Hi guys. I just puchaced a Hickok 230. The seller says that as long as the pins can fit into the socket the tester can test that valve but a number of my valves do not appear in the manual. Is there somewhere I can look up the settings or does someone know a solution?

Thanks in advance.

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the seller says that as long as the pins can fit into the socket the tester can test that valve

Well that's sort of true but, as you realise, you need to know how to configure the tester for the particular valve.

I've Googled around in the usual places but can't find any such info on the model 230.

Hi there.

There is a way you can test unlisted valves. What valves do you want to test? I'm guessing it doesn't list some the common 9 pin valves found in Australian radios. But first you need to understand how your tester works and a valve data manual with the pin-outs. Is there any thing in the instruction manual about testing unlisted valves? I am not familiar with the Hickok 230, apart from the fact that it is a basic shorts and emission tester. I'd need to see the instruction manual and tube list to be of any more help. Or maybe someone else here may have some ideas.

Cheers.

The tester performs 5 tests
Opens
Shorts
H-K leakage
Grid leakage and
Emission

the valves I wanted to test was
6J8G
6G8G
1T4
1R5
3V4
1S5
EK32
the tester is meant to be able to test over 2000 valves

I'm not surprised it doesn't show 6G8G & EK32. You can test the 6G8G as a 6B8G. But I thought it would of had the battery valves listed. Does the tester have a setting for 1.4 volts? Maybe it is not designed to test battery valves.

It has Filiment A B C D E F G H J K L M
it has load A B C D E F G H J
Sel A 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Sel B 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 H-K leakage
Function opens shorts H-K/ Grid Leakage and emmition
and has lock out 1-10
heres what it says for each in manual
Filament- 12 position rotary switch - selects proper filament voltage for tube

Load- 9 position rotary switch - selects proper load resistance and voltage which in turn selects the properly rated cathode current for the tube under test.

Sel A- 11 position rotary switch - selects the cathode for the opens, leakage and emission test

Sel B- 11 position rotary switch - selects all the elements individually for the opens and shorts test selects the grid for the leakage and emission test and selects the filament for h-k leakage test.

Function- 4 position rotary switch - selects the test to be made on the tube opens shorts grid/h-k leakage and emissions

Lockouts- 2 position slide switches - connect or disconnect elements to be tested in shorts test so that multiple pin connections to one element do not show up as a short

Is that thing transformerless, or not. If not, it may be live chassis. A lot of early American stuff was transformerless..

Marc

From what I read, the model 230 was one of the last Hickoks to be made. I gather it's transistorised.

Does the 12 position Filament rotary switch marked A to M give a voltage for each setting? It should be fairly easy to work out if it doesn't. Are you able to send out a few settings, say for some common valves like 6V6, 6AU6 & 5Y3GT? Also the settings for valves like 12AU7, 12AX7, etc, would be handy as well. Then we can see how this tester deals with valves with centre tapped heaters.

Cheers.

Only part that mentions filament voltage is this - capable of testing tubes with filament voltages of over 117V
6V6
Filament D
Load B
Sel A 8
Lockout 3468
Sel B 5

6AU6
Filament D
Load D
Sel A 7
Lockout 12567
Sel B 1

5Y3GT
Filament D
Load B
Sel A 11
Lockout 479
Sel B 4

12AU7
Filament H
Load D
Sel A 3
Lockout 12349
Sel B 2

12AX7
Filament H
Load F
Sel A 3
Lockout 1239
Sel B 2

In regards to your comment you can test 6G8G as a 6B8G.
Doesn't have 6B8G in book either.

Are you able to scan a few pages from the manual? From the information you have provided I think I know what's going on. But I'd need to compare a few more valve types to be sure. This information will be helpful to work out how to test valves not listed.

Cheers.

Photos uploaded. Click on these to view a larger size of the same image.

Thanks Brad for upload

How many sockets on the tester are the same?

Sockets 1 & 11 appear to be both for octals. Most octals follow the convention of pins 2 & 7 for the heaters. There a few types though, like the 6Sxx series that have their heaters on pin 7 & 8. Rectifier valves like 5Y3 , 5AS4 etc., have their filaments on pins 1 & 8. These are the combinations you are most likely to come across, 2 & 7 being the most common.

It looks like your more common octal types with the 2 & 7 heater combination will plug into socket 1. What is not clear yet is that while most of 6.3 volt valves listed have "D'" as the filament setting, a few other 6.3 v types have "E" as the setting.

You'll definately need to know the data, type & pin-out of any un-listed valve you wish to test. And even a multimeter. Going on the info you have provided so far, to test a EK32: Fil- D; Load-?*; Sel A-8; Socket-1; Opens Test etc.,-3, 4, 5, 6, 8 & 0; Lockout- nothing & Sel B-5. *With the load setting I'm not too sure. What is the load setting for a 6BE6?

Socket 1,2,11 are all 8 pin sockets
8,9,10 are all 9 pin sockets
socket 5 is a mini 10 pin socket
socket 6 is a mini 9 pin socket
socket 7 is a mini 7 pin socket and
socket 4 is a mini 5 pin socket
the load setting for 6BE6 is D