I would recommend adding a dim bulb tester to your equipment. You will need to build it yourself but it isn't difficult and there are plenty of examples here on youtube and maybe google it.
I just brought the same generator and tracer home last night. Bought it from the guy that put them together in about 56 or 58 he said. Still works just fine. They are brown colored from the nicotine in cigarette smoke. They really are a good piece of gear.
They sold these for quite a while and the kits sold for about $50 or so.I have the older 147 (no "A") model. The specs and appearance are the same between the 147 and 147A, but the older model uses octal type tubes. I almost always grab the tracer over a scope to quickly pin down a problem stage in vintage radios or amplifiers. Easy to use, and gives a quick qualitative sample of the signal as well as its relative strength.
The 1629 electron ray tube was actually not made by EICO...many companies used to contract tube manufacturers, (RCA etc.) for the tubes labeled under the OEM's brand name. The 6X4 is the rectifier tube for the DC power supply. The 6AQ5 (Beam Power Pentode) is used as a single-ended audio output tube. Many tube TV's back in the day used this tube for the AF stage and even in some AM/FM table radios as the audio output tube. The signal tracer is actually just a simple single channel audio amplifier with a hi impedance input circuit. The probe that comes with signal tracers usually has a blocking capacitor built in to the probe to block DC from getting into the signal path, since audio signals are of an AC sine wave. If you were to trace a signal through an amplifier or radio, most times you will follow the path into the grid of various tubes and even sometimes the plates which is running DC voltages. The capacitor blocks the DC and lets only the AC sine wave pass. This is a handy piece of test gear for servicing radios, TV's and audio. I still use mine quite often since I work on tube equipment 90% of the time in my daily work :) Frank Ferraro--Audio Craft Electronics.
Three quibbles about your video: If you look closely in the beginning, just after Led Zepplin, I think you will see the center of your probe coax connected to ground, and the ground connected to the input. You also refer to the resistors underneath biasing the transistors, I doubt you will ever find a transistor in this device. Finally, there is some excess video after you sign off. You have found an exceptionally clean unit there. I would go ahead and replace the can electrolytic cap if I owned your device. Other than that, seeing it in action would be nice.
I noticed the probe plugged in backwards as well. I have one of these, which I probably only had for a few years before this video was released. This a great tool to have on the bench. I too suggest swapping out those electrolytic caps with modern ones. I liked the video.
Hi, I found one of these at an estate sale today paid $18 for it and it works and looks almost like new. I was a TV audio repairman, etc and I do miss the old well built test equipment loved your video. I am a fan of the 70s Marantz stereos, I have 3. and I plan to put this to good use. on one of them. I did find the manual pdf online also. Also on Ebay saw 3 of them for sale $79 each.
Great Video I have that unit great peace of equipment! I am a retired tv repair man worked for Sears 3 years than GTE Sylvania/Philips for almost 23 years till they closed service had my own shop 17 yrs after that,was a great run, was fun,the prices got so low people throwing everything out sets so cheap now repair techs a lost breed!
I used on of those when I was learning electronics at a Vo-Tech school. I have an Eico Scope 460. I had to replace the power supply capacitors, rectifier tube and verticle deflection tube. I purchased it for $67.00 mail order.
Very awesome! I have an old tube Heathkit sine square generator that looks very similar to your generator. "Good shape" is a total understatement, It's in amazing shape, those transformers and tubes looked amazing. Love all your vids!
At least the rectifier is a 6X4 and not a 6X5, which are notorious for developing filament-to-cathode shorts. The best thing you can do if you find a 6X5 is to replace it with a JAN 6X5WGT. I've read it's actually possible to use a 1629 as an amplifier tube, as it has a single triode stage in it.
Cool find, thanks for sharing. Amazing how simple some of the old test equipment was. I'd not heard of a magic eye before so did some googling around; interesting piece of kit.
Check all the 1M resistors, they all tend to go high value, which will give poor display. Basically check all resistors over 47k and replace as needed with 1W resistors. You will not get the original ones any more, but 1W resistors will be around the same size and will last almost forever.
Cool video. I'm up for the next one when you use this thing. Love the magic eye tubes. They were in radios back in the day, used for tuning them. They are kinda hypnotic.
I find myself looking forward to your videos every week. Thank you very much for taking the time to share all this information. This was a very interesting video. I take it the amount of wires on the underneath side is due to no circuit board ? Or was that a normal way of building that type of tester back then ? Again keep the videos coming.
KSfixitman All electronics were built and wired this way at one time. It's called "point to point" construction. Printed circuit boards started to become common place in the mid 1950s. By the 1970's point to point became a thing of the past due the amount of manual labor required.
I have one of these and I'm going to change the audio input jacks to two 1/4 guitar female jacks. Also a 4" or 5" 50 watt Eminence speaker. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
***** For some reason I thought it would work like a multimeter with continuity and just beep when you got signal, maybe the louder the better the signal.
Photographic Time The magic eye shows the intensity of the signal and the speaker will allow you to hear any distortion. The o-scope outputs will further help by letting you see the wave form at the point being probed in the circuit.
I would recommend adding a dim bulb tester to your equipment. You will need to build it yourself but it isn't difficult and there are plenty of examples here on youtube and maybe google it.
I just brought the same generator and tracer home last night. Bought it from the guy that put them together in about 56 or 58 he said. Still works just fine. They are brown colored from the nicotine in cigarette smoke. They really are a good piece of gear.
They sold these for quite a while and the kits sold for about $50 or so.I have the older 147 (no "A") model. The specs and appearance are the same between the 147 and 147A, but the older model uses octal type tubes. I almost always grab the tracer over a scope to quickly pin down a problem stage in vintage radios or amplifiers. Easy to use, and gives a quick qualitative sample of the signal as well as its relative strength.
The 1629 electron ray tube was actually not made by EICO...many companies used to contract tube manufacturers, (RCA etc.) for the tubes labeled under the OEM's brand name. The 6X4 is the rectifier tube for the DC power supply. The 6AQ5 (Beam Power Pentode) is used as a single-ended audio output tube. Many tube TV's back in the day used this tube for the AF stage and even in some AM/FM table radios as the audio output tube. The signal tracer is actually just a simple single channel audio amplifier with a hi impedance input circuit. The probe that comes with signal tracers usually has a blocking capacitor built in to the probe to block DC from getting into the signal path, since audio signals are of an AC sine wave. If you were to trace a signal through an amplifier or radio, most times you will follow the path into the grid of various tubes and even sometimes the plates which is running DC voltages. The capacitor blocks the DC and lets only the AC sine wave pass. This is a handy piece of test gear for servicing radios, TV's and audio. I still use mine quite often since I work on tube equipment 90% of the time in my daily work :) Frank Ferraro--Audio Craft Electronics.
Three quibbles about your video: If you look closely in the beginning, just after Led Zepplin, I think you will see the center of your probe coax connected to ground, and the ground connected to the input. You also refer to the resistors underneath biasing the transistors, I doubt you will ever find a transistor in this device. Finally, there is some excess video after you sign off. You have found an exceptionally clean unit there. I would go ahead and replace the can electrolytic cap if I owned your device. Other than that, seeing it in action would be nice.
I noticed the probe plugged in backwards as well. I have one of these, which I probably only had for a few years before this video was released. This a great tool to have on the bench. I too suggest swapping out those electrolytic caps with modern ones. I liked the video.
Hi, I found one of these at an estate sale today paid $18 for it and it works and looks almost like new. I was a TV audio repairman, etc and I do miss the old well built test equipment loved your video. I am a fan of the 70s Marantz stereos, I have 3. and I plan to put this to good use. on one of them. I did find the manual pdf online also. Also on Ebay saw 3 of them for sale $79 each.
Great Video I have that unit great peace of equipment! I am a retired tv repair man worked for Sears 3 years than GTE Sylvania/Philips for almost 23 years till they closed service had my own shop 17 yrs after that,was a great run, was fun,the prices got so low people throwing everything out sets so cheap now repair techs a lost breed!
I used on of those when I was learning electronics at a Vo-Tech school.
I have an Eico Scope 460.
I had to replace the power supply capacitors, rectifier tube and verticle deflection tube.
I purchased it for $67.00 mail order.
Very awesome! I have an old tube Heathkit sine square generator that looks very similar to your generator. "Good shape" is a total understatement, It's in amazing shape, those transformers and tubes looked amazing. Love all your vids!
Thanks for your video... Nice one. I have several Eico instruments including this one.. I love old Eico equipment.
At least the rectifier is a 6X4 and not a 6X5, which are notorious for developing filament-to-cathode shorts. The best thing you can do if you find a 6X5 is to replace it with a JAN 6X5WGT.
I've read it's actually possible to use a 1629 as an amplifier tube, as it has a single triode stage in it.
The old stuff is built better than the new & simple to . Thanks for your video .
Cool find, thanks for sharing. Amazing how simple some of the old test equipment was. I'd not heard of a magic eye before so did some googling around; interesting piece of kit.
Check all the 1M resistors, they all tend to go high value, which will give poor display. Basically check all resistors over 47k and replace as needed with 1W resistors. You will not get the original ones any more, but 1W resistors will be around the same size and will last almost forever.
That's a nice and bright magic eye tube. It must had not had a lot of use.
I also have a similar one, but the RF probe is rather well used. Will have to fix it one day.
$29.95 for the kit $49.95 assembled in 1963 (EICO 1963 catalog)
Cool video. I'm up for the next one when you use this thing. Love the magic eye tubes. They were in radios back in the day, used for tuning them. They are kinda hypnotic.
Use to use both of them a lot back in the early 70"s
.you got to love old test equipment...cool
hi dean that really is in excellent condition.
they were about $ 30.00 kit form
EICO isn't top of line stuff, but it's ok, well worth the effort to fix that old signal tracer.
You should have said at the end of the video..."Keep an 'eye 'out for one"
I find myself looking forward to your videos every week. Thank you very much for taking the time to share all this information. This was a very interesting video. I take it the amount of wires on the underneath side is due to no circuit board ? Or was that a normal way of building that type of tester back then ? Again keep the videos coming.
KSfixitman All electronics were built and wired this way at one time. It's called "point to point" construction. Printed circuit boards started to become common place in the mid 1950s. By the 1970's point to point became a thing of the past due the amount of manual labor required.
I have one and it's dated 1959. It works but I have no idea what I need it for.
I have one of these and I'm going to change the audio input jacks to two 1/4 guitar female jacks. Also a 4" or 5" 50 watt Eminence speaker. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
I also have a conscience trobo tuner
can it be used for finding a short/open circuit?
Does the Primary on the main transformer allow to connect to 220v power supply?
(some old devices have dual primary wire)
I think it is a flat Sharp
Was the MP3 audio coming from its internal speaker?
Photographic Time Yes. The speaker is still in great condition.
***** For some reason I thought it would work like a multimeter with continuity and just beep when you got signal, maybe the louder the better the signal.
Photographic Time The magic eye shows the intensity of the signal and the speaker will allow you to hear any distortion. The o-scope outputs will further help by letting you see the wave form at the point being probed in the circuit.
I have one what are they worth
My magic eye tube is very dim.