Taylor 45D Valve Tester - Valve Base Adaptors?

[David G4EBT]

I have a Taylor 45D Valve Tester, and whilst it has ten valve bases (no space for any more on the test panel I guess), it requires adaptors (eight in total) to extend the range to allow other valves to be tested. The Valve Data book does give the switch settings for the extended range of valves, and the valve base adaptors I'm presently in need of are M.O., B5 and B7. I very much doubt that such adaptors are commonplace, so the obvious comment that this will attract is 'Why not make adaptors then, using suitable valve holders coupled to a plug to plug into one of the existing test sockets?'

Problem is that the manual states that the adaptors (as supplied by Taylor), plug into 'A special 'B14E' Test Socket' for which I'd need an adaptor plug. Never heard of such bases!

Has anyone on the forum overcome this problem please?

Is there any reason why I couldn't for example use the I.O socket on the tester rather than the B14E socket?

I've attached a couple of extracts of the 45D Data booklet and user manual.

Any advice - particularly from anyone who has a 45D and has overcome this problem - would be much appreciated.

[G4XWDJim]

David,

I can provide some used but good bases of the 3 types you need to make your own adaptors. I can't help with the B14E test plug but maybe others can. Perhaps as you appear to surmise there's another way around it.

You were very kind to me a couple of years ago when you gave me a PCB for the ESR meter so I'd be pleased to be able to return a favour.

Jim

[WME_bill]

Taylor adaptors. I suspect you are making problems when none exist, unless you are searching for exact veracity. The reason for using a 14 pin base is to get enough pins. But you could use any base for which you have the plugs. International Octal will not be useable for a 9 or 10 pin valve. But you are talking about B5 or B7 or MO, an IO plug would do fine. Provided you have these old bases available.
The B14E I believe is an instrument CRT base, a more modern TV base is 11+1 pins.
The big advantage of your 45D model is that it uses a selector switch panel like the Avo VCM, so you can adjust the 9 pins to any pin connections.
I have a 45C to which I have fitted a B10B base. The Selector switches in that can only cope with 9 pins, but happily, all B10B valves have heater+ on pin 6, so I have hard wired this. I have also had to slightly modify selector switch C for these modern valves. Fitted the B10BA and B9D bases on my CT160 as well.
wme_bill

[FIXITNOW]

if 8 pins or less I use these from Farnell
301760 8 pin plug
4446562 backing box
to make my adaptors

[David G4EBT]

Originally Posted by G4XWDJim

I can provide some used but good bases of the 3 types you need to make your own adaptors. I can't help with the B14E test plug but maybe others can. Perhaps as you appear to surmise there's another way around it.
You were very kind to me a couple of years ago when you gave me a PCB for the ESR meter so I'd be pleased to be able to return a favour.

That would be most helpful Jim - thanks for that kind offer - it just shows that 'what goes around comes around' eh! It will save me trawling around the NVCF searching for those uncommon bases - I'll drop you a PM.

Thanks to everyone else for their helpful advice. I can't imagine that I'll be using or testing any valves which call for more than 8 pins, so if I use the I.O. socket on the '45D' as the test socket and make adaptors using appropriate valve-holders, that should meet my needs. I have metalworking facilities including a lathe so should be able to make adaptors that plug in directly without the need for flexible leads. Presumably I just need to cross-connect the pins from I.O plugs (from say old donor valves, though I think I might have some NOS Octal plugs) to the desired valve-holder sockets as per the attached diagrams?

[David G4EBT]

Firstly, I'm indebted to Jim, G4XWD, who kindly sent me the valve-holders that I needed to enable me to make the adaptors. I've now made the four that interested me to extend the range of valves that I'm able to test - namely, M.O, B4, B5 & B7. I'd recently obtained some offcuts of 75mm long x 55mm diameter plastic bar from an autojumble at £1.00 a piece so used that to turn the 'couplers' on my metalworking lathe so that octal valve bases removed from 'donor' valves could be wired pin for pin to the desired valve-holders. I'm happy to say that the adaptors are a success and I may eventually add others such as 8-pin side contact, and the 'UX' series, as and when I come across some suitable valve sockets. (Never thought to look when browsing at the NVCF!).

A few pics attached. I guess that for anyone without lathe facilities the additional bases could have been wired in a panel with an eight-way flexible lead to an octal plug, but as it was no hassle to turn the four couplers I preferred to make them along the lines of the original accessory adaptors as supplied by Taylor. Same idea could of course be used to extend the range of bases for other valve-testers. (For anyone with a woodturning lathe the couplers could just as easily have been turned from close-grained hardwood such as beech, mahogany, iroko etc, finished with shellac sanding sealer).

To wire them up, I poked tinned copper wire up the octal pins one pin at a time, slid a length of coloured sleeving over the wire using the resistor colour code (pin 1 brown, pin 2 red etc), remembering of course that it you look down into a valve base, the pins number anti-clockwise so it's best only to look from the underside of the socket and the octal plug to avoid getting muddled up. I checked with a multi-meter that the pins corresponded correctly between the socket and the octal base before I got to work with the soldering iron! (Much easier to poke the wire up the octal pins than to wire up the valve socket and try to poke them down the pins from the top, and less chance of errors).

A few pics attached.

Hope that might be of interest to someone.

[mark pirate]

You have made a nice job of those adaptors, My Taylor 47A came with most of the optional adaptors, but typically the B9A was missing!
I made one from a British 9 pin valve base and a B9A socket from a scrap radio.
It does the job, but nowhere near as smart as yours.

Mark

[David G4EBT]

Thanks for your kind comments Mark. It's surprising how often a small lathe comes in handy in this hobby of ours!