On Saturday, 12 October 2019 01:32:14 UTC+1, wrote:
I am just getting into tube, AKA valve, stuff. At this point I am
learning about them, how they work, how they are used, etc. I
surprised myself a little when I identified an audio amp just by
looking at it. This amp was a component for a larger radio and did not
have any type controls on it. And no labels or anything either. It was
just a chassis with screw terminals.
Anyway, time to get to the point. How valuable is a tube tester for
someone who is only, or mainly, going to be messing with audio gear
and the gear for testing audio gear. Maybe what I really need is a
gear tester? Ahem. So, this would just be for hobby use, at least for
now, and I am not gonna spend a lot of money on it. Can a simple
tube tester be of much use? I say simple because I imagine a not so
simple tester will have a not so low price.
I suppose I could always get a more sophisticated tester that needs
repair but then I would need to learn how to repair it and calibrate
it. Are they hard to calibrate? What sorts of test equipment would be
needed to calibrate one?
I'm a machinist and I know how I would approach this type of
problem if it was a mechanical assembly. I have built pretty
sophisticated and accurate inspection equipment using less
sophisticated machines and tools. But I would be lost trying to repair
a tube tester without help.
Thanks,
Eric

I built my own from a kit.
It works very well, and can supply up to 400v Anode voltage.

Not quite full guitar amp voltage, but probably a whole lot better than most of the vintage testers, which may be well out of spec or just plain broken by now.

It will even superimpose multiple plots on the same graph, so you can see how evenly matched a quad of output valves are, or aren't.



https://www.dos4ever.com/uTracer3/uTracer3_pag1.html