31-10-2016, 02:11 PM
(31-10-2016, 01:15 PM)ppppenguin Wrote: Occasionally I've wondered about a fully patch and switch free valve tester with individual universal pin drivers. But it's lot to ask of a universal driver to do anything from a control grid to anode to wide range of heaters.
I think someone did do a programmable patch version of the uTester. Like the Mullard HST concept except using the PC to map supplies to pins.
You rarely need more than three variable voltages + heater (testing Hexode, Heptode/Octode/Nonode and even Hexode (with fixed & one variable HT and/or grid) and Triode at the same time is possible with uTracer, I'd run triode grid fixed grid leak and drive one Hexode HT grid from triode anode), yet I can patch up to ten base pins and two top caps at the same time. Programmable voltage on 13 connections (including heater/filament) with current monitoring would be expensive. Since the uTracer serial I/O is documented, you could in theory run two or three of them in parallel with a single GUI and graph.
