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Registered Member #543
Joined: Tue Feb 20 2007, 04:26PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4992
I make things with valves all the time, and I would hesitate to take on a project requiring such a large and expensive power supply, though your own circumstances may be very different.
Big HT transformers have never been cheap, but now their prices have gone through the roof.
You can't make energy out of nothing, so unless you are confidant that you can afford not just a heavy-weight PSU, but all the supporting circuit architecture and metalwork that such a valve requires to function properly, you'd have less heartbreak trying something else.
Imagine such a valve in its original context, and I see in my mind's eye the kind of equipment housing that has double steel doors on the front, with fat cables to supply it with power and instructions.
At the risk of sounding negative, with valves of this size I'd suggest that if you have to ask it means you're not really ready to think seriously about using them. That is why very large valves may be bought so cheaply.
But Good Luck with it all! At worst you have a splendid paperweight!
Registered Member #1381
Joined: Fri Mar 07 2008, 05:24PM
Location: Hungary
Posts: 74
Thanks for caring and giving advise. Also, Yes i'm fully aware of what will be required for a project of this caliber and the tasks ahead.
Basicaly what i'm thinking, is to build some "huge" tesla system(s) for the "Palace of Wonders" that will open sometime next year. So relative cost and a place to power and operate such device(s) wont be a problem. So for now sky is the limit. But then again maybe you'r right and it won't make up for the time and effort invested in it. Right now it seems to be a good idea that's in planning phase.
Registered Member #543
Joined: Tue Feb 20 2007, 04:26PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4992
As a Living Fossil of the Thermionic Age, I'd guess that circuits using this valve would have been put together by a design team of six or twelve men working on it for half a year before a prototype was constructed and costed out.
It's true that today you can simulate circuit operations with PSpice and the like, and save countless hours with a slide-rule where the value of every component had to be individually calculated, but you won't achieve stable and reliable operation with a device of this kind without great attention to engineering detail, and several prototype iterations before the design is declared to be trustworthy and fit for purpose.
It's a bit like asking how you could you fit a 1950s jet fighter engine to your car by next summer....
I think that using valves is a great idea - I always encourage anyone on the forum who wants to keep the old technology alive, since it still has much to offer for special applications - but if you aren't well schooled in valve circuit design, I'd look for an easier route into thermionic technology than a valve of this type.
Others will surely disagree, but there's my six-penny-worth, and I wish you well.
PS. X-ray screening should always be used with valves operating above 20kV.
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GMI-90 Project ideas
