My exciting dim bulb tester!
- Thread starter Jailtime
- Start date
I would have never guessed.
Does your DBT pass OAFI?
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Jailtime
Standin' on a corner
BinaryMike
Pelagic EE
Nice job. Hard to change lamp sizes, though. If I was doing this, I would consider using 2~3 lamp sockets and adding a switch to select lamps. But perhaps that's too close to the threshold where a variac makes more sense.
Yeah, the cage does open pretty easily but it slows you down a bit compared to swapping an exposed lamp.
I was worried about things knocking into the bulb at the time. I don't have a good permanent location for the DBT at the moment so it gets dragged in and out of where it's sitting when I don't need it.
I like your idea of the multiple lamps, would be nice to have say three 40's that you can add in series one at a time. That would cover pretty much everything I am ever likely to work on. Line 'em up with each lamp next to a bypass switch.
John
I was worried about things knocking into the bulb at the time. I don't have a good permanent location for the DBT at the moment so it gets dragged in and out of where it's sitting when I don't need it.
I like your idea of the multiple lamps, would be nice to have say three 40's that you can add in series one at a time. That would cover pretty much everything I am ever likely to work on. Line 'em up with each lamp next to a bypass switch.
John
I think you got me with this one.
F-15 ATE acronym
Operational Assurance Fault Isolation
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Arkay
Lunatic Member
I made a nice steam-punk-esque one with multiple bulb sockets to go visually with my small collection of vintage electrical gear (wheatstone bridges, galvanometers, decade resistance boxes, meters, leyden jars, etc...). I used real vintage parts wherever possible (mostly bakelite) and an old wooden box for a housing (originally an artist's box, I think), with a sheet of that old electrical board (phenolic board?) put in for the top (scavenged from the scrap-recycling place).
The only problem is, it's a relative space-hog, and I no longer have bench space for it, so it sits with the rest of the vintage electrical stuff in storage, while I have only a simple single-bulb mini thing for current use (pun intended). The bulb-selector function really is a luxury, given that it takes less than a minute to unscrew one bulb and screw in a different one... but it looks cooler with multiple bulbs and a big selector switch!
The only problem is, it's a relative space-hog, and I no longer have bench space for it, so it sits with the rest of the vintage electrical stuff in storage, while I have only a simple single-bulb mini thing for current use (pun intended
). The bulb-selector function really is a luxury, given that it takes less than a minute to unscrew one bulb and screw in a different one... but it looks cooler with multiple bulbs and a big selector switch! 
ChopperChas
Super Member
I just built a dim bulb tester, but the article I read on using it says to use a bulb that's 1.5x to 2x the rated wattage of the amplifier. I'm working on a 150wpc unit. I have only one channel in it right now, but I can only find 60 watt bulbs. Am I SOL?
Charles.
Charles.
You can always put lamps in parallel. Two 60W lamps ought to be about right for a 150W amplifier.
http://www.lowes.com/pd_49202-43469...L=?Ns=p_product_qty_sales_dollar|1&facetInfo=
http://www.lowes.com/pd_49202-43469...L=?Ns=p_product_qty_sales_dollar|1&facetInfo=