Retronics

Restoring, remodeling and creating electronic devices

DIY: Test sockets for vacuum tubes

To make testing and experimenting with tubes a litte more tidy and safe, I’ve made some adapters with numbered screw terminals and stable enclosures; so far for connector types Octal, P8A and U6A. The adapters consist of tube sockets, PCBs, JL635 terminal blocks (3-pin or 4-pin) , 3D printed parts and some M3 screws. I’ve shared PBC design files (KiCad), production files (Gerber) and 3D models (.stl) on Github.

Filament type ASA is used for temperature stability.

Octal adapter: PCB design in KiCad and 3D modeling in Fusion 360. Sockets can be bought from e.g. eBay.

Parts for a P8A adapter. The socket is reused from a radio which was beyond repair, but almost identical bakelite sockets can still be bought from online marketplaces.

U6A adapter. This socket is used.

Test sockets P8A, Octal and U6A. Tube caps are deliberately kept separate from the test adapters, since they come with different diameters, and incorporating them in the adapters only would mean a detour for the signal cables.
Two U6A test adapters in use when comparing the characteristics of a digital 6U5 Magic eye replica to an original tube.
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