assembly.

RichardCollins12:44 PM
I do not care what others are doing on Hackaday.IO. I want to know what she wants to do and what she needs. The groups on H do not work together. They chat and there is no way to work together effectively. Hacking can be efficient. But not on this site, not these people. All fragmented, useless play. Good people each doing their own thing, never getting together to do anything larger. And so many needs in the world.

Keri Szafir12:45 PM
I know of a Polish guy named Aleksander Zawada, he works for a R&D institute in Warsaw and has a lab where he also did experiment with making tubes

DrG12:45 PM

Keri Szafir12:46 PM
EM80 :)

RichardCollins12:47 PM
Do you want to work on anything more complex than repairing old radios? Plasma, fusion, accelerators. I work with groups working with gravitational fields. Lots of things happening in the world and not enough people to do them all.

DrG12:47 PM
hehe tks ! http://www.r-type.org/exhib/aab0151.htm

Keri Szafir12:48 PM
@RichardCollins that would be interesting, not for my knowledge yet :)

RichardCollins12:48 PM
@DrG Beautiful, not where is the data? And the models, control systems and guide for applications?

Dan Maloney12:49 PM
@RichardCollins - sorry you don't like the subject matter, feel free to come back when there's something more to your liking. But please don't continue being disruptive to the people who just want to enjoy the chat

RichardCollins12:49 PM
I am too old to talk to many people at once. Best wishes. Keri, if you want to, please write to me privately and I will see what I can do.

Keri Szafir12:49 PM

http://www.r-type.org/pdfs/em80.pdf

R-TYPE

Read this on R-type

phase268212:50 PM
6E5 also for 'magic eye' tube

DrG12:51 PM
@RichardCollins - sorry man - it is chaotic but don't let gravity get you down :)

phase268212:51 PM

https://www.radiomuseum.org/tubes/tube_6e5.html

RADIOMUSEUM 
ERNST ERB (HB9RXQ)

6E5

Description The RCA tube 6E5 is the first Magic Eye, designed by Allen Balcom Du Mont (born Jan. 29, 1901 in Brooklyn NY, died Nov. 15, 1965 New York NY). Starting 1924 as an engineer for Westinghouse Lamp Company, Bloomfield, NJ, developing manufacturing and testing equipment for vacuum tubes.

Read this on Radiomuseum

Keri Szafir12:52 PM
a thing of beauty and a joy for ever - also note the base

Keri Szafir12:52 PM
old style 6 pins, not octal

phase268212:53 PM
where do you find odd sockets like the 6 pins above or special 1625 socket? Etsy, eBay, ...?

Keri Szafir12:54 PM
I look for them at online classified sited, other than that, eBay

Keri Szafir12:55 PM
and I'll also be doing some of my own research into making the Nixie tube sockets by 3D printing - these tubes run cold and while I wouldn't use 3D printing on regular tubes for thermal stability reasons, Nixies should be fine

Nicolas Tremblay12:56 PM
Just be carefull with HV

Keri Szafir12:57 PM
HV for me is 600V and above... lower than that is the regular stuff, haha

Keri Szafir12:57 PM
safety precautions apply

phase268212:57 PM
Who is building new equipment with tubes other than @Keri Szafir ? I recently built a portable QRP 40 meter transmitter. Runs on a 12V 3aHr LiFePo battery . Uses a Nixie supply to boost 12V to 215V, it is also RF quiet.

Keri Szafir12:58 PM
nice :)

Dan Maloney12:58 PM
There's always David Lovett over at Usagi Electric. He's making a vacuum tube computer

phase268212:58 PM
The relay computer is also very cool (and noisy)

Dan Maloney12:58 PM
@phase2682 - have you put up a build log of that? I'd love to take a look and maybe write it up for the blog

Keri Szafir12:59 PM
I admire Dave! been part of his community for over a year

phase268212:59 PM
@Dan Maloney I have not posted anything yet but will notify you when I do.

Keri Szafir12:59 PM
oh, and I also admire Sam Battle (Look Mum, No Computer!) and his mad creations :)

Dan Maloney12:59 PM
Thanks!

phase26821:01 PM
Dropping off, it has been fun. Glad to see others are also interested in vintage electronics.

Keri Szafir1:02 PM
nice - see you! :)

Dan Maloney1:02 PM
Yeah, we're about out of time -- must be getting late in Europe by now anyway. We'll just say a big thanks to Keri for her time today, this was really interesting. So many old gear lovers out there, it's cool!

Keri Szafir1:02 PM
Outatime!

DrG1:02 PM
Keri, thanks so much for your time. I looked into some of your links and I was impressed and very happy that you were willing to share some of your expertise. - Thanks also Dan for, yet, another one :).

Keri Szafir1:02 PM
is it 1985 yet?

Boian Mitov1:02 PM
Thank you @Keri Szafir

Dan Maloney1:02 PM
And thanks to everyone else for the great questions!

Boian Mitov1:03 PM
And thank you @Dan Maloney for hosting it! :-)

Dusan Petrovic1:03 PM
Thanks Keri and everyone!

Keri Szafir1:03 PM
just an hour? ha, I thought it'd be longer :) and it's 22:02 in my TZ now

Keri Szafir1:03 PM
not that late :)

Nicolas Tremblay1:03 PM
Thank you all for this chat. Very interesting

Keri Szafir1:03 PM
thanks for kind words :)

Dan Maloney1:03 PM
I mean, feel free to stay on -- Hack Chat is always open!

Nicolas Tremblay left  the room.1:04 PM

Lt.Slothrop1:04 PM
@Keri Szafir Thank you for all you do!! You keep inspiring ameteurs like myself!! Be safe!

Keri Szafir1:08 PM
always drain those caps AND measure the voltage before you work on the tube stuff!

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