Can the eTracer be used as a CRT tester?

[LukeSimon]

The eTracer is a very versatile vacuum tube tester, and it appears to be capable enough to drive the heater, cathodes, and screen anode at voltages needed to test a CRT. Does anyone here have experience with the eTracer?

[MIPS]

The PCB - $350usd
The chassis, for housing the PCB - $220usd
The software, to make it work - $500usd

You can get any half-decent tube tester with CRT test functionality for far less than $1000, and it comes with an enclosure! The fact you need the software (coded in Python, no less) and it's sold separately for $500 is slimy.

Edited: HAHAHAHAHAHA! The power supply is an extra $30. What is this? Heathkit?

[LukeSimon]

The eTracer targets the tube audio community where people pay money to help build an economy that supports jobs where people work full time making stuff for the community. When people make money for their hard work, that is a good thing.

[MIPS]

Well then they are going to have to step up their game and produce products that are not outperformed (I'm not going to say outpriced because Sencore made some gear that's easily in the price range when new in today's money) by 40 year and older test equipment, otherwise at those prices it looks like their "economy" is the same people who buy into oxygenated speaker wire and liquid nitrogen treated power cables, not people looking to test the life of an old jug.
I dunno. I'd take it more seriously if the required software was not sold separately but otherwise I would never recommend a product like that for checking tubes.

[old_tv_nut]

Originally Posted by LukeSimon

The eTracer is a very versatile vacuum tube tester, and it appears to be capable enough to drive the heater, cathodes, and screen anode at voltages needed to test a CRT. Does anyone here have experience with the eTracer?

Could you use it to get some results with a CRT? The answer is probably yes, in a way, but where are you going to find CRT data taken in the same way to compare to?

[LukeSimon]

Originally Posted by old_tv_nut

Could you use it to get some results with a CRT? The answer is probably yes, in a way, but where are you going to find CRT data taken in the same way to compare to?

This is a great point. Datasheets for most vacuum tube diodes, triodes, pentodes are scanned and available online, thanks for the devoted tube audio community, and those datasheets have plots of characteristic curves.

Similar datasheets for cathode ray tubes or kinescopes did exist, but most of them have not been digitally scanned and shared online as was done with the other types of electron tubes
These slides from CRT Display Design Inc, starting at slide 92, include scans of sections of characteristics plots for unnamed CRTs. See attached screenshot of a slide.

The Hagley Museum has all of the RCA Lancaster records, but not all of them are scanned and made available online. The only thing available online is an index of all of the documents the Museum has. It would be great if the Early TV Museum could digitize the RCA documents and make them available online. Imagine the wealth of all of those TV schematics and datasheets for picture tubes!