New Transformer Installed, PROGRESS ! - CL90 Q

[SteveH]

All,
I installed my new Hammond 274BX transformer last night, and turned it on. Lo, the 83's heaters came on. 90s later, I heard a click, and was rewarded with a nice blue/purple glow from the tube....So I wired everything properly !
Then, I smelled something. Smelled sort of like wire insulation getting too hot. I turned it off, flipped it over, and felt all the wires. They were cool to the touch. I really couldn't find anything that looked like it got hot/blown/etc.
Then I turned it back on, thinking perhaps it was just some crap on the tube to burn off. I let it sit for about 5mins on, and nothing happened.
This morning I did it again, and got the same smell; just not as strong. I did notice however that the CL90 was *hot*, and this seems to be where the smell was coming from. Perhaps I need to move up to the CL120 for this circuit ???
That being said, I think my 12BH7 tube is bad, as I can only see one heater being 'lit'. I'll try to pump some tunes through it tonight and see what happens.

So far so good I guess. The smell is bugging me a bit....

Thanks !
Steve

[TomMcNally]

That's the "Hammond Smell" !

I was looking at what people searched for to find my website yesterday,
and from the Arabic Google site ... a search for "transformer smell" haha

It goes away after awhile.

Let us know how it sounds.

... tom

[mesherm]

In normal operation the CL90 is supposed to run hot. It has a negative temp vs resistance curve so it has high resistance when cold and as it heats up its resistance drops. I don't think you could burn one out if it was in series with any transformer rated 300va or less. Avoid quick turn-on turn-offs. If you turn the power off, allow the ICL to cool for a minute or so.

[SteveH]

Ahhhh...Ok. I got worried - but like I said, nothing was hot; so I was perplexed !
I don't have any speaker wire that would interface with the bozaks at the moment, so I need to run out and get some zip cord just to see how everything sounds. Hopefully the 12BH7 is OK; worse comes to worse at least I will know that one channel is OK Yellow_Light_Colorz_PDT_09

Thanks again,
Steve

[mesherm]

Pull the 12BH7 and check the resistance between pins 4 and 5. If one heater is out you will find out quickly. The resistance from pins 4 to 9 and from 5 to 9 should be very close if not identical. If one is infinite or very high then that filament is kaput.

[SteveH]

Will do.....

Report and photos @ 11 :D