14-05-2014, 07:46 PM
I have a Taylor 45D Valve Tester, and whilst it has ten valve bases (no space for any more on the test panel), it requires adaptors (eight in total) to extend the range to allow other valves to be tested. I guess that such adaptors are rare, and if/when they do come onto the market, fetch ludicrous prices. The adaptors as supplied by Taylor Instruments plug into a special 'B14E' Test Socket, albeit none of the adaptors were for testing valves with more than eight pins so there was no merit in trying to find B14 bases to make my own adaptors, which I imagine would have been used on ‘scope tubes. As all of the pins on all of the sockets are paralleled I decided to use the International Octal test socket into which to plug the adaptors, as octal valves are plentiful so a few scrap ‘donor’ octal valves would yield octal bases to make the four adaptors that I wanted - namely, B4, B5, B7 and Mazda Octal.
To make the adaptors, all that was needed was a means of mounting the octal plug and the desired valve socket to which it would be wired, pin for pin. Thus, for example, a B5 valve socket would be wired to pins 1 – 5 of an octal plug. I'm indebted to Jim, G4XWD, on the UKVRF, who kindly sent me the valve-holders that I needed to enable me to make the adaptors. I've now made the four that interested me to extend the range of valves that I'm able to test and thought it might be of interest to others as similar adaptors could be used to extend the range of other makes and models of testers.
I'd recently obtained some offcuts of 75mm long x 55mm diameter plastic bar from Rufforth autojumble at £1.00 a piece so I used that to turn the 'couplers' on my metalworking lathe so that octal valve bases removed from 'donor' valves could be wired pin for pin to the desired valve-holders. I'm happy to say that the adaptors are a success and I may eventually add others such as 8-pin side contact, and the 'UX' series, as and when I come across some suitable valve sockets. (Never thought to look when browsing at the NVCF!).
A few pics attached. I guess that for anyone without lathe facilities the additional bases could have been wired into a panel with an eight-way flexible lead to an octal plug to plug into the vale-tester octal socket, but as it was no hassle to turn the four couplers I preferred to make them along the lines of the original accessory adaptors as supplied by Taylor Instruments. Same idea could of course be used to extend the range of bases for other valve-testers. (For anyone with a woodturning lathe the couplers could just as easily have been turned from close-grained hardwood such as beech, mahogany, iroko etc, finished with shellac sanding sealer).
To wire them up, I poked 150mm of tinned copper wire up the octal pins one pin at a time, slid a length of coloured sleeving over the wire using the resistor colour code (pin 1 brown, pin 2 red etc), remembering of course that it you look down into a valve base, the pins number anti-clockwise so it's best only to look from the underside of the socket and the octal plug to avoid getting muddled up. I checked with a multi-meter that the pins corresponded correctly between the socket and the octal base before I got to work with the soldering iron! (Much easier and less chance of errors to poke the wire up the octal pins than to wire up the valve socket and try to poke the wires down the pins from the top).
A few pics attached.
The sharp-eyed may notice that they're not all the same height - I made then as small in height as possible, which was dictated by the length of the tags on the individual valve-sockets.
So there you are - not Taylor Instruments adaptors - 'Yorkie Taylor' ones
Hope that might be of interest to someone.
To make the adaptors, all that was needed was a means of mounting the octal plug and the desired valve socket to which it would be wired, pin for pin. Thus, for example, a B5 valve socket would be wired to pins 1 – 5 of an octal plug. I'm indebted to Jim, G4XWD, on the UKVRF, who kindly sent me the valve-holders that I needed to enable me to make the adaptors. I've now made the four that interested me to extend the range of valves that I'm able to test and thought it might be of interest to others as similar adaptors could be used to extend the range of other makes and models of testers.
I'd recently obtained some offcuts of 75mm long x 55mm diameter plastic bar from Rufforth autojumble at £1.00 a piece so I used that to turn the 'couplers' on my metalworking lathe so that octal valve bases removed from 'donor' valves could be wired pin for pin to the desired valve-holders. I'm happy to say that the adaptors are a success and I may eventually add others such as 8-pin side contact, and the 'UX' series, as and when I come across some suitable valve sockets. (Never thought to look when browsing at the NVCF!).
A few pics attached. I guess that for anyone without lathe facilities the additional bases could have been wired into a panel with an eight-way flexible lead to an octal plug to plug into the vale-tester octal socket, but as it was no hassle to turn the four couplers I preferred to make them along the lines of the original accessory adaptors as supplied by Taylor Instruments. Same idea could of course be used to extend the range of bases for other valve-testers. (For anyone with a woodturning lathe the couplers could just as easily have been turned from close-grained hardwood such as beech, mahogany, iroko etc, finished with shellac sanding sealer).
To wire them up, I poked 150mm of tinned copper wire up the octal pins one pin at a time, slid a length of coloured sleeving over the wire using the resistor colour code (pin 1 brown, pin 2 red etc), remembering of course that it you look down into a valve base, the pins number anti-clockwise so it's best only to look from the underside of the socket and the octal plug to avoid getting muddled up. I checked with a multi-meter that the pins corresponded correctly between the socket and the octal base before I got to work with the soldering iron! (Much easier and less chance of errors to poke the wire up the octal pins than to wire up the valve socket and try to poke the wires down the pins from the top).
A few pics attached.
The sharp-eyed may notice that they're not all the same height - I made then as small in height as possible, which was dictated by the length of the tags on the individual valve-sockets.
So there you are - not Taylor Instruments adaptors - 'Yorkie Taylor' ones
Hope that might be of interest to someone.
Regards, David.
BVWS Member.
G-QRP Club Member 1339.
'I'm in my own little world, but I'm happy, and they know me here'
BVWS Member.
G-QRP Club Member 1339.
'I'm in my own little world, but I'm happy, and they know me here'
