600 Volt Tube Op Amp! Lets Power It Up.

At RCA labs I was the guy who tested the 12AX7 tube and matched them up using a Tektronix scope curve tracer. I built a chassis to pre heat 100 tubes at a time fir the 100 hour burn in time . All the data was recorded by hand and cataloged in bank of file cabinets. It might appear you the reader as a dull and monotone nous job, but I loved every minute of everyday. The money was very good and I got to work with real gentlemen like Mr. Carlson. Staying late at night working overtime was a joy . I learned so much. Then it all ended with my induction into the United States Army. Fortunately fir me the Army realized my skills and trained me to repair radio equipment. Two years later when I returned hime , my old job was available to me, but now the technology had changed so much and OP amps were now solid state bricks. Testing and setup the was done by machine. I used my Army experience and went back to RCA training as a Radio / TV technician. Color TV service was a good job in the mid sixties, however I did not like doing in home repairs. By 1970 I earned my way into the shop and later on into the research lab. Over my 40 year experience i had to learn so much as technology never stood still. Here I am at 80 watching Mr. Carlson’s refresher course videos of my life. I am proud and very hard to have chosen electronics as my lives work and hobby. For all of you out there, stick too it and stay with it. Electronics is hard but interesting work that nerds do. Wear that title proudly. with

I used an analog computer in the late 60's. It did differential equations in real time, where a digital computer would take all night to run. You could simulate a car suspension, for instance. It used op amps like these. Your lab looks like mine 30 years ago.

On behalf of the people of youtube, we appreciate the honesty, and also the time involved in setting the camera up 600 freakin' times........

Several decades ago I bought one of those NOS. I had a boss who had a Phd in electronics who got his degree in the 50's tube era. We mounted a socket on a fancy wooden base and gave it to him for his birthday. He was ecstatic to get it and often chided us gently about our solid state devices.

My dad was an electronics engineer. He owned and operated Wes's TV repair in Banning California. He closed his shop in i981 and passed away in 1983. He was an ' old school' electrician. When the age of integrated electronics came to rise, he could not keep up. His eyes were failing him as do most older people. He taught me a lot about electronics. Especially the old tube based stuff. I never really got into electronics. I haven't even thought about it for more than thirty years. OK, so. Just out of boredom or maybe curiocity, I decided to watch this channel. It truly surprised me that I completely understand everything that was talked about here. You would think that after all these years, I would forget all that stuff. Get into the modern electronics and I am as dumb as a rock.

Great Video. I used tube opamps during my Melbourne university electronic degree back in 1960's. Our analog computer had 100 channels which allowed us to model quite complex systems. The computer (MUDPAC) remained in service until 1970 when digital computers were cheaper. Analog was still used for real time emulation in rocketry because analog computers could integrate/differentiate much faster than digital computers. They were also much better for non-linear systems because of their high compliance (+/-100V). Sadly by 1980 all benefits had disappeared and IC OpAmps and digital computers completely replaced tube opamps.

Fantastic, I remember these from the late 50s and analog computers (I'm 81). I always thought they were impractical until the 741 showed up in the mid 60s.

Mr Carlson is now officially the guy I would most like to meet ever!

Way back when (1964), while my friends were into Ham radio, I built an analog computer, based on modules built into Vector aluminum cases. A typical Op Amp module was put together using one 6U8 and two 6AU6 tubes and the supply voltage was +-300V. Still have one right in front of me as we speak. The plug-in module used an eleven pin octal socket. Fun stuff! Also, nF was not an unfamiliar way to express capacitance at the time. Enjoy your videos, for sure.

Today’s my birthday I told everybody to hold on one more hour to put off dinner and watching a video on vacuum tube opamps. I Learned a little more today👍

I really like watching your videos. There are times that I smile. I am a retired Broadcast Engineer. I regularly worked on transmitters that had 10 KV on the plate that could deliver up to 5 A. So you say this is dangerous and I smile.

This is a blast from the past for me. I worked at Red Johnson Electronics 1966-68, at the counter, a surplus store on El Camino near Stanford where I went to school. One day I came in and one of the boss's friends was sitting with a large pile of these - he'd cornered the market for these devices at the same time that the first IC devices became available, and the only value they now had was for the tubes in the units so he had thousands he was pulling the tubes out of in order to sell the tubes as a single lot.

Nice to see this very clear video, and nice to see tube op amps... I wrote my master's thesis building a D/A and A/D subsystem between an analog computer (using these) and a PDP-11/45. I've been doing analog and digital hardware design, plus software design, ever since.

Digikey only discovered nanofarads a couple of years ago...

Never would have thought I could stay interested in 44 straight minutes about a tube op-amp. Well done! Impressed by your attitude to safety also; so important when disseminating knowledge. Double thumbs up!

The most scary capacitors that I worked with were 100 μF at 8.6 kV, used to power an x-ray machine. One of the safety compliance tests was to demonstrate the mechanism to directly short the cap if the cabinet was opened improperly. The first test vaporized the hinge on the shorting bar. It sounded like about six double-barrel 12 gauge shotguns being fired at once. Needless to say, a much larger hinge was designed and tested.

I restored a Dymec (HP) 2401A hybrid tube/transistor 5 digit systems multimeter a number of years ago that was made in 1962.  At the front of the input is a Philbrick Research supplied tube type op-amp printed circuit board.  An interesting piece with very thick, gold plated traces.  It inspired me at the time to read about GAP/R, and that was as interesting as the Dymec meter itself.  Thanks for this segment.

Why am i still watching mr carlson at 4.30am ? Wife got bored at 10pm and went to sleep i am in trouble in the morning !

Today is our 36th wedding anniversary, and I am watching Mr. Caslon's Lab.  Fascinating!Nice op amp Paul. Thanks for sharing.