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Tractorfan · 6th Jun 2008, 8:36 pm

Will the cathode be damaged if a valve is run with heaters but no other voltages? Some homebrew projects call for a triode on its ownsome and say to leave the other half of a double triode (for example) disconnected. With an ECC83 no problem as the centre tapped heater means that one half can be left cold but that's not always possible. In that case should the spare half be strapped to the "active" half or should it have an anode resistor to keep it emitting? If so, then what do you do with the grids? It's just that with valves slowly becoming rarer it seems a shame to let one be ruined for the want of a couple of resistors if my first question is answered in the affirmative.
Cheers de Pete

6th Jun 2008, 8:36 pm	#1
Tractorfan Dekatron Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: St. Frajou, l'Isle en Dodon, Haute Garonne, France.(Previously: Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, UK.) Posts: 3,184	Cathode poisoning in valves. Will the cathode be damaged if a valve is run with heaters but no other voltages? Some homebrew projects call for a triode on its ownsome and say to leave the other half of a double triode (for example) disconnected. With an ECC83 no problem as the centre tapped heater means that one half can be left cold but that's not always possible. In that case should the spare half be strapped to the "active" half or should it have an anode resistor to keep it emitting? If so, then what do you do with the grids? It's just that with valves slowly becoming rarer it seems a shame to let one be ruined for the want of a couple of resistors if my first question is answered in the affirmative. Cheers de Pete __________________ "Hello?, Yes, I'm on the train, I might lose the signal soon as we're just going into a tunn..."