Noise, Heat, and Sparks: Oh My!

MrPotatoSalad · 11562

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Offline MrPotatoSalad

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Reply #15 on: September 03, 2014, 12:26:27 PM
On a side note: there is a metal particle that will freely move inside the 6080 tube. This has been there ever since I remember flipping the tube upside down. I will get new tubes anyways since I would rather have the curvy look on the 6080 and get a quieter 12AU7.



Offline Paul Birkeland

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Reply #16 on: September 03, 2014, 01:03:26 PM
Carefully measure the voltage at A7 and A8.

Paul "PB" Birkeland

Bottlehead Grunt & The Repro Man


Offline MrPotatoSalad

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Reply #17 on: September 03, 2014, 01:14:44 PM
A7: 0V
A8: 1.6V



Offline MrPotatoSalad

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Reply #18 on: September 03, 2014, 01:48:34 PM
On the up side, the white noise is now only in the left ear piece.



Offline Paul Birkeland

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Reply #19 on: September 03, 2014, 03:49:56 PM
How about A2/A3?

Paul "PB" Birkeland

Bottlehead Grunt & The Repro Man


Offline MrPotatoSalad

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Reply #20 on: September 03, 2014, 04:02:46 PM
A2: 0
A3: 1.5

I measured all of them. The ones I stated were the ones that were over the 10% difference from reference. The rest measured OK.



Offline Paul Birkeland

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Reply #21 on: September 03, 2014, 04:08:23 PM
Odd, if you have 0V at A2 and 1.5V at A3, your A1 voltage should be nice and low.

It's possible that you have a flaky 12AU7.  Based on the nature of the way this thread has unraveled, can you confirm that you still have the 22K plate load resistors in?  You might try retouching your solder joints around T4/T5.

-PB

Paul "PB" Birkeland

Bottlehead Grunt & The Repro Man


Offline MrPotatoSalad

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Reply #22 on: September 03, 2014, 04:14:25 PM
Yup, everything is stock Crack right now. I guess screw the tubes. Wasn't planning on having to roll them right away, but so be it.



Offline MrPotatoSalad

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Reply #23 on: September 03, 2014, 04:23:58 PM
Nope, no luck with resolder.



Offline Paul Birkeland

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Reply #24 on: September 03, 2014, 04:42:35 PM
One last check - yank the 6080 and run the amp with just the 12AU7, then recheck T4 and T5.  T4 will pop up, but maybe T5 will move down to where it should be.

Paul "PB" Birkeland

Bottlehead Grunt & The Repro Man


Offline MrPotatoSalad

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Reply #25 on: September 03, 2014, 04:57:06 PM
One last check - yank the 6080 and run the amp with just the 12AU7, then recheck T4 and T5.  T4 will pop up, but maybe T5 will move down to where it should be.
T4: 240
T5: 139




Offline Paul Birkeland

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Reply #26 on: September 03, 2014, 05:09:10 PM
Can you compare those to T1/T2 with the 6080 out of the amp?

Paul "PB" Birkeland

Bottlehead Grunt & The Repro Man


Offline MrPotatoSalad

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Reply #27 on: September 03, 2014, 06:10:26 PM
Can you compare those to T1/T2 with the 6080 out of the amp?
T1:107
T2:240
T4:240
T5:139



Offline MrPotatoSalad

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Reply #28 on: September 03, 2014, 06:14:45 PM
With 6080 in:
T1:88
T2:172
T4:172
T5:118



Offline Paul Birkeland

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Reply #29 on: September 03, 2014, 06:55:22 PM
I realize I should probably outline my thought process a little bit, as you're probably getting annoyed with my constant requests for voltages.

If we just consider the 12AU7 on its own with no 6080, we know you have 1.5V of cathode bias on both channels (which is good), 0V on the grids (which is also good), and then we can look at the voltage drop across the 22K plate load resistors for each half of the 12AU7.
1
On the T1/T2 side, you have 172V-88V=84V, this 84V is dropped across 22.1K, so Ohm's law says there's 3.8mA of current rolling through there.  This is all OK.

On the T4/T5 side, you have 172V-118V=54V, across 22.1K, this is 2.4mA of current, which isn't particularly stellar.

Since this happens with the 6080 out of the tube socket, we can rule out tons and tons of random miswires, tube weirdness, and other issues that could take a few days of troubleshooting, and we can basically focus just on the 9 pin socket, and what might be happening there.

The last test, which should be nice and conclusive, would be to pop the red wires of T1 and T5, and wire them to the opposite terminals.  These wires might not be long enough to reach, but you can temporarily tack in a jumper to make the connection, then see if the flaky voltage moves over to T1.  If it does, the 12AU7 is just behaving a little weakly, and you can continue using it or send it in for an exchange.  If the flaky voltage remains on T5, then there's likely a cold joint on that front 5-lug strip.

-PB

Paul "PB" Birkeland

Bottlehead Grunt & The Repro Man