### Updated 6e5P SPICE model

Having fixed the bias offset problem in my tester (actually my oscilloscope). I took again the curves this evening to get a better model….

### Measuring valve transconductance

Today I breadboarded the CCS I will use for the transconductance tester jig which is an addition to my curve tracer:

Bias circuit is a classic from fixed bias amplifiers. I had the 80V available from the curve tracer circuit. The meter is an external panel AC voltmeter which is a trueRMS meter that will measure accurately the 1kHz signal.

The MOSFET CCS is a simple cascoded which can help setting the valve current and operating point. I source it with my bench variable HT power supply, which also helps in setting out the operating point.

We know that we need to have a small AC signal in the grid to increase the accuracy of the Gm test as the transconductance is given by:

$G_{m}=\frac{\Delta I_{a}}{\Delta V_{g}} _{\Delta V_{a}=0}$

So can’t feed with 1Vrms, so will use 100mVrms. If a valve has a transconductance of 1mA/V, then the variance in the anode current will be of 100uA (rms). This represents a challenge to measure accurately using an anode resistor of 10 ohms for example since the developed AC voltage across the resistor will be 1mV (rms). Therefore we will use an anode resistor of 100 ohms which will help capturing small transconductance values as this one.

Edit:

Found that the CCS bypass was omitted in my first circuit. Also the sensing resistor was reduced to 10 ohms to accommodate the AC true-rms meter I have. See updates on this post here

### 6e5p triode-strapped

The 6e5p is high-frequency indirectly-heated tetrode from our friends in Russia. The specifications can be found here.  Anode can easily dissipate 8W and screen can take up to 2W and has a high transconductance of around 30 mA/V

Wired as triode this chap becomes very attractive. The anode resistance drops to around 900Ω – 1KΩ and effective mu is about 30-35. This turns this valve into a low anode, medium mu and high transconductance fellow which is highly regarded as a driver in SE amplifiers. Check out there in the jungle and you will find many good examples of how this valve is being used effectively.

When testing this valve on my curve tracer I found that it probes to be a challenging device. You need to leave this guy running on its own for a while (Lars recommended 30 min to 1 hour). I found that indeed after 20-30 min it stabilise.

Dmitry came up with a very good model. When I created a model based on my curves found a mismatch between my notes and simulation. Checking my notes I think I set up the tester to start plotting curves at 0V with a step of -0.5V, however looking at the model produced by Dmitry’s tool, I got this:

It looks like the curves starts at -2V. Need to re-check and probably trace this valve again. Either way it does match very well and not far off from Dmitry’s model from above.

Here is my model.

I’m planning to use this valve in my OTL (cap-less) headphone amp. Stay tuned…

Just a dream. I will get to build that nice OTL headphone amp. Can’t complain though, I enjoy so much listening to my 45 SE with headphones….

### 6e5p OTL headphone amplifier with no output cap

An idea based on SY’s heretical preamplifier…

Need to simulate!

### Tracer nearly finished

Tracer sync issues are coming to an end. Replaced clock transformer and got it working fine. Sync needs readjusting after 15-30min
Happy man seeing those 46 perfect linear curves 🙂

### A beautiful thoriated-tungsten glow

Here are a couple of recent pictures of the 4-65a EIMAC under test. What an attractive glow!

# Tracing curves of a power transmitting DHT

Finding triode curves for the 4-65a valve has been a challenging task. There are some available from a Spice simulation which I couldn’t get hold of the model, so when I finished the curve tracer, it was the right time to take on this challenge. My curve tracer is not capable of handling this valve as I don’t have the appropriate socket and also the anode and grid drivers are limited to:

• Anode voltage sweep range: 0-330V
• Anode maximum current: 100mA
• Grid voltage sweep range: -80V – +15V

With this constraining factors in mind, I decided to build a test jig for the 4-65a. The jig had only a grid stopper resistor (10kΩ), a screen stopper (100Ω) and ferrite beads in the anode and grid as well. When traced first set of curves got very disappointed with a double tracing for each anode curve which made me suspect that the valve was oscillating somehow due to long cables,etc. Its transconductance is below 3 mA/V, so shouldn’t be that problematic. I remember tracing 6e5p,6C45 and E180F being a real challenge for the tester due to its high transconductance.

Here is a sample of the double tracing from the first test:

I tried many things with cables, stoppers and ferrite beads with no success. Suddenly the penny dropped and looked at the old DC raw supply I was using. I had only one capable of providing 6.3V @ 3.5A. And it’s regulation was appalling. The ripple was clearly a potential candidate for this image distortion. If ripple was high enough, it will modulate the cathode and therefore Vgk. Ripple frequency is same as refresh frequency of the curves (i.e. 100Hz).

My test jig was modified to include a hum cancellling pot. as shown in the following diagram.  I added a 100Ω and a 22mF electrolytic.

Tracing curves again then was a success. I had to trim the pot to cancel the hum and alas, the curves were very neat.

The addition of the grid stopper limited the grid current closer to 0V or above. Therefore the 0V curve gets packed closer to the following one (i.e. -5V). This can be clearly seen when the Spice model is generated

My tracer has not been designed to trace positive grid curves, so the current capability of the grid driver at positive grid voltages is limited. I need to modify the circuit, but it will have to wait as I have already spent too much time in this tracer so far!

After playing a while with Dmitry’s tool, I came up with a very reasonable model for the 4-65a. I’m sure it can be optimised, but for a couple of hours work, I’m very happy with the results…

### You better driver yourself

Time ago I asked Rod Coleman about the driving requirements of my 01a preamp whilst investigating the addition of a source follower stage to the preamp. Let’s have a look at a DHT stage loaded with a gyrator (or could well be a choke or whatever you like) driving a power amplifier.

Have you asked yourself whether your pre-amp is capable of driving your amp? How much burden does the cable parasitic capacitance add to the mix?

As an example we will use my current setup. A 45 SE amplifier with a 6j5 driver stage. We can approximate input impedance formed by:

$Ci=(Cp+(\mu+1)\cdot Cag)$

Where Ci is the amplifier’s input capacitance formed by the Miller effect of the valve’s input capacitance (Cag) and the additional parasitic capacitance of socket, wires and so forth. In this practical example where the input valve is an 6J5GT:

$Cp=50pF,\mu=20, Cag=4pF$

$Ci=(50pF+(20+1)\cdot 4pF)) \rightarrow Ci \approx 140pF$
If we now add the cable capacitance which could easily be 100pF per metre and at least 2 metres run from my pre-amp to the amp then:
$Ct= Ci+Ccable \rightarrow Ct=130pF+(100pF \cdot 2) = 330pF$
So with an input resistance of 100kΩ and a capacitance of about 330pF let’s have a look at the current requirements to drive this load. The cable current @ 50kHz should be:
$Xc=\tfrac{1}{2\cdot \pi \cdot f\cdot C}=\tfrac{1}{2\cdot \pi \cdot 50kHz\cdot 330pF} \approx 9650 \Omega$
Preamps output peak voltage is around 10V, So the current demanded by the cables would be:
$Ip=\frac {Vp}{Zc}=\frac{10V}{9650\Omega }\approx 1mA$
So if we want the preamp valve to source 1mA to the load, we need x10 current driving capability to be on the safe side. Clearly with an 26 (or 01a) we are a little on the low side as the bias current won’t be more than 4-6mA.
So there are clearly facts here to support the addition of a source/cathode-follower stage to the amp in addition to the improvement on the bass response due to a lower output impedance. Something we will look at some other time….

### Improved 46 triode-strapped DHT composite model

My initial attempt to get a reasonable SPICE model for a 46 triode-connected DHT has proven to be ok considering it was my first try. I got better accuracy with my second attempt using CX-301a. With time, I should learn the skills of Dmitry Nizh to master the great tool he has developed. For the ones who haven’t seen his website and great material Dmitry has produced around DHT, SPICE and other good stuff, I recommend you to read his article about composite models for DHT here.

Dmitry kindly produced a very accurate model for the 46 (and also shown clearly that I’m a still a rookie at this things ):

And here is the equivalent Spice model:

Using a simple circuit in LTspice we can test the model and trace the anode characteristic curves:

And the curves can be easily generated:

Note that grid voltage starts at 0V in -10V steps.