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John Robertson John Robertson is offline
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Default A solid state replacement for the lowly 2D21 Thyratron tube...(sorry for the On-Topic post!)

On 2021/04/21 9:04 p.m., bitrex wrote:
On 4/21/2021 8:41 PM, John Robertson wrote:
On 2021/04/21 3:49 p.m., bitrex wrote:
On 4/21/2021 5:20 PM, Spehro Pefhany wrote:
On Wed, 21 Apr 2021 12:44:37 -0700, John Robertson
wrote:

On 2021/04/21 11:14 a.m., John Larkin wrote:
On Wed, 21 Apr 2021 10:28:02 -0700, John Robertson

wrote:

In my field of arcade repairs we run into older jukeboxes - one
particular model which uses the 2D21 tube and was from about 1954.

I have the spec sheet he

https://www.flippers.com/pdfs/2D21_Thyratron_tube.pdf

It would be fun to make a solid state replacement for it as nothing
seems to exist. These tubes are still available from several
sources,
but they get wonky with age.

Being able to simply wire in a TRIAC or SCR (with appropriate
bits of
electronic glue) to remove this tube from the suspect list when
servicing this classic Seeburg V200 jukebox would simplify future
servicing. I always like to make things easier for the next tech
to work
on machines that passed through my shop...

I should point out that Seeburg only used these 2D21s (three
2D21s used)
on their very first control center for their Tormat (200 x magnetic
cores) memory and dropped it like a hot potato. There were numerous
service bulletins culminating in the factory providing a low cost
replacement for the control centers that used 2D21s (three of
these) and
the replacement used a single 2050 tube and was a very reliable
design.
Not everyone took advantage of the program and all these replacement
were used up long, long ago.

John :-#)#

Got a schematic? It might be easy.


A fairly recent scan (not tidied up) of my files section for the V200
Control Center:

https://www.flippers.com/pdfs/Seebur...3-5143_B&W.pdf

Relevant schematic is on page 5128 (pg 16 or the PDF).

A thyratron is similar to an SCR, maybe a sensitive-gate type like
2N5064 could be made to work. This one is apparently Xenon-filled.

http://www.r-type.org/pdfs/2d21.pdf

https://www.mouser.ca/datasheet/2/30...0_D-110409.pdf

I don't have the relationships of the thyratron grids in my head
though, never designed with one (I once fixed a spot welder that had
an enormous lethal-looking high voltage thyratron tube (cap on the
top) and a giant step-down transformer to give the kA pulse).
Hardly touched vacuum tubes after HS, for that matter.


Between the forces of good and the Evil Empire they must have made
bajillions of these things. Why OP not buy a gross from Russia? Just
sitting in their boxes in a dry environment the shelf life might be
measured in centuries.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/274314016219?hash=item3fde63b5db:g:T38AAOSwgOpeqBX p


Where's the fun in that? As I said, I know I can still get new tubes.
The problem is the system doesn't work well...

John ;-#)#


What's a "Wall-o-Matic"?


Commonly called "Booth Boxes" or "Wall-Boxes" these used to be (and
still are in a few places) jukebox remote controls that displayed a list
of the songs available and a coin acceptor and push button system to
make your remote selection on the in-house jukebox.

Not unlike a dial phone in many ways - used a pair of steppers - one for
the letter (up to twenty) and a second for the number (up to ten) to
make a selection of one of up to two hundred songs.

Some photos he

https://www.smbaker.com/converting-a...n-music-player

John :-#)#

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MOVED to #7 - 3979 Marine Way, Burnaby, BC, Canada V5J 5E3
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