NIMO Tube Tester

A NIMO Tube Tester

Introduction

Having accumulated a fair NIMOs over the years I thought it was about time that I built a simple tester to make them operate. This NIMO tester was also design to provide a platform for experiments on the voltage requirements of a NIMO, to trial ideas in the firmware and to trial ideas for the anode connection.

This page and its documentation describes my version of the NIMO Tester. It is fully open design all released under a Creative Commons ShareAlike 4.0 International license.

At this time no kit is available although I do have a few bare PCBs for sale. I will also print the required 3D printed parts if you don't have a 3D printer.

Quick Links

• Introduction
• Tester powered up
• PCB assembly
• Simple acrylic case
• Powered up!
• Documentation
• Kits
• Contact

PCB Assembly

Bare board

With SMD fitted

With through-hole parts fitted

Simple Acrylic Case

The tester can be housed in a simple case made from 3D printed parts and laser cut acrylic. Shown here as a render using Fusion 360.

Tester Powered Up

Using the NIMO tester with the Sgitheach CRT Tester you configure the tester as follows:

• HT configured for 300V operation
• Flyback enabled
• PDA multiplier enabled
• The +2100V PDA tap is selected

The NIMO tester is plugged into the CRT tester jacks as follows (assuming you are using the CRT Tester case):

• The red jack with the EHT wire is plugged into the PDA jack on the side panel
• The green jack is plugged into a green jack on the rear panel

It is not necessary to use the CRT Tester as the power supply. Any power supplies that deliver around 1800V to 2400V is likely to be entirely suitable.

Documentation

You should look in the dropbox "/ CRT Projects / CRT Tester Tester Mk 2 / Documentation" folder for the CRT Tester Mk 2 manual and the NIMO tester is a chapter within. The "/ CRT Projects / CRT Tester Tester Mk 2 / NIMO" folder contains the project in detail.

Kit Availability and Prices

The electronics kit is available in only one form:

Minimal Electronics Kit

This is the bare PCB only. You will have to buy all the remaining components. I bought them from Farnell (Element14), Digikey and a few parts from Ebay.

The price of the PCB is here.

Contact

Please contact me with any questions or enquires about ordering or postage.