Original poster: Jim Lux <jimlux@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> At 03:13 PM 2/4/2007, Tesla list wrote:
Original poster: westland <westland@xxxxxx> I didn't know you could do that with a transistor (any specific type?)
Haven't done it in more than a decade.. (obviously, you need a metal can type transistor, and those are somewhat unusual these days of TO92 plastic packages)... I've done it with a 2n404, a 2n1613, and a 2n2222, thereby dating myself, since I doubt one could buy a 404 or a 1613 these days.
And, some 15-20 years ago, people used to make cameras by using static rams with the cover knocked off. Certain parts from Micron were favored for this, because the pixel (ram cell) layout was easy to figure out, and they had the right kind of buffers so you could sneak an analog output, after a fashion.
but ... yeh ... why not deconstruct a mass market device ... you know it's going to be priced at the marginal cost of production (which means that all the R&D and last minute sweating by the engineering group to actually get a production version of the device has been priced out at pretty close to zero) ... there's no way you could compete with your own device. But it may be a bit upsetting to the Varian engineer that designed the anode of the 8755... nobody wants his work
Actually, they don't mind much... tube design guys and gals are used to this sort of thing. You make new tube designs by taking the gun from one tube and the anode structure from another, etc.
I think they'd actually be happy that someone is actually using a thermionic device of any kind, since it's a dying art, and they're happy to have someone carrying on the flame.
(Quick tube guy joke/question.. we all know about pentodes, diodes, triodes, etc... do any of you have a monode at home?)