How does a vacuum tube work (GU-50 power pentode autopsy)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 ก.ค. 2024
- In this video I make an autopsy of a GU-50 power pentode and explain how does this vacuum tube work. GU-50 is a soviet copy of LS-50. It's a linear RF amplifier designed for radio transmitters up to 120 MHz and 50 W, but it was also used in TV sets and medical equipment. Nowadays it's used by audiophiles for audio amplifiers and also for vacuum tube tesla coils (VTTC).
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/ diodegonewild - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
You could really hear your clock in the background. Reminds me of my grandparents house when I was a kid.
7:28 If the silver film on the top of the vacuum tube changes to grey, there is no more vaccum inside (so called "getter material").
-Total damage
You are a very good teacher, really good explained. :-)
Greetings from germany
Today, tubes are like ARTWORK. The materials & labor involved in their construction, compared with modern components, absolutely BOGGLE the mind. Love your content DGW. Cheers
Thank you for your very detailed explanation of all the grids and their function. I've never worked with vacuum tubes myself, so they are kind of "black magic" to me.
Think of of vacuum tubes as analog mosfets/fet transistors, (tubes are are solid state but logically are power hungry ) using voltage to move electrons(by reflecting or attraction) physically , instead of silicon(mosfet) where the flow is directly switched, only needing 3 connections and much less power, think of the tubes like the Atari vcs and modern day transistors like a gaming pc, they both are "able" to do the same things just two different techniques of achievement
@@Clancydaenlightened worst explanation ever
For me transistors are more of a black magic than tubes. Its easier to understand how a tube works than a transistor. But if you dont now how it works, it really looks like magic in a glass tube.
AWESOME!!!! Growing up our TV had a few tubes, and when the TV went down I remember going to the local G. Store to test all the tubes, and when we ( My father, and I) found the bad ones hopefully they had a replacement tube for the bad tube so we could have our TV back lol. I've ALWAYS wondered how the tubes worked, ans would have love to tear one apart to investigate. My father explained to me the basic operation of a tube. My father is a thermal engineer with his Masters degree, and worked for JPL, and Lockheed, Martin so you can understand why I love the things I love. Thank you very much DiodeGoneWild.
Imagine a solar flare type extinction event, we will have tiny amount of semiconductor electronics that survives and then we'll have this enormous soviet surplus of vacuum tube technology. Looks like Fallout to me.
Always amazes me how vacuum is maintained around pins. Most people in the US went to their local pharmacy and used a tube checker and repaired their TV themselves. And entire TV today uses as much power as 1 vacuum tube.
Very detailed explanation, cool video.
Remembering me childhood memories tearing down those vacuum tubes in my father's workspase
That clock is so cool, are you going to take us through it step by step? Or even better a build video?
I'm really not sure how may people would appreciate a clock with TTL chips :). Those chips draw even more power than the nixies and they were probably made before most of the viewers were born. But I was already mentioning this clock in a video th-cam.com/video/QR3HXieMCK0/w-d-xo.html and I'm also writing a webpage about it danyk.cz/hodiny_tesla_en.html
Hi time traveller nice to meet you again 👍
For that clock, what about put a small isolation transformer in the input? It could be less dangerous!
Very Interesting collection of tubes, niceee!
VERY INTERESTING... THANK YOU. Love the clock too !!
Oh, srs551, ls50, gu50, I have lots of them. Even an old one with the real German Eagle and Svastica. I also have a Audio Amifier (seen partly in my profile picture, It's the preamplifier which has a surpl. 2x8 W EL84 output) with 2 X 6 GU50 tubes with more than 200 Watts per Channel. We developed a special Audio Transformer for it with a special design with distortion factor very low with, at the same time, very low negative feedback. It is so stable, that the neg feedback could even be cut and it will work properly. But now before Christmas I have to do some maintenance. We used PL519 as Diodes (Full bridge Rectifier), which works good, but now after 15 Years of use one in the separate mains power supply box is broken. Greetings from Germany /Bavaria /Kelheim, Sascha DL1RCI
In the USSR, they also liked to make powerful amplifiers on this tube
06:04 - «Here's my cat coming to help me. You press it into the socket and close it here, and that's it!»
0_0 No way!
I'm really glad I'm not the only one who sometimes uses a sidecutter as a pair of pliers! 😅
Nice video. You've got a lot of these tubes. I have just one. Might be using it for a transmitter at some point, when I get a license & callsign and start doing the ham radio stuff.
FYI I hear you through my audio amplifier with no semiconductors in it and it contains tubes manufactured in 1969, 1977 and ... 2015 :) My other tube amplifier actually works with ГУ-50.
Very good video as usual
I recently found your channel, love it, very interesting. And hope to see the beautiful cat pass by now and then
Wow, really informative film
Wow, this is a nice video!!!
Very interesting video, tubes in Canada were out of production for at least 40 years now. A shame because they are very interesting to experiment with.
Hello, could you tell me what is the V(pp) in a push-pull class AB wiring with Va=720V? I'm looking for this information for a long time.
Great topic. Thanx.
+DiodeGoneWild
If you still have your programming LPT plug and old PC,can you make a video about your way to program AVR with hex?Can they be programmed using some FTDI technology?
Great explication 🤗
That used to be the HF amp block from a soviet R-123 radio, it was mainly used in tanks.
If I'm not mistaken aren't vaccum tubes used to switch high voltage loads for things like particle accelerators?
Thanks. ..where did you find them ?
Hi, cathode and supressor grid are conected between ? or i can conect control grid y secong grid together , and 3rd grid with plate togheter
beautiful clock
Hello. Isn't the "Second Grid" speeding the signal even more towards the Anode? Thanks for Super video's! Love Your Cat of course :)
Very nice
Bro can i connect 5volt lithium charger in series to charge 3s lipo battery (voltage around 11.1 of battery) i made it my self
Tomorrow I am getting my 6 GU-50s from the shipping company. I got a deal on 6 tubes and sockets for 15€ :)
I watch your every video, can you please make the teardown of Old Fridge Stabilizer? and an Electric Piano SD5488-A?
Hey can you please make a video on constructing a dual resonance solid state tesla coil(DRSSTC).
Some kind of SSTC may be coming :).
Magnifique tube, pouvez vous me dire ou on peut en trouver et à quel prix ? Merci
Great video I like your explanation of how they work . Are you a radio amateur? I saw a video of a pirate radio station using GU51 tubes ( or valves as we call them in UK) so they are a well known tube type
saudações do Brasil + like. esse pó branco do catodo não é tóxico? óxido de tório pra facilitar a emissão termiônica????? eu acho que vi um gatinho. sucesso e muita saúde.
Amazing! I remember when kid
What kind of powder is on the cathode?
Reminds me of a Tung-Sol 6550. Similar?
7:20 possibly multy frequency signal amplifier. Old soviet tvs had lots of those, they glowed too.
I love tubes.
This will probably never be answered, but the counter device you made, and showed at the end of your tear-down of the tubes what is it used for??? Are you going to dissect that device? (The tube counter) I would love to watch, and learn about that.
How does the Dekatron work?
The cat gone wild looking at it!
The wire to glass seal is copper oxide. The glass (silicon dioxide) can "glue" itself to the oxide coating on the wire. Tungsten dioxide is sometimes used, but it doesn't have the same thermal expansion as glass.
Edit:
Check out Glasslinger
th-cam.com/users/glasslinger
Coincidentally I purchased the exact same tube today. Mine is a Licensed Version of GU50 made by Unitra Lamina (Poland). I plan to use it for a single-ended tube amplifier. I paid 8PLN (less than 2euro) for it and it's brand new.
They're not expensive. Maybe because there's a giant old stock, or because audiophiles refuse to use something that wasn't originally designed for audio. But it still should be a good amplifier. I also prefer the single ended aplifiers. It's simple, there's no need for matched tubes and this is what you could find in all tube TV sets and radios.
In my case I purchased it from some guy who got it from technical highschool. Basements of such schools can be real treasure chests. They often give the remains to students for free. When it comes to electronics really like stuff made in Czechoslovakia, especially transistors. My favourite is TESLA KD502 (they were often used in Polish Equipment).I also have one Heptode TESLA ECH81. I really like your channel because you show old equipment and explain how it works.Keep up the good work.
@@DiodeGoneWild What does it mean that the Gu-50 was not designed for sound? And 6P3C (6L6) was designed for sound? Audiophiles are a biased people
Двухтактный усилитель на Гу-50 прекрасно работает и звучит. В СССР это была любимая трубка для усилка,не считая 6П3С и 6П6С
Oh, I love your accent!
The man does not speak, he sings.
1959Berre You are right! Ha ha ha...
Hes's a Czech guy singing like Italians with an Indian accent... it's fabulous! :)
@@BillAnt Czech language is funny even for other slavs like Poles :D
@lukezaa < So is Hungarian, sounds like nothing else in Eastern Europe. xD
A video about the clock?
Pěkné :)
Nice!!
you have a good channel, it deserves to grow
but you forgot about beam tetrodes :D they are better than pentodes and tetrodes, they are the "power standard", almost every power late pentode is like this , basically instead of the third grid there's an armature with large holes that directs the beam of electrons on the anode and apparently it can retain a large anode to dissipate power, there's no third grid and "bouncing electrons" are kept away by the strong (?) emission trought the holes
Have any tubes from Tesla or EI Nis?
I have some tubes from Tesla :).
Crazy voltages ouf!
Can you demonstrate some kind of radio output power amplifier in the next video about the tubes?
You have so many,maybe one could be an amplifier :)
Hi there. Sorry for my English. The GU-50 are used in many ways. Like RF PA, in the UM series: greenradio.de/e_um.htm , greenradio.de/e_um1.htm , greenradio.de/e_um2.htm , greenradio.de/e_um3.htm ; RF end in mobile radios: greenradio.de/e_r123.htm ; or in even larger ones: greenradio.de/e_r134.htm , greenradio.de/e_r111.htm
Nice
i was born in 95 so vacuum tubes are soo cool .....its this mysterious glass thing that made everything tick back in the day ....... im thinking of sticking a 4 LED's inside 4 tubes and make a night stand lamp !!!
W końcu coś z Polski! :D
Would you try to make audio amplifier whit it?Nice clock! :-)
it's possible, if I have time :).
DiodeGoneWild ok :-)
great video biggest advanteig of tubes 100% EMP proof
Some conspiracy theory says that Russia still produces a lot of tubes to be prepared for a nuclear war :).
i didnt mean to imply that its just a fact that those tube mutch more resilent to EMP
besides Putin migth be crazy but not stupid the one who fires first dies second
The tubes may be, but the other components in a radio are not. Don't forget about the diodes in the detector and modulator, even the rectifiers in the power supply, and the transistors all over the audio side.
you migth be surprised what possible with tubes recifiefer have bin made with gallium plates stille in use in old Carbattery chargers transistors have bin event in the 50 but similuat techniks have bin used in guss what tubes when in the early 90 a hole squadron of new Russian migs been taken over by the german Army from the Eastern German Airforce the have bin proofen mostly bin equiped with tube based electronics why do you think was that
Nice cat !
Nice i think imma make a tube amp
A bunch of spare power tubes you're looking to figure out what to do with?
Build a guitar or bass amp!! Cascade some 12AX7s (you may know them as ECC83s) for the preamp section, use a balanced one to drive the power stage, and then use either matched pairs, quads, or sextets (depending on desired power level) of GU-50s in an A-B push-pull configuration for the output. If those can each dissipate 50W, that puts them comparable to 6550 tubes in power output. A matched quad could probably put out ~200W in class AB operation. That'd make one hell of a bass amp - or an absolutely insane guitar amp.
Great
Yes they are amazing for what they do, i remembered the grids but could not remember the order, its been 20 years since i looked at valves/thermonic devices.
They apparently operate a bit like fets, but there will be differences.
The cathode ray tube is a similar idea, and without it we would have never had t.v :-(.
Its a shame that c.r.t's are dead for tv use, i still like the picture on a c.r.t more than modern short term crap.
I may build an audio aplifier to be able to enjoy those tubes :). Pentode has no solid state equivalent, but if you use just the g1, it's a bit like a FET. I still keep several CRT TV sets from nostalgy, but unfortunatelly they don't work, because all TV broadcast is now digital. But they work with a set top box (DVB-T receiver). I miss the grainy picture :D.
ty jo danyku takhle mluvíš naschvál? Máš podobnou výslovnost asi jako Finové z hydraulic press channel :D
how about teardown of an UPS system.
I love the catttttt😻😻😻😻😻😻
I request you please keep those precious pentodes securely, try to make a good tube amplifier, it can provide amazing sound quality (if the driver circuit is properly designed), they are still used nowadays by the audiophiles who buy tube amplifiers at a very high rate.
And VTTC would be a great thing (see the amazing sword like spark characteristics of VTTCs).
I may actually build some audio amplifier with those :). VTTC is also a good idea, but I have already built VTTC's with 2x GU-81 tubes and with 6x RE025XA tubes.
DiodeGoneWild, please show the VTTC in your channel,I would like to see them very much.
@@DiodeGoneWild How about radio transmitter?
The white dust seems something you dont want to breathe, i have no idea what it is made of, but sure i will get away of it. Do youhave anyinformation about the chemistry of the different components inside the tube?
You are going to take that twin tube transmitter apart aren't you?
6:00 Oh hello^_^^_^
Kde si sehnal tolik gu50 a patic?
Sháněl sem jen pár zajímavejch digitronů do sbírky a nakonec sem přišel ke hromadě beden GU-50 :D Kdybys nějaký chtěl nebo věděl o někom kdo to shání, tak bych určitě něco věnoval. Mám toho víc než by duševně zdravej člověk měl mít :D.
DiodeGoneWild Tak to je hodně hustý a klidně bych nějakou tou gu50 nepohrdnul, chceš se dohodnout přes email, nebo nějak?
DiodeGoneWild Poptal jsem se a zatím minimálně 2 lidi by měli zájem.
DiodeGoneWild Písnul jsem ti email, tak dej vědět.
If you can find a source for the correct transformers, (or possibly find a way to make them) you could make amplifiers for electric guitar.
With those pentodes you could probablly make an amp that sounds like the famous Vox ac30. (Wich altso used pentodes. In output stage.)
Marchall amps used beam shaping tubes and has a slightly different sound. (Different tone control circuitry characteristics altso.)
Guitar tube amps sell for quite alot. Relatively speaking. Transformers are the most expencive components.
In my early attempts to build a vacuum tube amp, I was using some vintage output transformers from scrapped tube TV's and radios, But the power is not very high and the isolation is questionable. I'm probably going to wind my own transformer. I can use a core from a mains transformer and rearrange the EI core so there's a gap at one side. The windings have to be interlaced several times. For example PRI-SEC-PRI-SEC-PRI. This is necessary for better coupling (less stray inductance) because it has to handle about 30Hz to 20kHz.
Ah. Ok. I didn't know this about the output transformers for tube amps.
Afriend of mine recently opened a musical instrument shop in the town where I live, after the last such shop closed 3 years ago. And I started to think again about making tube amlifiers. That was nice to know.
There should be not much problems making an amp sound like one of the famous amps.
There are many young guitarists that go into a guitar shop saying, forexample "I want to sound like Ace Frehley from Kiss" And if he can be sold a cheap but good epiphone guitar with humbucker pickups and a less expencive amp that sounds like a real (and very expencive) Marshall Super Lead then ...voila. Satisfied customer.
I don't know. Posiibly.
Edit:
I have seen for sale quite a few high power tube amps on the second hand market. So, maybee a low power tube amp would sell. As guitarists like the sound of a tube amp when you turn it up high and the output tubes distorts.
(They can't use their big amps the way they want because of their neighbours in the city.)
Hi nice video btw can You create video How to make Crystal radio on Your czech Chanel please or create video on this Channel how to make AM transmitter with these tubes i know legallity blablabla but it Will be nice.
Miquel an AM transmitter with a couple watts(or couple hundred :DDDD ) would be very nice:)
@@joczo97 On his website he have some schematics on shortwave TXes i think 5W max.
One lamp transmitter on GU-50 very nice. I made on 6p1p and 6p14p + 6n1p in modulator. 185V on anode. It producing 3W to radio waves.(1.7MHz pirate station)))
Hi Mate, very nice movie:)
18:26 I hope that you did not exchange this mechanical clock in the background with this nixie clock:) I like mechanical clocks:)
VY73!
👍👍👍
Let me see you break open a super rare, super expensive 12AU7 or 12AX7 NOS tube ;D
Well in 2021 i payed 40$ for a damn gk71 .The tube was cheaper but the shipping and tax got the price there ...
Anyone know why vintage tubes sound better/richer than ones made today? (Of the same kind.)
4:08 Oo :)
please make cat teardown! :p
"to keep the unemployment at zero" (*) At the 80's there was no demand (certainly from the West) for these tubes, but ironically now there is demand from the West for these tubes, from the likes of audiophiles, radio amateurs and (nixie clock) makers. So these tubes are now quite valuable. What forethought the Soviet leaders had :-)
(*) In the 70's I remember listening to Radio Moscow on the shortwave bands claiming that the Soviet Union had zero unemployment.
Make them into light bulbs, or audio amplifier or sell on ebay
HeptodeGoneWild
Kanál neznám :D ale zní to jako Danyk :D
#VTTC
Very different glass envelope to most Western tubes.
you speak like god
Today we don't see much of vacuum tube in electronic gadgets.what replaced this famous vacuum tube today?
#REC
this is not diodgonewild its tubegoeswild
@diode_gone_wild you belong to which country??
I think u r from Russia 🤔🤔
I'm from India
Anyone eles like this song about vacuum tubes?
The Katurd ??? !!!
tew tewbes :D
21 of march is my birthday, hello