Certainly, I use Altium Designer, which is the same tool I use at work. This particular board was designed in version 19.0.12.
I forgot to mention in my original post, the grand total for this socket (fully-assembled) was $3.31, assuming I purchase parts for quantities of 10 at a time.
Regards,
Matt, Fairlee VT
-----Original Message-----
From: Matthew Sweeney <msweeney23@xxxxxxxxx>
To: derstrom8 <derstrom8@xxxxxxx>; Tesla Coil Mailing List <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thu, Feb 28, 2019 4:16 pm
Subject: Re: [TCML] Custom GU-81M Vacuum Tube Socket
Lovely stuff, can you provide the name of your pcb design software (if any) by chance?
Thanks!
Matt
On Thu, Feb 28, 2019, 2:53 PM derstrom8--- via Tesla <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Greetings all,
As you may recall, a few weeks ago I mentioned wanting a cheaper solution for connecting wires to the studs on the bottom of the GU-81M vacuum tube for my VTTC. Sockets for these tubes can be found on ebay, though they seem somewhat expensive - between $50 and $80 each. That wasn't exactly in my budget so I decided to design a PCB to use as the socket for my tube. This is what I came up with:
- PCB is approximately 80mm in diameter (perhaps 90, I cannot recall off the top of my head) and is 1.6mm thick (a standard PCB thickness)
- There is a slot in the center of the board to allow it to be seated around the glass alignment feature on the base of the tube
- Contact with the tube's studs is achieved using six Keystone #3510 6.4mm (1/4in) PCB-mount fuse clips. These clips are rated for 15A so should do the trick
- External wiring is connected to the board using six Keystone #4966 1/4" PCB-mount male spade terminals.
That's it. Very simple. The assembled board can be seen here:
https://imgur.com/a/T1oVP5A
Note the original design had the spade terminals mounted to the top side of the PCB (same side as the fuse clips) but I quickly realized that this brought them much too close to the metal tube base. I decided to remove them and place them on the bottom layer instead, thus providing much more clearance.
If I were to do this again (and who knows, maybe I will), I would probably make the PCB thicker (2.35mm instead of 1.60mm) because it gets a bit flimsy in spots due to the large cutout. It isn't a critical issue but it would be much more rugged if I thickened the board a bit.
I just thought I would share in case anyone might be interested.
Regards,
Matt, Fairlee VT
_______________________________________________
Tesla mailing list
Tesla@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
https://www.pupman.com/mailman/listinfo/tesla
_______________________________________________
Tesla mailing list
Tesla@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
https://www.pupman.com/mailman/listinfo/tesla