Left to right: octal (top and bottom view), loctal, and miniature (top and side view) sockets. An early transistor socket and an integrated circuit socket are included for comparison.
Tube sockets are electrical sockets into which vacuum tubes (electronic valves) can be plugged, holding them in place and providing terminals, which can be soldered into the circuit, for each of the pins. Sockets are designed to allow tubes to be inserted in only one orientation. They were used in most tube electronic equipment to allow easy removal and replacement. When tube equipment was common, retailers such as drug stores had vacuum tube testers, and sold replacement tubes. Some Nixie tubes were also designed to use sockets.
Throughout the tube era, as technology developed, sometimes differently in different parts of the world, many tube bases and sockets came into use.[1][2] Sockets are not universal; different tubes may fit mechanically into the same socket, though they may not work properly and possibly become damaged.
Tube sockets were typically mounted in holes on a sheet metal chassis and wires or other components were hand soldered to lugs on the underside of the socket. In the 1950s, printed circuit boards were introduced and tube sockets were developed whose contacts could be soldered directly to the printed wiring tracks. Looking at the bottom of a socket, or, equivalently, a tube from its bottom, the pins were numbered clockwise, starting at an index notch or gap, a convention that has persisted into the integrated circuit era.
In the 1930s, tubes often had the connection to the control grid brought out through a metal top cap on the top of the tube. This was connected by using a clip with an attached wire lead. An example would be the 6A7 pentagrid converter. Later, some tubes, particularly those used as radio frequency (RF) power amplifiers or horizontal deflection amplifiers in TV sets, such as the 6DQ6, had the plate or anode lead protrude through the envelope. In both cases this allowed the tube's output circuitry to be isolated from the input (grid) circuit more effectively. In the case of the tubes with the plate brought out to a cap, this also allowed the plate to run at higher voltages (over 26,000 volts in the case of rectifiers for color television, such as the 3A3, as well as high-voltage regulator tubes.) A few unusual tubes had caps for both grid and plate; the caps were symmetrically placed, with divergent axes.
Tube 75 from the 1930s with UX-6 base and top grid cap
^Qvigstad, Just N. (2012). "Sokkel oversikt radiorør". Vacuum tube bases overview (in Norwegian). Radio amateur LA9DL. Retrieved 9 January 2013.
^"Tube Bases". Frank's Electron Tube Pages. Retrieved 20 July 2013.
Tubesockets are electrical sockets into which vacuum tubes (electronic valves) can be plugged, holding them in place and providing terminals, which can...
units; the electrode leads connect to pins on the tube's base which plug into a tubesocket. Tubes were a frequent cause of failure in electronic equipment...
AC power plugs and sockets connect devices to mains electricity to supply them with electrical power. A plug is the connector attached to an electrically-operated...
rope Socket, the receptacle into which a tapered tool is inserted Socket, an opening in any fitting that matches the outside diameter of a pipe or tube Eye...
CN: Connector CRT: Cathode ray tube DSP: Digital signal processor FET: Field-effect transistor GDT, SVP: Gas discharge tube, surge voltage protector H: Pin...
Socket AM5 (LGA 1718) is a zero insertion force flip-chip land grid array (LGA) CPU socket designed by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) that is used for AMD...
electrodes being connected via the tubesocket. Top caps have most commonly been used for: Amplifier or similar tube control grid connection, to provide...
grocery-store tube-tester vanished. Transistor tester Tubesocket Bogey value Know your Tube and Transistor Testers, Robert G. Middleton "Jackson Tube Testers...
minimize these effects, some vacuum tubes were made with thicker internal insulating plates and more supports, and tube-socket assemblies were sometimes shock-mounted...
A lightbulb socket, lightbulb holder, light socket, lamp socket or lamp holder is a device which mechanically supports and provides electrical connections...
Octal base may refer to: A vacuum tubesocket with an eight-pin base The octal, or base-8, numeral system This disambiguation page lists articles associated...
by entrepreneur Arthur J. Schmitt, whose first product was a tubesocket for radio tubes (valveholder bases). Amphenol expanded significantly during World...
A socket wrench (or socket spanner) is a type of spanner (or wrench in North American English) that uses a closed socket format, rather than a typical...
fasteners InCa3D Lightbulb socket Line splice Pothead for a termination on a high voltage electric power cable Tee connector Tubesocket Twist-on wire connector...
or trailing arms. A type of ball and socket joint called a "torque ball" is used at one end of the torque tube to allow relative motion between the axle...
Dental alveoli (singular alveolus) are sockets in the jaws in which the roots of teeth are held in the alveolar process with the periodontal ligament...
pin and contact-tube accessories" applies to plugs and socket-outlets, cable couplers and appliance couplers with pins and contact tubes of standardized...
available adapter, or by making a slight modification to the wiring of its tubesocket. Hopkins, Gregg; Moore, Bill (1999). Ampeg: The Story Behind the Sound...
The lamp holders have a "disconnect" socket at the low-voltage end which disconnects the ballast when the tube is removed, to prevent electric shock...
pins, almost identical to octal relay sockets or tubesockets, were used to connect power supplies to some tube audio amplifiers, transmitters, and transceivers...
Socket SP3 is a zero insertion force land grid array CPU socket designed by AMD supporting its Zen-, Zen 2- and Zen 3-based Epyc server processors, launched...
battery-charging systems for M-4 tanks, power jacks for test meters, vacuum tubesockets for radio communications, and a line of electrical and electronic connectors...
secondary board provides the base onto which the tubesockets are mounted (although the pair of power tubesockets are mounted directly on the chassis with long...
Times lamented that the "one-time repository of nearly everything from a tubesocket to a complete radio station" was "bargainless and practically setless...
83 tube and special tubesocket. Due to its volatile nature if broken, it was quickly superseded with a GZ34 rectifier but not duly noted on the tube chart...
Global Information
