Let’s see some Tube Glow!

motorstereo

invalid wrote: »

Those are beautiful looking tubes all lit up. I have a pair of 6895 mercury vapor tubes (the largest one on the left) and I can only wish I had the knowledge to get them to light up. I bet they'd make a great looking night light.

invalid

motorstereo wrote: »

invalid wrote: »

Those are beautiful looking tubes all lit up. I have a pair of 6895 mercury vapor tubes (the largest one on the left) and I can only wish I had the knowledge to get them to light up. I bet they'd make a great looking night light.

That is a big tube, it probably needs 5 volts and 10 amps on the filament.

mhardy6647

that it does


https://frank.pocnet.net/sheets/140/6/6894.pdf

motorstereo

Ok then; now how does one go about making steampunk night lites out of them? I'd love to see them lit up.

mhardy6647

Well, you need a transformer with a 5.0 V @ (better than ) 10 A secondary. Probably not hard to find.
The anode needs 20 VDC to ionize the mercury, apparently.
You'll want to wear sunglasses to attenuate the UV produced by the mercury plasma -- although the glass envelope of the rectifier itself should help. The spectral line at 254 nm is intense (especially at low pressure).


http://lamptech.co.uk/Documents/M3 Spectra.htm

msg

I like blubs.
Parks Audio Budgie Tube Phono Preamp

motorstereo

mhardy6647 wrote: »

Well, you need a transformer with a 5.0 V @ (better than ) 10 A secondary. Probably not hard to find.
The anode needs 20 VDC to ionize the mercury, apparently.
You'll want to wear sunglasses to attenuate the UV produced by the mercury plasma -- although the glass envelope of the rectifier itself should help. The spectral line at 254 nm is intense (especially at low pressure).


http://lamptech.co.uk/Documents/M3 Spectra.htm

Thank you for the detailed advice. Now there's a little voice in my head telling me that I should not attempt this and enjoy those works of art as they are.
Installing a kt88 one pin off is still fresh in my memory. That got my attention as the tube started vibrating, instantly turned green and then let the magic smoke out of the amp. Yes I'm thinking I'd be wise to listen to that little voice.

jdjohn

msg wrote: »

I like blubs.
Parks Audio Budgie Tube Phono Preamp

That's a great pic, Scott Does this mean you have finally fired your vinyl system back up?

TEAforONE

Aric Audio Motherlode II in the main system

mhardy6647

Light a normal vacuum tube's filament - safer and easier. Even better: put a string of tube filaments in series and use it on your holiday tree. Maybe use an isolation transformer, just in case. The filaments will get warm but not hot -- in most tubes, any way.

michaeljhsda2

Yaqin MC-30L

michaeljhsda2

mhardy6647

... another easy way to get cool visual effects -- get (or make*) a plasma ball.



Probably goes without saying that our son took that photo, albeit a long, long time ago.
https://www.deviantart.com/icouldbeahero/art/plasma-2-technicolor-28456036
We still have the plasma ball; it's in the basement. Imagine that?!

_______________
* see, e.g., https://www.instructables.com/Make-a-Plasma-Globe-out-of-a-Light-Bulb/ It's not exactly hard, but not quite easy, either.
*

msg

jdjohn wrote: »

msg wrote: »

I like blubs.
Parks Audio Budgie Tube Phono Preamp

That's a great pic, Scott Does this mean you have finally fired your vinyl system back up?

Hehe, unfortunately, Jody, that's just a poseur pic from a while back, probably back from before we started talking about those cart searches!

invalid

motorstereo wrote: »

Ok then; now how does one go about making steampunk night lites out of them? I'd love to see them lit up.

I wouldn't use Mercury rectifier tubes as a night light, to easy to bump into and break. It would be a lot easier and safer to use a voltage regulator tube like an OD3 or something like that.

mhardy6647

invalid wrote: »

motorstereo wrote: »

Ok then; now how does one go about making steampunk night lites out of them? I'd love to see them lit up.

I wouldn't use Mercury rectifier tubes as a night light, to easy to bump into and break. It would be a lot easier and safer to use a voltage regulator tube like an OD3 or something like that.

Good call. The "glow discharge" voltage regulator tubes are filled with one of noble gases (argon, krypton, neon, perhaps others) which are benign (in fact, more or less chemically unreactive).
I had to look up what gases these "cold cathode" tubes use so I cannot guarantee the accuracy of this -- but it sounds about right.

https://www.tdpri.com/threads/0c3-voltage-regulator-tube-questions.314897/#post-3955886

Pretty pictures, too

jbreezy5

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

@ZLTFUL - what a show!

tonyp063

nooshinjohn

tonyb

msg wrote: »

I like blubs.
Parks Audio Budgie Tube Phono Preamp

I believe that Budgie is out of production now, but very well sought after still. Hold on to that puppy.

DividedSky

Doshi Audio - not the best pics but love the tube magic preamp and phonostage

cjmustang69

Melody AN845 Integrated Amp. Tubes will keep room warm on cold days

Faustin

Bottlehead Paramount monoblocks with 300b tubes and the 5670's replaced with an adapter and 6SN7's. Aric Audio Transcendent pre with phono stage.

hochpt21

Old reliable

Dared SL 2000a

nooshinjohn

Dust much?

hochpt21

nooshinjohn wrote: »

Dust much?

I’m doin mah best ova here

TEAforONE

Faustin wrote: »

Bottlehead Paramount monoblocks with 300b tubes and the 5670's replaced with an adapter and 6SN7's. Aric Audio Transcendent pre with phono stage.

Nice! I’m a HUGE fan of Aric’s gear! I have three of his preamps. Motherlode II, Unlimited,and an old 3.5.

pitdogg2

hochpt21 wrote: »

Old reliable

Dared SL 2000a

I have an early 50's Brimar for that.
If you're interested.

Faustin

Dared SL 2000. My first piece of tube gear.
Sigh. Punches way above it's price point.

haimoc