Battery Issues...

[mortron]

So I had a pile of AA batteries and bought some 6xAA battery holders with clips, and hooked them upto my quickie each pack in place of the original 9v batteries. Each pack actually measures 9.59v.

There is no output. I turn it on and nothing. It makes no sound at all. What gives? Is the voltage too high? Did I screw something up?

[earwaxxer]

It shouldn't. Not sure what the total voltage there is, but I have run as high as 60V on the good old Quickie with good results. I think if I remember right, 72V is the max. Might have that wrong though.. had a few tonight. Friday night and all... how many volts did your meter say you had?

[mortron]

9.6v

[earwaxxer]

total voltage? - it needs to be at least 20V

[earwaxxer]

I think I see what your issue is Mort, you have to connect in series enough AA's to get you at least 20V, preferably around 35V to operate the tube. So you would need as many 'packs' of AA's as you had 9V batteries in the old set up.

[galyons]

Make sure that the Quickie is on. ( I know, but check!) Was working before the battery change?  PJCCS?  Check that all of the packs polarity is correct for serial connection. Check the voltage at the wires connected the battery packs to the Quickie high power circuit T1, T6. Check the filament voltage, T4, T9.

Let us know the results and voltages.

Cheers,
Geary

[vetmed]

To get ~36 volts on the plate you are connecting 24 batteries in series. If only one faulty connection is present you get no juice You will need to verify contacts in each battery holder as well as the connections to the plate. Also verify polarity of installed batteries. It may also be that if one or more of the batteries is dead it may not conduct current. Assuming you are getting 9.59 volts from each battery holder then your connections to the plate must be faulty. All of this is assuming that it worked before with 9 volt batteries, which BTW new typically measure almost 10 volts. Hope this is helpful.

Robert Lees

[mortron]

So with all the batteries hooked up to the unit, measuring at the positive and negative wires on the switch ot reads 38.6v or near that...

It worked before, and nothing downstream is faulty. I bypassed the preamp and used variable outs on my CD. no issues.

[Grainger49]

Let me ask a really dumb question, is the polarity right?  The plate of the tube needs positive voltage.

[mortron]

I had them backwards... I'm an idiot. What I did was I joined the black and red wires to their respective colour. I guess the holders have the red wire with positive and the 9v connector clip is reverse wired (because its a receptacle and not plug?)... I tested so many times with my multimeter and it was consistently the same, not cluing in that rather than having my probes swapped around,  everthing was hookes up backwards haha... ill post results later.

I would like to thank Doc, Paul and company for introducing a kit that has allowed me to make mistakes without having to meet MY maker. Hopefully I can break all the bad habits on the quickie before more higher voltage projects... just gotta figure out how to stop burning myself with the soldering iron.

[Doc B.]

just gotta figure out how to stop burning myself with the soldering iron.

Pick it up by the other end?

[mortron]

just gotta figure out how to stop burning myself with the soldering iron.

Pick it up by the other end?

Again, you save the day haha. You guys are my favourite!

[Grainger49]

It is a friendly and helpful community!  I don't use that word haphazardly.

[earwaxxer]

Hey Mort - cant agree more about how you can 'go wild' with Quickie mods and not die! Its a nice feeling, knowing that a mistake will not have your wife cashing in on your life insurance!

[mortron]

Earwaxxer - agreed... plus, if we had all started with kits like these as kids... we may have developed some employable skills haha.

Well it was a success. Wow. Don't NOTICE the batteries fading as much with the PJCCS but when you finally swap out for ones with a bit more juice... holay!

I moved my speakers around and used a tape measure, which proved my placement techniques were a bit off. So now with some handy protractors I made, I managed to get my placement a bit more nailed down... if anything I may get away spreading the speakers a bit wider. Here's hoping I don't get kicked out of my apartment.