Solar CB-1-60 capacitor analyzer

[bandersen]

I picked this unit up a few years ago and it seemed to work OK as-is. The eye tube would reach maximum deflection in the right ballpark and the neon bulb would flash for leaky caps.


Recently while working on a TV, I decided to troubleshoot it the "old fashioned way" by checking all the caps with this device. First though I figured I better give it an overhaul.

I'm glad I did - it works much, much better now. The eye response is sharper and the dial is more accurate.

Here's a link to the manual courtesy of the "boat anchor archive".

The schematic is at the back, but there's one little problem - no parts values are stated!
After a lot of digging, I finally found it in this old ARF thread


There are three precision caps specified - 2.0, 0.02 and 0.5 mfd.
I doubled up two 5% 1.0 for the 2.0 and used a 0.47 for the 0.5 mfd.
Luckily, I did have a 5% mica 0.02 mfd on hand.

The other tricky part is the 36,000 ohm tapped voltage divider. If yours is bad, I imagine you could fabricate a new one using discrete parts, but you'll need to know the correct values.

Here are some pictures of the insides. Note that mine has been modified to use a 6X5 rather than a I-V rectifier.

[bandersen]

Here are some post-restoration photos.

Be careful around the glass NE-48 neon bulb. I broke mine while working on it and had to salvage one from a B&K 440 CRT tester.
You can get modern plastic lens ones reasonable priced, but expect to pay big bucks for a NOS glass one.



The tapped voltage divider.


6X5 and 6E5 in a goat shield

[Phil Nelson]

OK, you have shamed me into haulling out my old relic.





Mine is missing the cabinet cover, but all the important bits are present, along with the usual dirt.

I don't even remember where I got it -- possibly picked it up just to use the eye tube in something else. Looks simple to restore, in any case.

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html

[Electronic M]

Phill, you can replace the 6U5/6E5 eye tube with a much cheaper 1629. The 29 uses an octal base and has a higher heater voltage which can be worked around by using a voltage doubler on the filament, and either puting new socket in or taking the base off a dud 6U5 and useing it, a octal socket, and the doubler to make an adapter.

just thinking outloud.

[Phil Nelson]

A 1629 isn't a bad idea. I used one to make a magic eye tuning indicator for my Hallicrafters S-20R several years ago.

I might have a spare 1629 floating around, or if not, I can borrow back the 6E5 from wherever I put it.

Phil Nelson