If the catenodes are lit, you don't need to tesla the tube. The catenodes provide more free ions then a tesla coil ever can. On a old tube like this disconnecting the catenodes will just hasten its death once it starts. I don't know who told Sam you can disconnect catenodes for long periods of time. Perhaps he misunderstood me.
Baking the tube wont help you, the only tubes made with a bankable getter have a third lead for the getter. Very few of those were made.
Besides if you bake that one the soft seal at the window will cause the window to crack..
If you light it down the gas return, a moly wire stuffed in each gas return of that tube will vaporize and its done. The wire is there to create a uniform electric field in the gas return.
No one here has told you how to to check the Omnichrome PSU for Anode Voltage, Boost Voltage, Proper turn on or PWM settings. Not to mention the microfuses on the main board or the 110/220 setting jumpers. It could be as simple as a shorted 2n2222 on the light card driving the current logic into cut-off.
Running the cathode for hours wont help you. Increasing the cathode voltage wont help you, nor will the so called car battery trick for overheating the cathode.
I wrote most of the ion chapter of the FAQ. I've talked personally with the designers of that tube. (Both have passed on) I have the masters thesis on its design in my library.
I've reprocessed those tubes.
I just worked a 14 hour day, and I'm 1900 miles from home and my library. I have three more twelve hour days, so don't expect another post for a while. Stop messing with it and I'll post the Omni 150 hardware check out when I get home this weekend.
Those old tubes like that are late 80s. You have about a snowballs chance in hell of starting that unless the Omni Calibration Checklist is followed. Don't bake it, don't cut anything etc. Your Omni has been badly hacked. The fact that both catenodes are not lit in the pic tells me that. Odds are your missing boost, current limited boost, or anode voltages.
The posted schematic above is not the standard X head schematic. Its for a 63P, a gen one gold box that was not in production very long. It has a simplified ignite board designed to work with another manufacturer's power supply. That head in the photo is very different from the above drawings. Don't EVEN think of sparking the cathode lead with the voltage on. It'll kill that PSU design.
Don't cross connect anything you have to another head or psu. Don't Tesla anything again.
The Omni supply has five or six pots that need adjusted if its been messed with. To do so you need a scope, a isolation transformer, and a very detailed instruction sheet. You also need to convince me your over 18 before I send it to you. So if you get killed probing a psu that is mostly directly rectified 110V line, I'm A. Not liable, and B. Wont feel so bad.
Let it go until I can scan you in a 19 page factory document. I never posted it to the FAQ, because 1. Omni asked me not to, and 2., turning the noise gain potentiometer about one half turn in the wrong direction kills the pass FETs in the Buck stage.
Don't stick a lead voltmeter in the head looking for voltages. Right now that is a great way to light yourself up like one of the poor Dogs Edison killed to try to prove that AC power was more hazardous then DC.
Steve
Baking the tube wont help you, the only tubes made with a bankable getter have a third lead for the getter. Very few of those were made.
Besides if you bake that one the soft seal at the window will cause the window to crack..
If you light it down the gas return, a moly wire stuffed in each gas return of that tube will vaporize and its done. The wire is there to create a uniform electric field in the gas return.
No one here has told you how to to check the Omnichrome PSU for Anode Voltage, Boost Voltage, Proper turn on or PWM settings. Not to mention the microfuses on the main board or the 110/220 setting jumpers. It could be as simple as a shorted 2n2222 on the light card driving the current logic into cut-off.
Running the cathode for hours wont help you. Increasing the cathode voltage wont help you, nor will the so called car battery trick for overheating the cathode.
I wrote most of the ion chapter of the FAQ. I've talked personally with the designers of that tube. (Both have passed on) I have the masters thesis on its design in my library.
I've reprocessed those tubes.
I just worked a 14 hour day, and I'm 1900 miles from home and my library. I have three more twelve hour days, so don't expect another post for a while. Stop messing with it and I'll post the Omni 150 hardware check out when I get home this weekend.
Those old tubes like that are late 80s. You have about a snowballs chance in hell of starting that unless the Omni Calibration Checklist is followed. Don't bake it, don't cut anything etc. Your Omni has been badly hacked. The fact that both catenodes are not lit in the pic tells me that. Odds are your missing boost, current limited boost, or anode voltages.
The posted schematic above is not the standard X head schematic. Its for a 63P, a gen one gold box that was not in production very long. It has a simplified ignite board designed to work with another manufacturer's power supply. That head in the photo is very different from the above drawings. Don't EVEN think of sparking the cathode lead with the voltage on. It'll kill that PSU design.
Don't cross connect anything you have to another head or psu. Don't Tesla anything again.
The Omni supply has five or six pots that need adjusted if its been messed with. To do so you need a scope, a isolation transformer, and a very detailed instruction sheet. You also need to convince me your over 18 before I send it to you. So if you get killed probing a psu that is mostly directly rectified 110V line, I'm A. Not liable, and B. Wont feel so bad.
Let it go until I can scan you in a 19 page factory document. I never posted it to the FAQ, because 1. Omni asked me not to, and 2., turning the noise gain potentiometer about one half turn in the wrong direction kills the pass FETs in the Buck stage.
Don't stick a lead voltmeter in the head looking for voltages. Right now that is a great way to light yourself up like one of the poor Dogs Edison killed to try to prove that AC power was more hazardous then DC.
Steve
Last edited: