finally got me a Beltron

[jpdylon]

I've heard great things about these beltron tester/restorer machines from numerous TV nuts. I found a really nice one on ebay with lots of adapters and all the setup-booklets and manuals. THe only thing it doesn't have is the adapter for my roundie color sets. However it does have the clip-lead adapters --which I guess will do.

I had to pay a bit for it, but I am very satisfied with the performance. It brought back to life a dead color CRT that my B&K, RCA, and even my trusty sencore couldn't touch. It brought back the red and blue guns to almost equal that of the green.

I don't know how long the results will last, but I've been playing the set for a few hours and its lookin good! I'm going to open up the beltron and restore the electronics to as-new as possible. I have a few other dead tubes that this might be able to help out.

[Duane]

Nice work Jordan..

[andy]

The one time I've used mine it worked surprisingly well. The CRT went from hopeless to like new, but I only ran the set for a few weeks before getting rid of it. I'm almost looking forward to getting a set I want to keep that has a weak CRT. I need to build some socket adapters for it since mine didn't come with any.

[Dave A]

I'm not sure how it does it, but it does a sort-of soft-rejuvenate in multiple, timed steps which does a wonderful job. The instructions clearly state that if a tube has already been hit by one of the other atomic blast rejuvenators, it cannot help it. The cleaning step seems to take care of most of my problems.

It's life test seems to be a very good gauge for tube condition. Anything over 10 seconds of hold time is good. My 15GP22 shows a drop at 9 seconds. I have a spare 19AP4 for my DuMont RA109 that held for 35 seconds.

For the 15GP22, I built a roundie-to-15GP22 adaptor for it using an old roundie booster and a junk CT100 chassis CRT connector. Using the clip leads, I recently did a Pilot 3" which just needed cleaning.

If anyone is missing the paperwork, I am looking for someone to scan all the pages I have and make it available to the lucky Beltron owners.

I'm very curious how this thing worked in the marketplace. It clearly says on it that it is the property of Appleway Electronics, Spokane, WA. Did the service shops rent it or lease it like a Xerox machine with the copy counters? Mine came with a pad of guarantee sheets offering a credit for a new tube if the Beltron did not do the job after a determined time. It also has a few tube stickers which the tech would attach to the Beltroned tube with the emission info.

Dave A

[El Predicta]

Beltron is the best;none other is close. I've used mine hundreds of times since the 70's.

[Eric H]

Jordan, will that thing test/rejuv a 3KP4 from a Pilot?

[jpdylon]

Sorry Eric, but I looked through all the books and I don't have adapter information for the 3kp4.

However, I do have the clip lead adapter, so if you have the pinout diagram of the tube, it can probably be made to work.

[jpdylon]

Does anyone have information on what lights are used for the cleaning, rejuv, and short lamp? All the lamps on this are out but one rejuv lamp, which gets way too bright to be the correct one.

This i believe is a model 2800 btw.

[Dave A]

Eric,

I did one of my 3KP4's with the clip leads. I searched the pinouts and found it easily and did the cleaning with the clip leads to heaters (1,8), K (3) and G1 (2). My emission was good so I did not try that. I have another weaker one I will try.

Dave A

[John Folsom]

Eric,

As Dave A. said, it works on 3KP4s, and I have made adapters for 7JP4s, 3NP4s, 7EP4s, 15GP22s, and and 19VP22s. It seems to work well on any of them. I have noted that many weak 7JP4s don't seem to show much improvement after rejuvenation. And I have had some 10/12" tubes (10BP4 etc) that were so worn out they would show no improvement. But the Beltron is my favorite tester. If for no other reason, its ease of set-up.

The downside on the Beltron is that it does not measure beam current in any kind of linear fashion. All you get is a relative indication of goodness. And it does nothing to indicate gassy tubes. But I have not found this to be a handicap.

Heathkit made a similar looking machine, but I have not had any experience with it. Anyone know if the Heathkit works as as well as the Beltron?

[Big Dave]

I have a Beltron and love it. The few times I used the rejuv function (since I became a collector as opposed to the time I worked in a TV shop), I had good results. Now, I only use the rejuv as an absolute last resort. I prefer to raise the heater voltage slightly and let it cook. In many cases, I feel the long cook works just as well as a rejuv.

[grimer]

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