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Hi everyone.

I've almost completed my second Trinity build (the first being the sIII) and I'm having a problem I can't seem to troubleshoot.

(Build diary and pictures to come later).

Here's what the voltages were before I plugged in the power and preamp tubes.

AC Mains voltage - 118 VAC
B+ - 476 VDC

However, when I plugged in the preamp and power tubes, only the rectifier is glowing (normally).

And here's the readings (with normal in parentheses) -- they're off the chart:

V1
Pin 1 - 422 (120)
Pin 3 - 0 (2)
Pin 6 - 424 (123)
Pin 8 - 0 (2)

V2
Pin 1 - 423 (167)
Pin 3 - 0 (1.1)
Pin 6 - 440 (123)
Pin 8 - 0 (70.5)

V3
Pin 3 - 478 (380)
Pin 4 - 478 (338)
Pin 8 - 0 (22)

V4
Pin 3 - 478 (382)
Pin 4 - 478 (339)
Pin 8 - 0 (22)

I would think there's something wrong with the way I hooked up the heater wires.

Here's my hand-drawn diagram of how I hooked them up (minus the twisting for clarity). In the Trinity document it looks like there's only one wire going in to Pins 7 and 2 on V3. I'm daisy chaining into those from V4 and then out to V2 and V3. Is this right?

That is right, your problem must be somewhere else...

AJC

Hey Andrew. How's it going?

Very well! I recognised your sig...

My other deluxe (just finished my 2nd last night) I had forgotten one jumper and all it did was hum loudly. I found the missing jumper quickly and it fixed the issue.

Did you go over all the wiring so far, or just the heaters? I find the tube sockets pin numbers are hard to see, and use a fine tip marker to mark them out on the socket or the chassis so I dont get mixed up.

ANyhow, keep at it, you will find the problem. The Deluxe really rocks!

AJC

When I built my sIII I inadvertently grounded the input jacks. Two quick fixes and later and it was rock on.

I've actually triple-checked everything with a continuity meter which helped me catch one mistake.

I hope I'm just being obtuse and missing something obvious. Thought I'd throw up some pictures of the rectifier and tube wiring.

It's dead quiet right now though, so that's a good sign.

It just seems weird that a tonne of current is hitting the tube sockets but only the rectifier is heating up.

With the rectifier out, it's showing 3 volts on each of the following:

V1, pins 4, 5 and 9
V2, pins 4, 5 and 9
V3, pins 2 and 7
V4, pins 2 and 7

Rectifier (out), 75 on pin 2, 356 on pin 4, 356 on pin 6, 75 on pin 8

Solved it!!!

I had wired the tube heater wires to the same lug on the pilot light.

Separated them to separate lugs and......ROCK ON!!

Dead quiet amp and sweet tone --- even at 7 in the morning.

I'll get pictures and such up later today.

And I can even record clips now and I'm good enough to not be embarrassed by them, so I can throw some up on my sIII build thread too.

Doh!

Glad you fixed it... rock on brother!

AJC

See, this is what happens when you take a night off!!

Glad it's working. Looking forward to more pics & now some clips too.

_________________
Stephen
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