How does a vacuum tube work (GU-50 power pentode autopsy)
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- Опубликовано: 7 фев 2025
- 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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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
You could really hear your clock in the background. Reminds me of my grandparents house when I was a kid.
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
Hi i know the video is like 6 years old at this point but i just had to comment. The device at 6:35 is a transmitter piece from soviet R-123M radio wich has two GU-50s for two radio bands. The gears are for automatic channel selection, they would be coupled to a gearbox wich would also automatically tune the antenna before tuning to the proper frequency. I just had to nerd out when i saw the thing that made me enjoy electronics.
Nice a fellow radio enthusiast. Glad I wasn't the only one who noticed. I recently got a R-123 as a birthday gift and while restoring it I was like "wait a minute, the transmitter section looks similiar to what diodegonewild had in one of his videos. Let me just find the video to confirm" and then I saw your comment :)
I also got myself one of these now, i opened it up and i instantly thought of this video!
Wen I was a kid I used to do just that to see what were the ´´internals´´ of vacuum tubes. Great video.
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.
Remembering me childhood memories tearing down those vacuum tubes in my father's workspase
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
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.
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.
I think it's gonna happen in 2025😢
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 ruclips.net/video/QR3HXieMCK0/видео.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!
I'm really glad I'm not the only one who sometimes uses a sidecutter as a pair of pliers! 😅
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.
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!
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.
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.
That used to be the HF amp block from a soviet R-123 radio, it was mainly used in tanks.
Tomorrow I am getting my 6 GU-50s from the shipping company. I got a deal on 6 tubes and sockets for 15€ :)
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
VERY INTERESTING... THANK YOU. Love the clock too !!
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
ruclips.net/user/glasslinger
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
7:20 possibly multy frequency signal amplifier. Old soviet tvs had lots of those, they glowed too.
Very detailed explanation, cool video.
I recently found your channel, love it, very interesting. And hope to see the beautiful cat pass by now and then
Very Interesting collection of tubes, niceee!
Great topic. Thanx.
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
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 !!!
Very good video as usual
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.
beautiful clock
I love tubes.
Very nice
Wow, really informative film
Great explication 🤗
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.
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
Hi, cathode and supressor grid are conected between ? or i can conect control grid y secong grid together , and 3rd grid with plate togheter
Wow, this is a nice video!!!
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.
Hello. Isn't the "Second Grid" speeding the signal even more towards the Anode? Thanks for Super video's! Love Your Cat of course :)
If I'm not mistaken aren't vaccum tubes used to switch high voltage loads for things like particle accelerators?
Amazing! I remember when kid
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?
Hey can you please make a video on constructing a dual resonance solid state tesla coil(DRSSTC).
Some kind of SSTC may be coming :).
The cat gone wild looking at it!
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
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.
Crazy voltages ouf!
What kind of powder is on the cathode?
W końcu coś z Polski! :D
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.
+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?
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
How does the Dekatron work?
Magnifique tube, pouvez vous me dire ou on peut en trouver et à quel prix ? Merci
Pěkné :)
Would you try to make audio amplifier whit it?Nice clock! :-)
it's possible, if I have time :).
DiodeGoneWild ok :-)
I watch your every video, can you please make the teardown of Old Fridge Stabilizer? and an Electric Piano SD5488-A?
Nice
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?
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!
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
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.)
A video about the clock?
You are going to take that twin tube transmitter apart aren't you?
Reminds me of a Tung-Sol 6550. Similar?
Nice!!
"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.
Thanks. ..where did you find them ?
Great
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)))
how about teardown of an UPS system.
Nice i think imma make a tube amp
I love the catttttt😻😻😻😻😻😻
Well in 2021 i payed 40$ for a damn gk71 .The tube was cheaper but the shipping and tax got the price there ...
Have any tubes from Tesla or EI Nis?
I have some tubes from Tesla :).
ty jo danyku takhle mluvíš naschvál? Máš podobnou výslovnost asi jako Finové z hydraulic press channel :D
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.
Anyone know why vintage tubes sound better/richer than ones made today? (Of the same kind.)
Very different glass envelope to most Western tubes.
Today we don't see much of vacuum tube in electronic gadgets.what replaced this famous vacuum tube today?
Nice cat !
please make cat teardown! :p
Make them into light bulbs, or audio amplifier or sell on ebay
6:00 Oh hello^_^^_^
👍👍👍
Let me see you break open a super rare, super expensive 12AU7 or 12AX7 NOS tube ;D
you speak like god
this is not diodgonewild its tubegoeswild
Poland was strong under communist, we has very good ship factories, or tv factories. We produced great color tv PiL type tubes, by "polkolor", or computers by Elwro, everything get destroyed in 90 00 and 2010's
Widać że канал интернациональный
@@andrzejziemskov2702 musi być internacjonalny, dobrze że nie narodowy : D
4:08 Oo :)
HeptodeGoneWild
Сделано в СССР
KatouMegumi_osu может быть ты сделан в СССР ?
AOSPA сомневаюсь. Родился до 93его года.
KatouMegumi_osu тогда понятно почему ты такой необразованный
AOSPA обоснуйте, пожалуйста
#VTTC
Kanál neznám :D ale zní to jako Danyk :D
#REC
Anyone eles like this song about vacuum tubes?