As a young lad (ca. 1956) I was fascinated by the tuning eye in my uncle's Grundig Majestic radio. NOW I understand how the bloody thing worked! Thanx Fran.
In the late 1960's and 70's I had a 1940's Zenith AM / SW radio, about 4 foot tall, with a Magic Eye. I loved that thing, I would sit in front of it for hours and hours listening to shortwave stations, and finding distant AM stations that my modern receiver wouldn't pick up even a hint of. I listened to a lot of world news, Voice of America, Radio Moscow World Service (with Moscow Molly, she almost sounded American) renamed Voice of Russia in 1993, and every other station I could find broadcasting news in English. I always figured each one was lying about something and the truth lie somewhere between what they all said. I always had visions of someday building a 32 mile Rhombic antenna like Radio Moscow broadcast off of.
I gather you are not in US, since the Voice Of America was not allowed to broadcast to the US. Like you, i used to listen A LOT to the shortwaves in English. That's how i learned English. Radio Netherlands was one of my favorites. Nowadays i listen to podcasts. All the best.
Kamil Izmaylov: They were not allowed to "direct" VOA at Americans, because it could have been considered as propaganda. But we were still able to receive it and listen. The only way they could have stopped us would have been to use jammers, which many other countries did do.
I think people undervalue the sheer creative imagination that went into the invention of these tubes. The fact they were ever thought of reflects a certain level of genius.
I am just old enough to say that "in the old days, when I was young" I was playing around with these tubes a lot. At one moment in time, everyone was throwing out those old radios with tubes so we had enough of this stuff to play with. Had a great time back then, thanks for reminding me ;-)
Used to play with my dads Webcor reel to reel tape recorder back in the 70s. It had a magic eye for recording level control. Used to love screaming into the mic on that thing and watch the eye open and close. Kids may be bored nowadays if they aren’t playing fortnight, but the magic eye in that recorder kept me entertained for hours!
So neat. I remember the first seeing eye tube I had was a 6E5 on a 1935 Magnavox turntable/radio set. Trying to get one of those tubes pre-internet was a feat. I did get a new one. Gave such life to the set. Thanks for featuring it.
I also like magic eyes a lot. I build tube amplifiers like hobby and each one always includes one as magic eye like a level audio indicator. I usually use EM80 ... EM85 although I can not deny the charm of rounds like EM4 or EM34 that are very colorful. The tubes have that magic and as amplifiers they sound different. Thanks for sharing. Greetings from Spain.
In the 60s, I remember listening to my grandmother's huge floor standing radio, with the magic eye for tuning. I listened to a lot of short wave and which resulted in building a heathkit sw receiver as a teen. I listened to that for hours with a long wire antenna strung from my bedroom to a walnut tree in the orchard. great memories watching that green eye!
I wish I had one of those, being disabled sucks because I can't afford any cool vintage technology like this magic eye tube in a simple circuit board. Awesome video. Hello from Colorado ☮🇺🇸🌹
My family had an old Grundig Majestic receiver back in the early 60's that had a "tuning eye" tube. They seemed to have been the rage in the early sixties for high end receivers, both portable and console. I remember spending a lot of time just watching that eye.
My parents had a 1951 Phillips 3 speed record player console with a 2 band Am and Shortwave radio which had a green tuning eye. a 6e5 I assume. I had many fond memories in the early 70’s tuning in to Top 40 radio with that cool glow of the magic eye tube. Sadly the tube did wear out by the mid 70’s and the old radio was thrown out shortly afterward, I never saw another working magic eye again until seeing other eye tubes on the internet.
We had an old Philips stereogram and matching reel to reel player when I was growing up in the the late sixties. Both used Magic eyes. Love to see a project use them as VU meters ;-)
I was told by a guy at the Radio Museum in Ringsted, Denmark, that during the occupation tubes were rare, so radios were often made without the magic eye. It should have been e.g. UM-4, but it was replaced with a resistor and a plug of wood - to be replaced in better times. Such a plug was called "indikator-træ" (indicator wood/tree). I have a radio that used to have such a plug, unfortunately I did not keep the plug when I swapped it with UM-4. I do not really think it to have been a wooden plug, just a socket with a resistor and black cardboard covering the hole behind the frequency scale. The radio is a model from 1942. It did work 5 years ago and probably still does (but the filter capacitors need a replacement).
My folks had a gigantic Curtis Mathes hi-fi only console with the end on Magic eye in the tuner section. I never ceased to be fascinated with it when I was a kid.
Fran I built a fiftys,tube tuner kit,I found in a old electrical supply store ,I put it together 35 or 40 years ago ,my x has it now ,still working last time.I saw it it had a small magic Eye for funding it was a small upright tube ,worked very well .
Nice! One of the bands I listen to a lot said they have a really old grundig tape recorder that they drop a lot of samples onto. Apparently, the deck used a magic eye that lit up when you were over saturating the input. So, if they want to make a really nasty distorted sound, they run it through the deck and crank it up until the eye lights up.
Great idea Fran. I'm following the series but it's good to pull out bits like this for a recap and separate discussion. You should do the talking head at the beginning though, for Algorithm. 😀
I made a Grid Dip Meter with one of those "Cat´s Eye" (...this is the nickname that I renamed them...) These tubes are just MAGIC today, like the needle´s instruments with a tiny lamp behind them, to illuminate their scales. I know, I know... I´m a "nostalgic, 60 y.o. RF technician", so please, forgive me..! :) (...Fran, you are just GREAT, pretty Lady...)
The magic eye tube was invented by Alan B. Dumont, the inventor of the long life cathode ray tube. It is actually a galvanometer with no moving parts - beside the electrons. Prior to the 1920s, cathode ray tubes used a spike cathode, no heater, and operated at about 100,000V. The life of the electron gun was no more than 8 hours. Then the tube was rebuilt. The iconoscope cameras at the 1929 Olympics in Berlin were operated this way. Each night, the tubes were pulled from the cameras and rebuilt for the next day. DuMont developed the long life indirectly heated cathode when he was 14 years old.
videolabguy , sorry but that‘s all wrong. The olympic games in Berlin took place in f****** Nazi Germany 1936 (an even number year as always!), and not 1929 as you say. Mr. Dumont did not invent the cathode ray tube, did not make it long lasting, but he had the idea of bringing colours in the game with three different meshes. The cathode ray tube was invented by the German Ferdinand Braun in 1897. Kenjiro Takayanagi (Japan) built the first black/white television and Manfred von Ardenne (Germany) invented the TV broadcasting, which was shown 1931 in Berlin. And that‘s all to know about the Lord who bought a colour TV and a Mercedes Benz :-)
videolabguy DuMont was one of the greatest minds of the 20th century, just as important as Tesla and Edison, yet no one knows his name. There should be a movie made about his life it’s that interesting.
@@ibanezleftyclub , DuMonts' "Magic Eye" was the forerunner to the CRT for television, oscilloscopes and radar. Dumont sold the patent to RCA for what was a large amount of money at the time, but in retrospect it was a very stupid decision is it would have netted them many thousands or tens of thousands of times more money that if they had they kept the patent.
I'm glad Fran lab is back to normal, I hate to say it but I stopped watching when it was all ranting and raving. The odd rant is cool but its easy to go too far pretty fast. I hate making this kind of post but I really wanted to say thanks and I'm glad to have the Fran lab I enjoy back.
Those are pretty cool, i think i recently got one inside an old radio a bought wery sheap on a fleamarket recently. Probably burned out, but still interesting to see it's original function. :)
I have a vague recollection that Heathkit got started just after the end of World War Two when vast supplies of electronic parts became available on the surplus market for dirt-cheap prices. The 4-digit part number for this particular eye tube hints that it might have originally been a military item. Can any historians among us provide more details?
Yo! My grandfather has a lot of old vacuum tubes, and probably a few of these Magic Eye tubes (or as they're called in Norwegian, "Trolløye" or "Troll eye"). They'll all be Philips branded. He used to be an electrical engineer back in the day. I was thinking about asking him if I could have those, but in order to do anything with them, I might need some help. Are you knowledgeable in tubes? Do you have any cool ideas to use them for? I guess making a small amp or something might be cool to do.
In case it helps anyone, I put a high quality electronic version of the manual for the IT-12 up on my site: thedefpom.com/randomfiles/Heathkit_IT-12_Manual_BETTER.pdf
I have a Pye radio with a third style of magic eye, the EM80, which looks like a fountain in an archway! It looks to me as if the bar-style magic eye (EM84) works slightly differently, with the electrons passing through the anode to strike a phosphor coating on the inside of the glass tube.
yep, there was also an EM81 and EM85 , 'similar' display to an EM80 but was a V 'sector' , didnt have the central part of the display as the EM80(and UM80, for series heater use) EM81 had same pinout as EM80, but EM85 was different, later bar types EM84 and EM87 has same pinout as EM85... you can interchange EM80 and '81, and sometimes EM84 and '87 the difference is the EM87 is more sensitive, and also display can 'cross over' making a brighter section in the middle, to indicate 'overload' ,
there were also 'battery types' DM70 and DM71, a sort of exclamation mark display, and several other EM mains types some now very rare, and unfortunately high priced if you need a replacement!
As these tubes age, they tend to get dim. Do you think this is principally due to elecctronic weakening of the tube, or because the phosphor is becoming exhausted?
The reason is the phosphor becoming exhausted. Sometimes you can even see burnmarks in the phosphor, if an eye tube did show the same opening for a long time. Unfortunately there is no way to regenerate the phosphor. But there is one trick: If the target voltage is increased, the eye tube will glow brighter again. For that, we would add a voltage doubler to the power supply. The most disadvantage is that the eye now needs a higher driver voltage for the same angle, the internal triode has to deliver more amplification. It works somehow if we increase the value of the anode resistor. I used this method for EM34, EM4 eye tubes which are not available anymore, at least not for reasonable prices.
Thanks. I sort of thought that was it, but wanted to confirm. Phosphors aren't forever, but thought maybe they behave differently in a high vacuum. I didn't know.
According to Ludwell Sibley, author of The excellent reference manual Tube Lore, the dimming of the earliest types of magic eye tubes, the type with a pie-shaped green display on top, is not due to low cathode emission but apparently due to contamination of the willemite coating on the little metal cup that forms the target for the Electron Beam.
Yes, you're right, I was using the word phosphor in general for the luminescent layer which consists of willemite. Actually, the layer gets weakened by the bombardment of electrons and ions. We know that early CRTs suffered from the same effect until ion traps were introduced. The indirect heated cathode of a tube can be rejuvinated by overheating, but in case of the luminescent layer of an eye tube this doesn't work. There is enough fresh material below it, but how can we remove the weak layer? In a german forum we discussed to remove it with a laser, but actually this method was not tested afterwards.
Ich wollte Wissen ob ich die 6E2 ersetzen kann durch eine EM800. Ist der Sockel gleich und die Pinn Belegung. Oder muss die Platine angepasst werden? Oder geht es gar nicht? Danke I wanted to know if I could replace the 6E2 with an EM800. Is the socket the same and the pin assignment. Or does the board have to be adapted? Or is it not possible at all? Thank you
I have encountered a balancing circuit in a Packard Bell 160 (1967), complete with channel light bulb indicators, for balancing the solid state output amplifier. The customer balance control is in the preamp, and a customer would hate to be forced to set the balance control off center to achieve equal output. This state of affairs is unacceptable. So, there is the internal 4 transistor circuit (that looks like it has been added on mid production) for the tech to set absolute center balance of the output amp by way of a pot with a screw driver slot. The two channel lights are on the customer viewing panel and provide additional assurance that all is well in the realm of balance. The output amp has matched transistors for each channel output, but not matched across channels. Go figure.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_eye_tube ----> Shows the Cat's eye effect … / tuning / visual representation. ( In technical literature called an "Electron-ray indicator tube". ).
Did Fran EVER actually explain what the hect this is is supposed to DO? I can only find this video and part three. Both go into detail about parts of the tube, but NEVER say what the purpose is. I have not found any videos of the completed projeject or demonstration of the tube in action.I have seen a video, from someone else, showing the top of the tube fluorescing with a pale greenish light, but he did not say what the tube was supposed to do, either.
So Cool! My parents has an old hi fi with on of these thing to help you tune in on the F.M. stations. My older brother David said that it sort of worked like a T.V. picture tube and some times you could see Bugs Bunny Cartoons on it if you tuned in on the right station. He claimed he could do it and saw cartoons but all I ever saw was a soft green glow . David informed me that it was because I was too dumb to see anything. I complained to my dad about all of this and he said that yes I wasn't being dumb for buying David's B.S. and us kids should keep our hands off the Hi Fi because it was just for grown ups. Dad didn't like cartoons because he was a metallurgist at Lockheed and those guys had no sense of humor because of the cold war and all . TO INFINITY AND BEYOUND ! Patent 3190554 .
At my Gran's I have a vintage Bush VHF54 www.vintageradioworld.co.uk/vhf64.jpg it was her aunt's originally I believe. It was rescued from her loft and found to be fully working. Luckily (unsurprising given the name) it has VHF/FM up to ~101Mhz so is still very useable, the magic eye works really nicely and is still nice and bright. Just got to get around to doing a recap at some point as whilst vintage wax capacitors are special in some ways and I don't see the point of replacing good capacitors willy nilly, it's a nice project to get my teeth into.
Great tour of the magic eye. My parents had an Admiral console Hi-Fi and the tuner had a magic eye - I was always fascinated by it.
As a young lad (ca. 1956) I was fascinated by the tuning eye in my uncle's Grundig Majestic radio. NOW I understand how the bloody thing worked! Thanx Fran.
In the late 1960's and 70's I had a 1940's Zenith AM / SW radio, about 4 foot tall, with a Magic Eye. I loved that thing, I would sit in front of it for hours and hours listening to shortwave stations, and finding distant AM stations that my modern receiver wouldn't pick up even a hint of. I listened to a lot of world news, Voice of America, Radio Moscow World Service (with Moscow Molly, she almost sounded American) renamed Voice of Russia in 1993, and every other station I could find broadcasting news in English. I always figured each one was lying about something and the truth lie somewhere between what they all said. I always had visions of someday building a 32 mile Rhombic antenna like Radio Moscow broadcast off of.
I gather you are not in US, since the Voice Of America was not allowed to broadcast to the US. Like you, i used to listen A LOT to the shortwaves in English. That's how i learned English. Radio Netherlands was one of my favorites. Nowadays i listen to podcasts.
All the best.
Kamil Izmaylov: They were not allowed to "direct" VOA at Americans, because it could have been considered as propaganda. But we were still able to receive it and listen. The only way they could have stopped us would have been to use jammers, which many other countries did do.
@@DFDuck55 It literally was propaganda. Propaganda was it's stated goal and purpose. It still is.
I think people undervalue the sheer creative imagination that went into the invention of these tubes. The fact they were ever thought of reflects a certain level of genius.
I was thinking that, too.
I am just old enough to say that "in the old days, when I was young" I was playing around with these tubes a lot.
At one moment in time, everyone was throwing out those old radios with tubes so we had enough of this stuff to play with. Had a great time back then, thanks for reminding me ;-)
Used to play with my dads Webcor reel to reel tape recorder back in the 70s. It had a magic eye for recording level control. Used to love screaming into the mic on that thing and watch the eye open and close. Kids may be bored nowadays if they aren’t playing fortnight, but the magic eye in that recorder kept me entertained for hours!
That's awesome vintage tech, can't wait to see it working.
So neat. I remember the first seeing eye tube I had was a 6E5 on a 1935 Magnavox turntable/radio set. Trying to get one of those tubes pre-internet was a feat. I did get a new one. Gave such life to the set. Thanks for featuring it.
I also like magic eyes a lot. I build tube amplifiers like hobby and each one always includes one as magic eye like a level audio indicator. I usually use EM80 ... EM85 although I can not deny the charm of rounds like EM4 or EM34 that are very colorful. The tubes have that magic and as amplifiers they sound different. Thanks for sharing. Greetings from Spain.
This section was particularly interesting. I'm glad you decided to clip it out and share it.
In the 60s, I remember listening to my grandmother's huge floor standing radio, with the magic eye for tuning. I listened to a lot of short wave and which resulted in building a heathkit sw receiver as a teen. I listened to that for hours with a long wire antenna strung from my bedroom to a walnut tree in the orchard. great memories watching that green eye!
I grew up in the 50s/60s always fascinated by magic eye tube both the round one and horizontal bar graph type.
I have just found out about them, and I am fascinated by the concept and application.
Wow! Im so amazed with the description of its gizzards, that I don't even care that I don't understand what it's forrr!! x
I'm in love with this tube
I have some CRT tubes and I'm fascinated about them, but this magic eye is on a whole another level of beauty
Just love these magic eyes, we had an old radio that had a Maltese cross for the tuning signal
I wish I had one of those, being disabled sucks because I can't afford any cool vintage technology like this magic eye tube in a simple circuit board. Awesome video. Hello from Colorado ☮🇺🇸🌹
I have some eyetubes laying about, too but never used them. Franlab to the rescue.
My family had an old Grundig Majestic receiver back in the early 60's that had a "tuning eye" tube. They seemed to have been the rage in the early sixties for high end receivers, both portable and console. I remember spending a lot of time just watching that eye.
I have a Grundig reel to reel tape recorder that has a magic eye to indicate audio levels, so much fun to watch
My parents had a 1951 Phillips 3 speed record player console with a 2 band Am and Shortwave radio which had a green tuning eye. a 6e5 I assume. I had many fond memories in the early 70’s tuning in to Top 40 radio with that cool glow of the magic eye tube. Sadly the tube did wear out by the mid 70’s and the old radio was thrown out shortly afterward, I never saw another working magic eye again until seeing other eye tubes on the internet.
We had an old Philips stereogram and matching reel to reel player when I was growing up in the the late sixties. Both used Magic eyes. Love to see a project use them as VU meters ;-)
I was told by a guy at the Radio Museum in Ringsted, Denmark, that during the occupation tubes were rare, so radios were often made without the magic eye. It should have been e.g. UM-4, but it was replaced with a resistor and a plug of wood - to be replaced in better times. Such a plug was called "indikator-træ" (indicator wood/tree). I have a radio that used to have such a plug, unfortunately I did not keep the plug when I swapped it with UM-4. I do not really think it to have been a wooden plug, just a socket with a resistor and black cardboard covering the hole behind the frequency scale. The radio is a model from 1942. It did work 5 years ago and probably still does (but the filter capacitors need a replacement).
My folks had a gigantic Curtis Mathes hi-fi only console with the end on Magic eye in the tuner section. I never ceased to be fascinated with it when I was a kid.
Fran, I vote for a Fran build hi-fi video!
Fran I built a fiftys,tube tuner kit,I found in a old electrical supply store ,I put it together 35 or 40 years ago ,my x has it now ,still working last time.I saw it it had a small magic Eye for funding it was a small upright tube ,worked very well .
Saw this weird thing on Etsy and was going to recommend Fran cover it... Never should have doubted her.
My grandfather had a Blaupunkt Arkansas with an eye tube. I was fascinated with it. Mesmerising watching it react to a fading shortwave signal
Nice! One of the bands I listen to a lot said they have a really old grundig tape recorder that they drop a lot of samples onto. Apparently, the deck used a magic eye that lit up when you were over saturating the input. So, if they want to make a really nasty distorted sound, they run it through the deck and crank it up until the eye lights up.
My parents had two radios with magic-eye tubes, they always fascinated me.
Great idea Fran. I'm following the series but it's good to pull out bits like this for a recap and separate discussion. You should do the talking head at the beginning though, for Algorithm. 😀
I have always loved old tech like these, I have done a few projects with Nixie tubes. I love fusing the old tech with new tech :)
Old displays and indicators add so much character to devices. Radios with eye tubes look gorgeous.
I made a Grid Dip Meter with one of those "Cat´s Eye" (...this is the nickname that I renamed them...)
These tubes are just MAGIC today, like the needle´s instruments with a tiny lamp behind them, to illuminate their scales.
I know, I know...
I´m a "nostalgic, 60 y.o. RF technician", so please, forgive me..! :)
(...Fran, you are just GREAT, pretty Lady...)
I remember tuning AM radios using a magic eye tube. I have one on an Eico capacitor comparator. Curious little devices.
Thank you.
I have one of those old Eico units too. And the eye still works!
The magic eye tube was invented by Alan B. Dumont, the inventor of the long life cathode ray tube. It is actually a galvanometer with no moving parts - beside the electrons. Prior to the 1920s, cathode ray tubes used a spike cathode, no heater, and operated at about 100,000V. The life of the electron gun was no more than 8 hours. Then the tube was rebuilt. The iconoscope cameras at the 1929 Olympics in Berlin were operated this way. Each night, the tubes were pulled from the cameras and rebuilt for the next day. DuMont developed the long life indirectly heated cathode when he was 14 years old.
videolabguy , sorry but that‘s all wrong. The olympic games in Berlin took place in f****** Nazi Germany 1936 (an even number year as always!), and not 1929 as you say. Mr. Dumont did not invent the cathode ray tube, did not make it long lasting, but he had the idea of bringing colours in the game with three different meshes. The cathode ray tube was invented by the German Ferdinand Braun in 1897. Kenjiro Takayanagi (Japan) built the first black/white television and Manfred von Ardenne (Germany) invented the TV broadcasting, which was shown 1931 in Berlin. And that‘s all to know about the Lord who bought a colour TV and a Mercedes Benz :-)
videolabguy DuMont was one of the greatest minds of the 20th century, just as important as Tesla and Edison, yet no one knows his name. There should be a movie made about his life it’s that interesting.
@@ibanezleftyclub , DuMonts' "Magic Eye" was the forerunner to the CRT for television, oscilloscopes and radar. Dumont sold the patent to RCA for what was a large amount of money at the time, but in retrospect it was a very stupid decision is it would have netted them many thousands or tens of thousands of times more money that if they had they kept the patent.
I'm glad Fran lab is back to normal, I hate to say it but I stopped watching when it was all ranting and raving. The odd rant is cool but its easy to go too far pretty fast.
I hate making this kind of post but I really wanted to say thanks and I'm glad to have the Fran lab I enjoy back.
Interesting project 😀
Thanks for sharing 👍😄
Those are pretty cool, i think i recently got one inside an old radio a bought wery sheap on a fleamarket recently. Probably burned out, but still interesting to see it's original function. :)
I love those things, so neat!
I've got a bunch of radios with magic eyes in them. My 80-something year old radio technician tells me they're worthless, but I'm quite fond of them.
0:06 "I wanna talk a little bit about the eye tube, because there's more to it than meets the, uh, ... " Hahaha
I have a vague recollection that Heathkit got started just after the end of World War Two when vast supplies of electronic parts became available on the surplus market for dirt-cheap prices. The 4-digit part number for this particular eye tube hints that it might have originally been a military item. Can any historians among us provide more details?
Yes, indeed, its the1629, that was the same as a 6E5 but with a 12v heater filament so it could used in vehicle radios and aircraft.
Yo! My grandfather has a lot of old vacuum tubes, and probably a few of these Magic Eye tubes (or as they're called in Norwegian, "Trolløye" or "Troll eye"). They'll all be Philips branded. He used to be an electrical engineer back in the day. I was thinking about asking him if I could have those, but in order to do anything with them, I might need some help. Are you knowledgeable in tubes? Do you have any cool ideas to use them for? I guess making a small amp or something might be cool to do.
I'm waiting for the final heathkit video 😮
An I-tube on U-tube. Imagine that!
Several old radios used this valve here in Brazil! Old times .
My dad's old tape recorder had one.... and then years later, I see the same model in a charity shop... kind of regret not buying it
Matthew Day Ha. My dad’s as well. His was a Webcor reel to reel.
In case it helps anyone, I put a high quality electronic version of the manual for the IT-12 up on my site: thedefpom.com/randomfiles/Heathkit_IT-12_Manual_BETTER.pdf
I have a Pye radio with a third style of magic eye, the EM80, which looks like a fountain in an archway!
It looks to me as if the bar-style magic eye (EM84) works slightly differently, with the electrons passing through the anode to strike a phosphor coating on the inside of the glass tube.
yep, there was also an EM81 and EM85 , 'similar' display to an EM80 but was a V 'sector' , didnt have the central part of the display as the EM80(and UM80, for series heater use) EM81 had same pinout as EM80, but EM85 was different, later bar types EM84 and EM87 has same pinout as EM85... you can interchange EM80 and '81, and sometimes EM84 and '87 the difference is the EM87 is more sensitive, and also display can 'cross over' making a brighter section in the middle, to indicate 'overload' ,
there were also 'battery types' DM70 and DM71, a sort of exclamation mark display, and several other EM mains types some now very rare, and unfortunately high priced if you need a replacement!
_"...my HiFi that I designed"_ .... *BOSS!*
:)
HEY! Where was the "Hi... ...It's Fran, ...again."?
this clip is from part 3 of the heathkit build i think; fran introduces herself at the start of that.
shut up
I saw this in the Heathkit assembly video, Pt.3 I think. This makes a great stand-alone tutorial, though.
Thank god for that, I thought I had become clairvoyant, I knew everything Fran was going to say!
Yes MAGIC 👍👍👍
man o man you have so much cool stuff
It's surreal to think that once upon a time, a gadget like a magic eye was seriously high tech.
Felicitaciones por tu tranajo desde Argentina!!
How come you didn't actually run power to this? I had to go to a different channel to see it in action... : |
that was the coolest thing about my fisher stereo
As these tubes age, they tend to get dim. Do you think this is principally due to elecctronic weakening of the tube, or because the phosphor is becoming exhausted?
The reason is the phosphor becoming exhausted. Sometimes you can even see burnmarks in the phosphor, if an eye tube did show the same opening for a long time. Unfortunately there is no way to regenerate the phosphor. But there is one trick: If the target voltage is increased, the eye tube will glow brighter again. For that, we would add a voltage doubler to the power supply. The most disadvantage is that the eye now needs a higher driver voltage for the same angle, the internal triode has to deliver more amplification. It works somehow if we increase the value of the anode resistor. I used this method for EM34, EM4 eye tubes which are not available anymore, at least not for reasonable prices.
Thanks. I sort of thought that was it, but wanted to confirm. Phosphors aren't forever, but thought maybe they behave differently in a high vacuum. I didn't know.
According to Ludwell Sibley, author of The excellent reference manual Tube Lore, the dimming of the earliest types of magic eye tubes, the type with a pie-shaped green display on top, is not due to low cathode emission but apparently due to contamination of the willemite coating on the little metal cup that forms the target for the Electron Beam.
@@rotwang83 , the 6e5, 6u5, 1629 etc dont use "phosphors", it's something called willemite.
Yes, you're right, I was using the word phosphor in general for the luminescent layer which consists of willemite. Actually, the layer gets weakened by the bombardment of electrons and ions. We know that early CRTs suffered from the same effect until ion traps were introduced. The indirect heated cathode of a tube can be rejuvinated by overheating, but in case of the luminescent layer of an eye tube this doesn't work. There is enough fresh material below it, but how can we remove the weak layer? In a german forum we discussed to remove it with a laser, but actually this method was not tested afterwards.
Ich wollte Wissen ob ich die 6E2 ersetzen kann durch eine EM800. Ist der Sockel gleich und die Pinn Belegung. Oder muss die Platine angepasst werden? Oder geht es gar nicht? Danke
I wanted to know if I could replace the 6E2 with an EM800. Is the socket the same and the pin assignment. Or does the board have to be adapted? Or is it not possible at all? Thank you
Another great video
Thank you Fran. Now I have a rudimentary understanding of how they work and what causes them to do what they do. Cheers.
Saludos desde Cuba.
Ow I always loved those in radiio's
some had a red jewel on top instead of a cap so it was a pilot light AND indicator.
I don't need any more valves, I don't need any more valves, I don't need any more valves, I don't need any more valves...
I have encountered a balancing circuit in a Packard Bell 160 (1967), complete with channel light bulb indicators, for balancing the solid state output amplifier. The customer balance control is in the preamp, and a customer would hate to be forced to set the balance control off center to achieve equal output. This state of affairs is unacceptable. So, there is the internal 4 transistor circuit (that looks like it has been added on mid production) for the tech to set absolute center balance of the output amp by way of a pot with a screw driver slot. The two channel lights are on the customer viewing panel and provide additional assurance that all is well in the realm of balance. The output amp has matched transistors for each channel output, but not matched across channels. Go figure.
*That's nice* 👍👍👍👍👍
Hee thát is something nice at least. Thanx for this one!!
You just *had* to build it, didn’t ya? ;-) Well, let’s get that IT-12 finished and tested!
I salvaged an Eye tube from an old radio... would you be interested in it?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_eye_tube ----> Shows the Cat's eye effect … / tuning / visual representation.
( In technical literature called an "Electron-ray indicator tube". ).
Interesting thumbs up
Interesting.
📻👍🙂‼️
Thanks👍
WOOOOO
F R A N
L A B !
Did Fran EVER actually explain what the hect this is is supposed to DO? I can only find this video and part three. Both go into detail about parts of the tube, but NEVER say what the purpose is. I have not found any videos of the completed projeject or demonstration of the tube in action.I have seen a video, from someone else, showing the top of the tube fluorescing with a pale greenish light, but he did not say what the tube was supposed to do, either.
Nice 👍
There's more to it than meets the eye!🤣
Made in Austria. Who would have thought :-)
With both european and US marking...
aaaah the trouble of unbalanced tubes. no worries, just put them all in sequence in a single gain circuit! all the gain!
Aawww please show us!
So Cool! My parents has an old hi fi with on of these thing to help you tune in on the F.M. stations. My older brother David said that it sort of worked like a T.V. picture tube and some times you could see Bugs Bunny Cartoons on it if you tuned in on the right station. He claimed he could do it and saw cartoons but all I ever saw was a soft green glow . David informed me that it was because I was too dumb to see anything. I complained to my dad about all of this and he said that yes I wasn't being dumb for buying David's B.S. and us kids should keep our hands off the Hi Fi because it was just for grown ups. Dad didn't like cartoons because he was a metallurgist at Lockheed and those guys had no sense of humor because of the cold war and all . TO INFINITY AND BEYOUND ! Patent 3190554 .
Yeah but what is it ? The video just cut straight in without introduction
At my Gran's I have a vintage Bush VHF54 www.vintageradioworld.co.uk/vhf64.jpg it was her aunt's originally I believe. It was rescued from her loft and found to be fully working.
Luckily (unsurprising given the name) it has VHF/FM up to ~101Mhz so is still very useable, the magic eye works really nicely and is still nice and bright.
Just got to get around to doing a recap at some point as whilst vintage wax capacitors are special in some ways and I don't see the point of replacing good capacitors willy nilly, it's a nice project to get my teeth into.
Neat.
Neet
I have one too,but it is called a “You Tube”
*_'The Magic Eye'_* You can say that again ~- * (({=})) hmm - we'll be waiting Thanks !
I tell my wife she has magic eyes....
Hey the Eye tube on you tube,....Stop it not funny lol