Jump to content

peteandvanessa

Members
  • Posts

    159
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    4

Everything posted by peteandvanessa

  1. My truck is being used in an independent movie that's being filmed close to where I live. The main character has been filmed driving my truck in the movie in about 5 scenes. Sweet ? The details on the movie is here: https://lyviashouse.com/
  2. Here's the circuit diagram for the radio mod. Really the only mod to the radio is the two 1k ohm resistors into the volume pot and desoldering the radio antenna input and routing it through a two way switch. The 10k ohm resistor to ground was suggested in another forum, but i didn't need it in the end.
  3. Sure thing. The module came from Amazon, I know they are out of stock of the module I used, but most Bluetooth module receivers will work. The one I used has a 5-35 voltage input range, so that's perfect for our trucks. Now the wrinkle in my truck is that I'm 6 volt positive ground, so you can't simply pick up the power direct from the truck wiring, but fortunately most Bluetooth modules can be powered off a micro USB connection. This completely isolates the amplifier positive ground to the Bluetooth module negative ground. What I did was to get a small rechargeable USB stick, it doesn't need to be very big since the Bluetooth module only takes about 35 milliamp, so even a small USB battery stick can power it for a couple of weeks. So you get a USB cable, plug it into the module via a USB battery stick, that powers the Bluetooth module. Then you take the module and solder three wires onto the module (this is going to be the audio feed to the radio). One wire is left channel, one right channel and the last is the ground wire. The radios are mono, so you need to combine the left and right channel from the Bluetooth into a single feed to the radio, that's done with a couple of 1k resistors. (see diagram), then you find the input into the volume control input, desolder the radio input wire and add in a two way switch, one side of the input to the switch will come from the radio signal, the other side will be the combined left and right signal from the bluetooth module. So you can switch between the two inputs. Find a small project box (I used a small project that I had lying around), mount the bluetooth module in the box, the micro USB cable goes to the USB battery stick, the audio cable goes into the radio. Solder it up, then I mounted the project box to the side of the radio via velcro. Install the radio and then test it.
  4. Here's a pic of what a valve heater should look like, it's the orange glow (there's two glowing in the pic below), if there's no glow at all, then the valve won't work
  5. Excellent progress They do make a bit of a noise, however, when the Valves warm up, the noise does go a little quieter (but you can still hear it) Sounds like either the valves heaters have stopped working or the voltage to the valve heaters isn't working. All valves must glow, the valves have little heaters in the bottom which glow when they are working. Look on the circuit diagram for the pin outs on the valves, usually, the heaters are lower voltage (I'd guess maybe 6 volts or 12 volts DC depending on the valve. If that voltage is present on the valve, then the valves are defective Have a look at the diagram, which valves aren't glowing, if it's the amplifier valves that's why you aren't getting any sound.
  6. Hi Tony, keep at it, it's not that hard. When you connect the power supply to it, are you getting anything. You should hear the buzzing from the vibrator (I think you have a mechanical vibrator, I think it's the V4012 part in the silver can on the left hand side in your second pic). Once you have that working, then you can start replacing the caps in the radio. You'll need schematic of your radio from the web somewhere. See all the wax caps in your pics, you need to remove all of those with modern equivalents, the modern ones are much much smaller and they are easy to replace. I'll try and help with the debugging from here, I've now fixed two radios and two power supplies, so it's not that hard to do, but you do need some basic soldering skills and a schematic.
  7. Today's task was to install the Bluetooth module into the Tube radio, hide all the wires and get it all working. Mission accomplished ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HgQvee6w0w
  8. That sounds like a great project. If you haven't got a set yet, search for the schematics for your radio, that really helps to troubleshoot. But generally these radios are pretty simple and usually its just a case of replacing a few capacitors, maybe a few resistors and checking that the vibrator works.
  9. Yes the Bluetooth module is 6 volts( but it can handle 5-35 volts). It's very easy to integrate with the radio with a switch a few wires and a couple of resistors. I'm powering the Bluetooth off a USB battery because my truck is positive ground. I need to check the radio to get a 6 volt source so I don't have to use the USB battery but it's not a major issue. On your radio, check the capacitors, if they are the old brown paper looking capacitors with wax on, you can replaced them easily. The radios are pretty simple to work on. Is your radio working?
  10. Ordered this bad boy today. A Bluetooth receiver and decoder. The decoded audio signal can then be sent to the tube amplifier then out to the speaker. Getting closer to streaming music from my phone to the tube radio ?
  11. Here's the radio at half volume on a test drive. Some may doubt that these old tube radios aren't loud enough, but they are surprisingly loud, more than enough in a noisy cab. I have a single 5 1/4 inch, 4 ohm speaker in the dash. So cool to tune the dial and find some music. ?
  12. Slight change of plan. The radio that I just repaired was working fine. Unfortunately Tommy two tooth the truck driver, had hacked into my dash with an after market radio many years ago. When I went to fit the repaired radio, I realized that the dash would have a hole in the dash that wouldn't be covered by the Mopar 830 radio when installed. So I moved to plan B, which was to take the Mopar 820 radio that I had purchased,, recap and clean and test it, then fit that into my 53 Truck. Here's the radio installed in my truck, the speaker is in the center of the dash, here I purchased a new 4 ohm speaker and fitted the new speaker under the Top speaker grill. I now have a working radio in the truck and it sounds great, it's actually pretty loud at full volume.
  13. The 53 tube radio fought me all the way, but I won. The radio is now working, still need to do some adjustments and fit the correct speaker with the correct impedance, that should fix the higher volume distortion. Should be fun to have a 53 tube radio in my 53 truck ?
  14. Mopar 830 Radio diagram View File Version 1 Submitter peteandvanessa Submitted 09/24/2019 Category Instructions, Manuals & Templates
  15. I did some further reading and found a better source for the 6 volt positive ground vibrator. This should be a direct retro fit for the power supply chassis and replace the mechanical vibrator. https://www.tubesandmore.com/products/vibrator-4-pin-automobile-radio Ordered the key parts for the Power Supply. The Power supply, chassis and radio should arrive by Friday and I've studied the circuit diagrams, so I know what voltages to expect when I power it up.I remembered I had a digital oscilloscope in one of the spare rooms, so I've dug that out, that's going to be super useful when testing the Power Chassis.
  16. Mopar 812,813,815,816,817 Radio diagrams View File Radio diagrams Submitter peteandvanessa Submitted 09/23/2019 Category Reference Information
  17. I noticed that the above power supply and amplifier is missing the vibrator, which is essential to convert the 6 volts dc into about 200 volts dc that the valves need to work. From what I've read, the old mechanical vibrators are almost impossible to find. After a bit of research I found a company that has solid state versions of the original mechanical vibrators. They cost about $40, so not to bad. I'll have to order one of these to get the power/amplifier part of the circuit working, as well as ordering new replacement capacitors. These old radios have wax capacitors which breakdown over time and must be replaced. Fortunately, modern replacement capacitors are much smaller than the originals and are really low cost. Looks like I'll be breaking out my soldering iron in the near future.
  18. luckily a power supply turned up on ebay last night with the complete power and amplifier circuit, so I snagged it really quick. I'll have to replace a number of parts, but it looks workable.
  19. Installed new rear glass and seal. Pretty easy to do, got the old one out and new one installed in about 45mins.
  20. Time to bugger about with a Mopar 820 6 volt valve radio for the 1953 truck. It's not a standard radio for a 53 Dodge truck, but it will fit in the dash. Got the tuner display bulbs working. Fixed the low voltage vacuum tube heater circuit working, you need those for those little electrons to come out to play. Next step will be to start replacing the old paper condensers which will be rotten after 66 years. I need to chat to my daughter about the high voltage dc part of the circuit. That's going to be the tricky part. Unless anyone has a Mopar 820 power supply/amplifier module that they might have. It's the unit on the left in the black and white pic below. Please let me know if you have one. It will be really cool if I can get this radio working and installed in my 53 truck.
  21. Time to bugger about with a Mopar 820 6 volt valve radio for the 1953 truck. It's not a standard radio for a 53 Dodge truck, but it will fit in the dash. Got the tuner display bulbs working. Fixed the low voltage vacuum tube heater circuit working, you need those for those little electrons to come out to play. Next step will be to start replacing the old paper condensers which will be rotten after 66 years. I need to chat to my daughter about the high voltage dc part of the circuit. That's going to be the tricky part. Unless anyone has a Mopar 820 power supply/amplifier module that they might have. It's the unit on the left in the black and white pic below. Please let me know if you have one. It will be really cool if I can get this radio working and installed in my 53 truck.
  22. There's lots I still want to do, but right now it's not needed straight away. I kinda like just plodding along and fixing things as I go. What I enjoy is driving Tug, I popped down to a 60's diner the other week just for the fun and enjoyment of driving him.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.

Terms of Use