Building an eTracer Vacuum Tube Tester and Curve Tracer - Part 2 of 2 

Thank you. I have enough confidence to make purchase now. This was a real service to the community.

This is an amazing product Mark, thanks for showing the build. Without directions it can be a little tricky to determine the correct order of assembly as you are working your way thru it very well. I am eager to see the rest of the build and finally see it in operation, very exciting. I didn't know about this unit I will have to add it to the other items I need for my bench. 2019 is going to be a great year for electronics projects! Take care.

Dang! I gotta get me one a those! Thanks for doing these videos, Mark.

Nice video with good content. Looks like a great tester

Awesome job, great presentation!

Thanks! My wife and I met Chris at Axpona in April. I bought an eTracer and am just getting around to assembling it this weekend. Your video is much appreciated. especially the part about the fan having a 3 pin plug, I was wondering how I was going to get my fan hooked up to the 2 pin on the unit. The value in this product is incredible considering what a big old analog tracer might cost once you find one, buy it, fix it and calibrate it.

I looked into getting the eTracer, but when I found out it was a "pulse" tester (like the µtracer), I pretty much disqualified it as a useful piece of gear. Tubes need to be tested at CONSTANT real operating voltages to obtain their true characteristics. This can also reveal potential thermal and gas issues in a tube that a "pulse" tester can never do. When I read the documentation, around a year ago, there was also no gas test with the eTracer. Hopefully Chris has added this feature. If Chris does add constant HV power supplies to the eTracer, I would then seriously consider it for my bench. BTW, great video!

I suggest heat shrink. put the ferrite bead onto the wire near one end. Next cover the bead and wire with heat shrink, make the heat shrink slightly longer than the bead, shrink the heat shrink. This should hold the bead in place, if the heat shrink closes around the bead's ends. If the bead is not held in place due to lack of shrinkage, it is still covered and should not be able to short any of the connections...

@13:17 I think a piece of heat shrink tubing slightly longer than the piece of ferrite would be an ideal way to affix the ferrite quickly and guard against any possible shorting. It might take longer to do, but in the end you’d have piece of mind and a real pro-looking result.

Great video set! A really interesting piece of kit. Wondered if rather than gluing the ferrites you could have just covered them in heat shrink? Now just need to get a bunch of money to get one! :-)

Thanks for this - really useful - I want one ! :-)

thank you for giving me your opinion of the etracer and utracer3.

Neatly done. I'm wondering what gauge wire you used for wiring the tube sockets? And what is the best way to strip PTFE wire? Thanks.

Would socket savers work well ? I would rather not resolder down the road. What do you think about shrink on the ferrite parts instead of glue? I am going to ask Chris if this will do 6BG6, VT99/6F8G. Thanks for a great video.

30:50: Using the prtsc button on the keyboard and your favourite picture editor is an ok workaround.

Thanks for this kit build. I definitely want one, but I must ask you, are all your build projects in the $1K range? I'm sure it's worth every penny, but it may take a year or three before I'll have enough moolah to afford it with all the other kits I'm building.

What do you think of using that power supply for a cap leakage tester of even possibly a tube amp? I thought it said 700 volts at 300ma.

4:49...that was VERY wise-!!!

@30.37 i had to smile

Thanks for the vedio. I want to buy a tube tester by which you can advise me an old tester and which brand or a curve tracer like utracer3, etracer ..

being a ham , I'ld like to see another tester for power tubes for RF amps ;)

Now I'm curious about "load line".

As far as printing the screen I'm wondering if you could just use the print screen function in Windows?

12:31...getting epoxy to stick to teflon wire is hard(!)

To much money but it does test tubes at proper voltages. I will stick with my hickok 752 :)

Great. Now I need some $ to get one. Who needs some graphic design work done?

Diy project I can't afford.

Rats nest!

"It takes a minute to run"--implying it's not realtime?

I went to their web site and looked at the pricing. It looks like $1,000 USD for what you built. Surprisingly, the first thing you see on the site is that there's no warranty on this equipment. Those 2 facts make me nervous.

WINE - Wine Is Not an Emulator

This video came faster than then a thought, great litle divice for a quik test on tubes, by the way love your channel but sometimes you talk to much ;-) (lol).

This a pricey item. I'd rather locate a tube tester that does the job without costing more than a home computer. 3 stars out of 5.

Sadly faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar too expensive. No doubt a great piece of test kit for those dealing with tubes but really... 500$us for the software? Which is a mandatory buy also if you want the PCB? No thanks.