Quick intro and a little question

[Dale Carr]

Hi folks,

My same is Dale, a tube amp fan from a while back. 

I picked up the uTracer 3+ to be able to check my tubes for quality and hopefully matching power tubes. I think I will use an external power supply for the heaters, switching between either the internal or the external. My question is if I have a 19ish volt laptop supply for the uTracer, can I parallel that 19 volts over to the dc to dc buck boost heater supply without too much issue? I would like to use the tube tester once finished to also be able to check a few rectifier tubes that are direct heated.  I see some folks are ok with that setup and some say it wont work unless I use a second dedicated power brick for the buck boost supply.

Thanks in advance for any help and suggestions,

Dale

[Hoeberlin]

Hi, Dale,

for testing direct heated tubes you need a 2nd isolated Power Supply. Please make shure to check, if they are isolated. Some may have the Output connected to protective Groud of the AC Inlet, that leads to the Situation that even when using 2 separate Bricks the Output is not isolated.

I learned this the hard way, but not with the uTracer. It was a different Project.

BR Henning

-----Ursprüngliche Mitteilung-----
Von: Dale Carr <dale....@gmail.com>
An: uTracer <utr...@googlegroups.com>
Verschickt: Mi, 1. Jun. 2022 1:29
Betreff: Quick intro and a little question

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[Dale Carr]

Thanks for the quick reply..

I am digging a little deeper into the uTracer and its ability to test a 5y3GT type rectifier... I can't seem to find much info other than it tests them at a low voltage. Could anyone point me to any docs on getting a rectifier socket wired up and testing procedure?

I will use a separate non grounding wall transformer for the DC to DC buck boost external heater supply. 

Thanks again,

Dale

[Rocko]

Dale,

Did you ever figure this out?  I have landed on a few rectifiers and maybe a couple of beautiful looking GZ37.  I have tinkered around trying to test them a little but would like some guidance before I break something.

Cheers,

Rocko

[Martin Manning]

See this thread: https://groups.google.com/g/utracer/c/9lo8GgosZ9M "uTracer 3 and Rectifier Testing"

[Martin Manning]

And here: https://www.dos4ever.com/uTracerNotebook/Notebook.html#diode