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Old 04-24-2022, 12:01 PM
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AlanInSitges AlanInSitges is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2017
Location: Sitges, Catalonia, Spain
Posts: 446
OK, I could use a little more help here...

B+ is low across the board. Main B+ is supposed to be 390V, I have 350V even with the HO tube removed. I only have 355V before the choke. Adding the HO tube makes it drop by a couple of volts. So there is either something wrong with the B+ supply or there is something dragging it down. The filter cans don't get warm even after 15 minutes, R399 that big dropper resistor is hot but not more than I would expect for a 15W resistor. And even though the B+ is low, if everything else were working, I should still have HV, right?

Moving on to the horiz/HV section: the HO output tube is hot, but according to two different meters I put in series with that cathode fuse it's not drawing any current. Well, one says 0 and the other says 1mA. Fuse is good. There is drive on the grid, measured -48V and about 300V drive from the 6U10 that looks like the Sams picture. However! The screen is quite high, at 160V. Now here is where I could use some help. Please disabuse me of my misconceptions and half-understood leaps of logic:

1. If the B+ is low, and the screen, which is fed from the 390V B+ through a couple of resistors, is high, that would indicate that the tube isn't conducting, right?

2. If the cathode current measures 0, that would also indicate that the tube isn't conducting, right again?

3. Where does the HO tube get its plate voltage? The only path I can find is the 390V on the secondary of the vertical output transformer, that goes through the vertical centering control and makes its way to the plate of the damper. It would follow that the damper is conducting from plate to cathode, over to the flyback, and then to the plate of the 6LB6. Am I right? That seems...convoluted. It must be for a good reason.

4. I am starting to suspect there might not be plate voltage on the horizontal output tube. Except! When the damper is in the set, I can hear the vertical output transformer thumping away. When the damper is removed, no more vertical. Since the vertical output tube gets its plate voltage from the selfsame 390V that's on the plate of damper, that means the VO tube isn't directly dependent upon Boost being present. However! The vert osc gets its plate voltage from Boost and nowhere else, so this must mean that there is Boost present, which must mean that the HO tube is indeed conducting, or there wouldn't be boost present. Which means my plate voltage theory is wrong. But I want to verify before I just stick a probe on there and vaporize a perfectly good $15 DMM.

OR, is there enough of that 390V dribbling through the damper circuit to run the vert oscillator? In which case it would be safe to measure the plate on the HO tube and get a clue where to go next.

I cannot figure out for the life of me where the 870V Boost is coming from. I have re-read both Grob and Gulati on this subject but I'm getting lost.

Thanks everyone for your guidance.
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