Greetings all,
Been a long time lurker and finally decided to join to add a potentially useful drop to the ocean of knowledge here that I have selfishly used over the years...
A while back I was searching for a modular drive 10EE for home/hobby use. I ran across one that fit most of my wants except it was a 480V machine. I did a bit of research on the voltage conversion but put it on the back burner because I didnt want to mess with it. One of my obvious concerns with getting a Modular drive was the the possibility of needing to replace the C16J tubes. I stumbled across Tim's SCR thyratron replacement thread one day and got really interested when I read the replacements are less sensitive to the filament voltage. I contacted Tim about the possibly of using his thyratron replacements to convert a machine from 480V to 240V.
To make a long story short I ended up getting the machine and have it running with the original 500V input transformers used for T6 and T7 with the filament voltage running ~1.47V. I dont have much time on the machine yet because I ended up taking the gearbox apart for unrelated issues. I will update after some use but I wanted to post this up before I forget.
Tim is a stand-up guy, you can tell he has a real passion for these machines. We exchanged 20+ emails and he called me a few times over the course of it. I ended up having a malfunctioning C3J that he helped me troubleshoot and source a replacement for.
Additional reference information: The machine is S/N 50635 with stamped manufacture date of March 1971. Along the way I also checked out options for replacing the filament transformers that included Monarch and the OEM (Control Transformer Inc). Monarch had some used ones they quoted over the phone at ~$300 ea. Control transformer is a custom transformer shop that surprisingly quoted me for new replacements but were ~$1500 ea and 8 week lead time. The OEM was a long shot however everything but the price was a pleasant experience. Similar to Monarch they had great customer service and knew everything from the serial number including that they were originally supplied to Monarch.
-Matt
Been a long time lurker and finally decided to join to add a potentially useful drop to the ocean of knowledge here that I have selfishly used over the years...
A while back I was searching for a modular drive 10EE for home/hobby use. I ran across one that fit most of my wants except it was a 480V machine. I did a bit of research on the voltage conversion but put it on the back burner because I didnt want to mess with it. One of my obvious concerns with getting a Modular drive was the the possibility of needing to replace the C16J tubes. I stumbled across Tim's SCR thyratron replacement thread one day and got really interested when I read the replacements are less sensitive to the filament voltage. I contacted Tim about the possibly of using his thyratron replacements to convert a machine from 480V to 240V.
To make a long story short I ended up getting the machine and have it running with the original 500V input transformers used for T6 and T7 with the filament voltage running ~1.47V. I dont have much time on the machine yet because I ended up taking the gearbox apart for unrelated issues. I will update after some use but I wanted to post this up before I forget.
Tim is a stand-up guy, you can tell he has a real passion for these machines. We exchanged 20+ emails and he called me a few times over the course of it. I ended up having a malfunctioning C3J that he helped me troubleshoot and source a replacement for.
Additional reference information: The machine is S/N 50635 with stamped manufacture date of March 1971. Along the way I also checked out options for replacing the filament transformers that included Monarch and the OEM (Control Transformer Inc). Monarch had some used ones they quoted over the phone at ~$300 ea. Control transformer is a custom transformer shop that surprisingly quoted me for new replacements but were ~$1500 ea and 8 week lead time. The OEM was a long shot however everything but the price was a pleasant experience. Similar to Monarch they had great customer service and knew everything from the serial number including that they were originally supplied to Monarch.
-Matt