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Registered Member #30
Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706
I think it's the same reason as stupid Youtube videos of cats can "go viral" and get millions of views.
There is a non-linearity because of mass-production: the more units of something you make, the cheaper each unit gets. So, the more popular a part gets, the cheaper it gets, which makes it more popular still, and that positive feedback is what makes it take off and become a classic.
Eventually you get to the point where the part is so cheap and plentiful that designers try to make it do everything. Look at how many uses there are for the 555.
There's also second-sourcing: if a part gets popular enough, other manufacturers will start to make their own version. That competition drives the price down further. The 555 and IRFP460 are second-sourced by about half a dozen makers.
The "classic" parts are rarely the best ones. By the time they become classics they're more or less obsolete, and you can find a new design that works 10 times better.
Registered Member #543
Joined: Tue Feb 20 2007, 04:26PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4992
When Signetics first marketed the 555 in 1971, circuits using thermionic valves were still being designed and marketed. The 555 was truly revolutionary, and nothing with its versatility and ease of use had ever been seen before. Forty years since it was first designed by Camenzind, 555 has remained useful, reliable, very easy to use, and cheap as chips. What more could one ask?
When Steve says:
Steve McConner wrote ...
The "classic" parts are rarely the best ones. By the time they become classics they're more or less obsolete, and you can find a new design that works 10 times better.
I think he is largely right, but with important exceptions. Thermionic valves like 807 have had so much greatness and legend heaped upon them, that they will surely have gone to Thermionic Heaven, where the Angels continue to devise new vacuum valve circuits through all Eternity.
Registered Member #30
Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706
Proud Mary wrote ... Thermionic valves like 807 have had so much greatness and legend heaped upon them, that they will surely have gone to Thermionic Heaven
Tubes are exempt of course
Tubes like the 807 and 6L6 are still in production (in Russia and China) something like 70 years after they were introduced, and new vacuum tube circuits are still being designed for niche uses like electric guitar and hi-fi. A bit of a niche market to be sure, but great fun to play with. Personally I love tube amplifiers and have built four or five of them.
Registered Member #543
Joined: Tue Feb 20 2007, 04:26PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4992
Another valve for the Thermionic Roll of Honour is the mighty little 6V6.
This super little Beam Power Tetrode has retained its popularity in guitar amps, but once it stood alone as keyed power oscillator in the Paraset No. 1, the main 'spy radio in a suitcase' issued by the British Special Operations Executive to resistance groups around Europe during WW2.
The set below was used by Oluf Reed Olsen, the Norwegian Resistance Fighter, in 1943-44. The transmitter consisted of a single keyed 6V6 crystal controlled power oscillator, which could output about 5W into the antenna. The receiver was a two valve TRF type with a regenerative detector, or "reaction" as it was then called. Partisans and resistance fighters all around Europe used this simple equipment to communicate directly with Britain over distances up to a 1000 miles.
The device in the bottom right hand corner is a plug in quartz oscillator crystal, and immediately above it is the 6V6. When not in use, the three valves were taken out of their sockets, so the suitcase lid could close.
A terrible death awaited those the Germans caught with this equipment.
I would also include the "01a. It is just about the most famous battery tube of all time. it is a triode, but it was great in the 20s and 30s, made by RCA too!
Registered Member #30
Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706
No doubt from an Ebay auction titled "LOOK! rare vintage transistors"
The one good thing about 2N3055s is, they don't need any protection because they have too little current gain to hurt themselves.
Of course if you buy new 2N3055s now, you get a completely different silicon die to the originals. It's about 10 times faster, and has a smaller SOA. The wikipedia article (another good sign that a component is a classic) covers that in gruesome detail. Plenty of classic transistors have been "upgraded" like this, and Bob Pease covers the issue in his book "Troubleshooting Analog Circuits". The gist of it is that the original transistor "recipe" required cooking for maybe 24 hours, and that wasn't economical.
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Stories behind the popularity of certain parts?
