Dad likes the simplicity of my little Eico 625 so he has most graciously offered to trade me his Triplett 3423 for it. I have little experience with testers beyond my Eico. I was just looking for general opinions on the Triplett and it's operation.

Not so nice to scam your dad.

As long as the Triplett is in working shape there is no comparison - take that trade before he changes his mind (and give him a little cash on top of it).

The 3423 embodies much of what the 3444 has to offer, and the 3444 is one of the top testers available.

He is big on the simplicity the Eico offers. His main area of interest is smaller AA5 style sets while I work on everything from AA5s to Magnavox amps so the Triplett works better for me. We do a lot of the work together anyways so he can still take advantage of the Triplett when needed.

The Triplett can do a heater/cathode leakage test. Important for some tube applications.

Chas

Well I got the tester and it does not work. It turns on and the line adjust works well. Filament windings in the transformer are good. I replaced the bad caps and out of spec resistors. After I set the switches and knobs and hit the "value" switch the indicator needle just drops to 0 and sits there,

I assume that you have a tube in it.
That it doesn't peg the needle left or right is a clue.
Check from cathode to grid for bias/signal. Check from cathode to plate for plate voltage. The next suspects would be open "load" resistors, switch contacts or wiring troubles where you've been working. I'm guessing that it probably worked when parked years ago.

Yep, I have tried several different tubes in various sockets. I was able to get a reading on one tube but it was erratic. The needle dropped to zero then slowly rose into the red range on the dial (while testing a brand new tube). It jumped around a little the dropped back to zero. My experience with testers is limited to my Eico 625. On this Triplett the tube filament does'nt power up when the tube is inserted. It comes on after the up/down switches are set. I will continue working with it.

It would probably benefit from cleaning the switches, but don't spray anything on the insulators, just apply cleaner to the contact surfaces.

When I got mine it did the same thing. I got rid of all of the little chief caps and replaced them with new. For sure I replaced the wax coated ones. I also used nichicon 33mfd 450VDC for the two electrolitics. For some reason mine had two shunt caps on the meter so I got rid of one and put in a new .001 to ground from the meter. I also (after more frustrating troubleshooting) replaced the .02 cap across the small transformer on the swithch side of the oscillator board and presto chango, it worked. My Hickoks are sitting idle because this tester is solid. Do you have the manual and schematic? Several components were different than the schematic I have and once they were changed to the values on the schematic the tester came back to life. Hope this helps.

Did it work before you "repaired" it?

Dave

I have the manual. Its pretty ragged. No schematic. Was working erratically when I got it. Caps were way off. Some resistors were either way out of spec or open. Its better now then when I got it.

I have the manual and schematic in PDF. Unfortunately, you can't use these on this site. If you have an alternate email I'll send them to you.

Dave, in response to your question, yes it works. I don't know if an upgrade of components could be considered a repair. Analog tube testers are new ground for me and any success on 50 to 60 year old electronics is a victory as far as I'm concerned.

PDFs can be put in the photo gallery. They'll show up there as a link. Click it, and PRESTO!

Hi Badwax:

Over the years I have repaired a number of those Triplett 3400 series testers. There is a selenium rectifier stack that supplies the B+ in that tester that is commonly bad --most of them I encountered were completely open. According to my shop notes I made up a silicon stack or bridge and inserted a 100 ohm 2 watt resistor in series with the AC side. Hope this helps.
Tom.

I have gone over this tester from every which way I can and I do not see a selenium rec anywhere. I have tested the tube (117L7) and its good and strong. Any cap or res that was bad has been replaced. I carefully re-flowed some questionable solder joints. I have thoroughly cleaned everything. It still does the same thing. Set it up for a test, hit the switch and the needle just pegs left. Its gonna go out the window soon. Not really but it is very frustrating.

If you want to get rid of it, let me know. Pretty cruel, huh? I've suffered over three or four hickoks and I know the feeling. Have you performed all of the tests listed in the maintenance section of the manual (filament, bias, grid, plate, ect.)? Are you able to do the line test?
Like I said earlier in this post, I removed one of the .001 caps across the meter because it wasn't pointed out in the schematic. After reading a little more and hearing some input from folks with a lot more experience in these things than myself, I'll ask this dumb question also. Do you have two capacitors across your meter? If not, try adding a .001 across the terminals and then another from the negative to chassis ground. After doing this on mine, my readings became a little more believable and maybe it will help you with your problem. Since these caps were put on at the factory, I'm thinking that it was meant to be. Still....if you want to dump it, let me know.

I added the caps and theres no change. It does the same thing no matter what test is being performed. It will go into storage until I can find a guy around here to look at it.

No problem. I have one in our storage unit right now that I don't want to mess with again until the next solar eclipse. They're great tube checkers if they work (same can be said for the hickoks). There's about 8 or 10 pots in there that were adjusted at the factory, I'm told, and I fooled with two trying to do a calibration. They're now back in their original positions and that's where they'll stay.

Believe me I want it working but my patience only goes so far so I have to walk away from it for a while. Instead I put my Hallicrafters S-20R on the bench and did a full recap/resistor change and alignment in a fraction of the time I have invested in the Triplett. Success one way or another.

Its back on the bench and I'm still yellin at it. No B+ present at all. Anybody have a decent schematic for it?