Hoffman Amplifiers Tube Amplifier Forum

Amp Stuff => Tube Amp Building - Tweaks - Repairs => Topic started by: Tone Junkie on June 25, 2013, 08:38:45 pm

Title: Battery trick on the heaters
Post by: Tone Junkie on June 25, 2013, 08:38:45 pm: I know I have read it hear probably have it printed out in a pile of papers somewere, but I cant find it.
Im chasing down a noise and want to rule out my new twisted wire as the culprit how do i hook up a battery to my heaters to test them . Man it sucks having olds hymers (LOL).
Thanks Bill
Title: Re: Battery trick on the heaters
Post by: Tone Junkie on June 26, 2013, 02:39:29 am: I guess l need to be more specific, I want to hook a battery up to V1 a 12ax7 tube of my tos build to rule out heater noise. any idea's
Thanks Bill
Title: Re: Battery trick on the heaters
Post by: John on June 26, 2013, 04:17:35 am: Bill, it seems you could just hook - to pin 9, and + to 4/5. Or vise versa.
Title: Re: Battery trick on the heaters
Post by: stratele52 on June 26, 2013, 04:25:00 am: What is the am ? New build ?

A standard well build AC heater is as most quiet as any DC heater for guitar amp .

If you have some noise problem look at your wiring .

Photos of inside the amp will help .
Title: Re: Battery trick on the heaters
Post by: eleventeen on June 26, 2013, 09:27:56 am: Well, you could try it. All the tube cares about is whether the heater is lit up. It doesn't care about where the power for doing so comes from. The issue is that such a battery (specifically, I mean of sufficient ampacity) is not that common a thing. Whereas a 6 volt power supply of anything from dirty, dirty to clean, clean is an extremely common thing.

A 6 volt lantern-type battery would be the nominal thing to use..... http://www.techlib.com/reference/batteries.html (http://www.techlib.com/reference/batteries.html) and is OK with the 300 ma pull at 6 volts. Now you have a silly battery sitting around!
Title: Re: Battery trick on the heaters
Post by: jojokeo on June 26, 2013, 11:35:20 am: Another option - use the heater winding of a separate tranny u have laying around.
Title: Re: Battery trick on the heaters
Post by: stratele52 on June 26, 2013, 01:20:48 pm: Quote from: jojokeo on June 26, 2013, 11:35:20 am
Another option - use the heater winding of a separate tranny u have laying around.

This transformer did not remove noise
Title: Re: Battery trick on the heaters
Post by: jojokeo on June 26, 2013, 02:01:54 pm: Isn't this Bill's problem?

If you had the same issue then you can rule that out and move on to other possiblitlities to troubleshoot the issue.
Title: Re: Battery trick on the heaters
Post by: stratele52 on June 26, 2013, 02:15:34 pm: Just look at most , if not all, fender Blackface amps , they use AC heater supply and they are very quiet .

I don't think Bill look to be more quiet than a Fender Blackface . IMO his amp have wiring or ground problem. Until he fix that chance he loose is time.
Title: Re: Battery trick on the heaters
Post by: Tone Junkie on June 26, 2013, 03:48:05 pm: My friends Im pretty good with trouble shooting . What my problem is and I want to rule out this one option, is this. Normally when I run my heater wires I have a very tight twist probably way over kill but it has always worked .
But this time a friend gave me some very nice wire a twisted pair of 20 awg silver coated inside a vinal sleeve the twist is very slight like 1 per inch were as when I do it its usually like 4 to 6 per inch. While running down this noise in my new TOS build it starts in V1, I just wanted to rule out the possability that its not from poorly twisted wire and probably something else.
I have tried several other option's including reflowing all my solder joints usually for me its a missed ground somewhare. Using Dougs probe wire system I can trace from stage to stage and this is were the problem starts.
I dug in my junk drawer and have found what i think to be a suitible battery system. Once i thought about it 3 volts per side will work and I can rule out that possability.
Thank You Bill
Title: Re: Battery trick on the heaters
Post by: 6G6 on June 26, 2013, 08:21:43 pm: If you want to try 12VDC, a car battery will have more than enough current.
Title: Re: Battery trick on the heaters
Post by: super&plexi on June 26, 2013, 09:05:40 pm: I use my rechargeable drill/Dewalt- makita batteries for all kinds of stuff, think they would do the trick here. also retired old ones, almost forgotten about and collecting dust. think I just described myself.
Title: Re: Battery trick on the heaters
Post by: jjasilli on June 27, 2013, 06:54:11 am: 6 volt lantern battery. See, .e.g.: http://ampgarage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=244635&sid=10a2e7efa88764a4cf98f5d9d480b128 (http://ampgarage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=244635&sid=10a2e7efa88764a4cf98f5d9d480b128)

http://www.ax84.com/bbs/dm.php?thread=463661 (http://www.ax84.com/bbs/dm.php?thread=463661)

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/archive/index.php/t-1019138.html (http://www.thegearpage.net/board/archive/index.php/t-1019138.html)

(Personally I prefer a power supply.)

EDIT: I now see eleventeen already beat me to this. So, ditto to his post!
Title: Re: Battery trick on the heaters
Post by: Tone Junkie on June 27, 2013, 01:20:29 pm: Thanks guys
Title: Re: Battery trick on the heaters
Post by: jojokeo on June 28, 2013, 02:42:03 am: Bill,
Almost forgot something to try (if you haven't already?) - I often elevate DC voltage on my heaters.
Title: Re: Battery trick on the heaters
Post by: Tone Junkie on June 28, 2013, 08:44:33 pm: Thanks jojokeo, yes I automaticly elevate all my heaters because of some of the new production tubes having problems in the PI slot without it. I had some 9-0-9 transformers sitting around and just built a regulated 12 v DC heater supply I was going to use it in my high gain builds from now on so i thought I might as well put one on a board to use with my other breadboard stuff. I didnt get around to trying it yet.
But I will tonight