A Super Cool RCA Seco Electronics Tube Tester Display

ladies and gentlemen welcome back to amateur repair time I am in the middle of about five different projects that I'm working on and I'm waiting on some parts so I figured I would show off this RCA tube tester here today I bought this probably a year ago or so uh from a gentleman um who watches our channel from time to time his father passed away and was a uh repair man uh you like to Tinker with old radios and things like that and so I bought a bunch of tubes from them and um I'm just showing you some of the stuff here in my office and one of the things that he had was this cool tube tester and he's been asking me to make a video about it so I figured I would finally do it while we're waiting on parts for my other stuff so I'm working on a Emerson tape deck uh it's going all right it's kind of I'm working on a general electric radio Waiting On a par for that um I'm got a scope we're going to be working on that's a projector that we already did a video on we did a video on the record player we did a video on the fan we did a video on the um variac um the Zenith works we did a video on that radio that radio um that radio and I think we did that one I can't remember for sure um radio that clock that clock that clock so we've got a bunch of stuff in here that we've already done videos on and then here on the other side I've got all kinds of projects that I'm going to be working on we did a video on that so that's a project that we're in the middle of this is our beautiful Majestic radio I love this thing can't wait till we get back into this it's just an awesome machine that's the one we printed the we cut the new leg for if you didn't see that I'm probably going to be uploading those back up to this Channel and then the latest thing that we've been messing with um is this filco radio the one that's got all of the issues with the wiring so we're getting there so I got the filco radio this Majestic radio this clock I believe that was an Ingram clock it's three these are ones that are partial product projects that are I'm still working on um the emmer tape player the General Electric radio this one's on the bench this will be the next one as soon as I get my speaker in uh but I figured since we're messing with this filco I could one of the things that we could do while we're uh waiting on the parts for the General Electric and the speaker for the filco is we could test the tubes in the filco and we could use this tube tester now if you are watching this channel you probably know exactly what this thing is way back in the day just for the sake of all of The Childrens that are watching way back in the day um if you had a television at home or a radio like this and it started acting up it was really common that the problem may be one of the tubes is bad so what people would do is they would pull the tubes out of their electronic equipment and then take it to the hardware store or take it to the department store and there would be something like this there even in the grocery store they would have them and you would bring your tubes up and you look over the chart in the back and then you would test your own tubes and the thing would tell you it would do a simple little check on it and it would tell you if your tube's still good or if it's bad and needs to be replaced if it need to be replaced uh you could have somebody open up the door on the bottom and hopefully the correct tube would be inside of it that you could replace it with I doubt they carried everything but they probably had a pretty good selection so whenever I I bought all the stuff from U Bob the um this was sitting in the room and uh his son was telling me that he remembered whenever he was a kid his dad would have help have him help test the tubes on this thing and so he wanted to see a video of it in action so I've got it here in my office I just think it's really cool cool little piece of um electronic history or if you're into Electronics cool little piece of that whole thing um and maybe we can just see how the thing's made and test it out a little bit and see if it'll test something now if you if you are going to work on radios and stuff this isn't really the type of tester that you want to use because it's not super accurate and it's just going to give you kind of a rough idea of the if the tube's good or bad if it says the tube is good you still might have problems with it and um so that's that right so it's not the it's not the greatest tube tester in the world but it was a good way to give them a quick test at your grocery store or department store so it's got a whole ton of sockets on it 86 sockets and then it's even got some of the really old ones down here and then this will test a battery battery tester pins um battery switch so we'll see if we can test all that stuff and it's got a little meter here and on the back of it it had these panels that you could scroll through and find your tube and they're still there and they I mean it's still they stay where they're supposed to be and I think the top lights up and this thing was designed you know to basically try to convince you to buy RCA tubes so I gu the distributor or whoever was involved with this would come around and fill it back up with RCA tubes as they sold things out of it so it says manufactured by seyo Electronics which is a division of what in the world does that say die Acro Corp Minneapolis Minnesota USA whatever that means now it's two pieces this this whole top thing will come off I yeah so this this whole top thing will come off it's just sitting on the cabinet right now when I got it the um I think the lock was missing or the door was shut or something so I was able to put a new lock on it very similar to the locks on a lot of arcade gam so that was easy for me and then inside of it there are three drawers and then some storage space at the bottom so a lot of the tubes that I've got in here are tubes that uh that Bob had in his um Radio Shack so just got a you know ton of old tubes now some of these are used obviously and wouldn't have been available in the uh in the store so in the bottom drawer a lot of the tubes would have been these larger ones like this says 6 D6 if you take the tube out and look in the drawer underneath it it says 6D q6 so basically you would look through and find your tube and if it if it wasn't there there would be a open spot like this one [Music] says I can't even hardly read it 60 Q5 and that says 60 Q5 yeah so if you saw the open spot you know somebody else already bought your tube and you got to come back Bob had a bunch of light bulbs in his collection too so some of those are in here Phillips arenta don't see stuff like that all the time all right so like the bigger tubes in the bottom it says check New tubes before sailing and you can see how there's an empty spot down below now what I've been trying to do um I've gotten all kinds of tubes and you get them all the time in the box is I've been trying to if I get some in they just happen to be RCA see if I need them in this in this case oh another thing on the edge usually they don't have a number so you can put just doubles and stuff like that there um you can do it without screwing up the box you know all this stuff's not getting any newer it's not most of them aren't super valuable but uh so so this is a 35 Z5 GT and underneath it it says 35 Z5 so that one's in the right spot so it'd be cool if if I had the whole setup as RCA right so that's the middle drawer which is kind of the mediumsized tubes tell me that's not a 35 Z3 no it's not I needed a 35 Z3 for that one uh I think they're smaller actually maybe maybe not and so here is the top drawer and you can see I've been trying to put them in the spot where they go I've got a few used ones um in the wrong spot and all of that but I'm sure it got like that at the store too and some of them are obviously different brands so there's a lot of General Electric there's some Sylvanas um Electro what is that's GE as well uh unall lindle that says lindle and it [Music] rathon so I'm just been filling it up as I get them in pretty cool all right so um there are little leg levelers on the bottom of it so you can adjust it so it sits straight against the wall and like I mentioned I think that's a light I don't know if it works or not though let me get the power cord out and we'll plug it in and see if the light works so I plugged it in there's a switch on the back of it and it's humming so there must be some kind of Transformer in it the light is not on but that's cuz there's no light bulb in it so I'll see if I can get a light bulb at work tomorrow it runs from about here to about there so it's going to be probably 18 in it's going to be the same as the uh the bulbs that are in arcade games I'm trying to think do I have any of those here at the house I don't think I do but I'll get one of those tomorrow and we'll we'll see if we can get her lit up um but it's humming and after it came on this needle moved from down here up to the middle and it says good and green there's a question mark it says replace question mark and it says shorts and Merit and it runs from zero to 120 or I guess that would be 130 ETA electronic tube analyzer so over here on the side you've got the little thing that appears to work with batteries I just happen to have a battery right you and it says battery switch set switch to the battery voltage well I guess in our case it would usually be 1.5 but you can do whatever you want Touch battery terminals to test pins and read the meter well that's saying that one's bad I think that one's a new battery so maybe that ain't working very good let me move the needle let's make sure we've got it right or maybe I'm shorting it the way I'm testing it I don't know doesn't seem to be great for a Dell let's try let's try another one here I'm not impressed with the battery checker um but let's see about testing a tube let me just pick one here at random I got a whole ton of them see if I can find one that I can actually read what it is okay this one says I know you can't see all that great this one says 6136 so in the United States that's that's like a even though it's made in USA that's like a foreign um number basically so 6136 foreign and Industrial tube list did I even do that type 61 yep there it is 5 a15 our light is nowhere near here 6136 5 a15 and if you look up here the first number is the socket the second number is the selector the third number is the load 5 a15 so we would take our 6136 put it in socket five turn the selector to a turn the load to 15 and what'd you look at that says it's good if I go this way I guess that's testing for sure shorts so that's the Merit of it and that's testing to see if it has shorts that's interesting yeah so it says that one's good you can see it's of course heating up the heater so that's another thing is this thing's sitting here hot the whole time I mean it's got juice running through it the whole time that it's here kind of wild all right so let's get the one out of the filco radio and we'll test them and see if they're good or if any of them need replaced all right so the first one is a 50 L6 uh and it is I wish I didn't have that shadow on there for you 67 D5 so I put it in 67 D we're on 15 so we got to wait for the um filament to warm up see if anything moves so it's saying you should replace that one but it's not saying that it has any shorts now something I always wondered what happens if you got the load wrong like what happens if we turn this up to 25 uhhuh 35 okay yeah so you got to have that right or is going to give you a wrong reading obviously all right so that 50 L6 is pretty freaking borderline it's on 60 out of 130 I I don't know I guess you could say that it's at the question mark barely so 50 L6 is questionable according to the meter so let's do the next one well we may be running into a problem with our plan here this is a 35 Z3 it's actually a 35 y4 that we made a 35 Z3 by removing one of the pin but um it's not on the list and I it might be because it's the lock all base so you know these are a little different so I hope not because that's what all the other ones in the radio are we might have to pull out our regular tube tester let me try the next one well the next one is a 7 A8 and luckily it does list it and so it does do some lockal at least um freaking Shadow the light is in the worst possible spot it's boled the wall I can't move it 788 68 G25 so I'll put it in 68 g 25 borderline or you know I guess it's good it's barely good isn't it it doesn't have any shorts so that's the 7 A8 all right so 7 B7 there we go 68 d356 8 D 35 another weak one Let's test for shorts no shorts I guess it's pretty common for radios to have halfway worn out tubes I guess it's pretty common for anything to have halfway worn out tubes seems like once you mess with the test switch a little bit it goes up a little bit but so again this isn't the perfect way to test these but it would give you a general idea I mean if that thing tested it there was a short then you'd know that you have to replace it and then another thing that you'd have to think about they they may kind of want you to think that more of them are shorted than are actually are it would be interesting to see like a someone who really know those are stuff maybe they could take a a good tester and test several and then just see if this is set up in such a way that uh maybe with the load switch or something there's less of a tolerance so it's more likely for this to tell you your tub's bad than the the high-end Dynamic conductance tester or whatever it's called right I've got several of those too I mean we can test it on another one but yeah so after sitting here it has moved up into the good area so maybe I just wasn't giv it long enough yeah maybe you need to wait a minute okay so I guess that one's good so on to the next one all right so this one is a 7 C6 uh where are you 7 C6 68 A35 so we've got in 68 notice all of them were in 68 that must just be because it is what's wired for S volts to the heater um there must be a bunch of different windings on that Transformer or however they're doing it 7 C6 uh 68 A35 a and we were already on 35 so it says that one's good too so that's pretty cool okay so one thing I want to do is I got in a New Old Stock uh 35 Z3 well that was the one though that we just looked and we couldn't do wasn't it let me look again I got 35 Z4 I wonder if that's the same wonder if Z4 is like an updated version let me do some research see if 35 zz3 and 35 Z4 are similar at all all right well I figured out a way to get us some more light on it should have done that earlier so I brought home a bulb from the uh from the shop that we use in arcade games it's just a f uh F-15 T8 very common it's in pretty much every arcade game fluorescent tube and it must either not use a starter or there's a starter built into the fixtures I I didn't have to replace it so it looks pretty good it's yellowed but I'm of the type where I I like that I mean I think it looks old and it's supposed to look old because it is old but that makes it so much easier to see um your lettering but which I guess is the point of it so the last one that we didn't get to do was a 35 Z3 I looked it up 35 Z4 and 35 Z5 are nothing like 35 Z3 they're not even similar the only substitute is a 35 y4 and a 35 y4 has an extra pin on it like I was saying so uh it looks like they're on all of the seven volt ones they're telling you to use socket 68 for the lockal so um that's just how it is but you know if it's a 35 of course it wouldn't use that socket so the the the deal is 35 Z3 and 35 y4 run off of 35 volts but they have a locko socket and apparently they only did lockal for just a little while um and I guess by the time that they made this little tester or whatever they were like we're not going to make an entire socket just for two um lockal uh tubes to test if somebody comes up and they have those to test they're just not going to be able to test them they're just going to have to buy a replacement if they want one um so I'm going to look in the drawer and see if it had a spot for 35 Z3 or 35 y4 uh but you weren't able to test it so it' be interesting to see that were they trying to sell you one and they kept one stocked even though you couldn't test it or what the deal is all right so on the front of the cabinet there's a couple stickers it says Regency professional two-way action radio authorized cells and service center I've never heard of regional a Regency um and I'm not even completely sure what a two-way action radio is I imagine it's a you know like a walkie-talkie as I would call it and then it says uh Browning Sales and Service Center over half over half a century in electronics so I'm wonder if Browning has anything to do with the um the name of the what we're looking at here the the tester is that a Browning now I mean I know at the top it said manufactured by SEO Electronics SEO Electronics all right so I'm going to do a little research on the internet on the interwebs and see if I can find anybody else that's mentioning having this exact one they're not super rare and they're not worth a a bunch of money but they are super cool so I'm going to look it up and just see if uh anybody else has pictures of one and if they were all RCA maybe the seyo electronics whatever it is uh made them and you could get a different sign for the top depending on which ones you sold that'd be interesting to see so I'm going to see if I can find any more of these that are very similar all right so for my first one here I did find one that's a little different but it's basically setup similar made by the same company and the interesting thing is they're from Lancaster South Carolina which is I bought this in Charlotte it's about 40 miles away I drive through it every week whenever I go to Jefferson so it's it's not far from here at all that's where their plant was um I'd love to figure out where that plant was and see if it's still there what it is now SEO Electronics I may be able to figure it out um this one's very similar you got the board here of the sockets and then the meter is a little different but similar and it doesn't have the battery [Music] thing and this was used at an audio place that they're talking about uh the heart and soul of your amp and this particular one is missing the whatever the display was at the top here's one that looks just like the one we were just checking out a picture of um but it has the Marquee on it so looks like it's RCA as well maybe they had some kind of deal with RCA to provide the tubes and they would provide the the U the kiosk or whatever and that's how they were shipped so it's was pretty cool here's another picture of one um on Reddit it's probably the same one if you look at the wear on the Marquee uh and it shows the drawers and it looks like it's made just exactly the same so the bottom part is probably the same so I'm going to look up Browning the only Browning I'm aware of I was thinking where have I heard that name I'm not a huge gun guy I'm not into I don't have a bunch of guns or anything um although people I know do um you can probably figure that out um I have nothing against guns or anything I just don't happen to be all that into it but um Browning is a famous gun manufacturer but it's probably a completely different company so this is some kind of brown electronics company um but that's where I had heard that name before it was the it's the gun manufacturer Electronics Pioneer Glenn Browning put Winchester on the radio map in its fingerprint Factory in Washington DC the FBI kept millions of fingerprints during World War II as a bureau gathered information about suspected spies and sabur draft Dodgers federal workers and others because that list also included War material manufacturers a small newspaper noticed that officer John Murray fingerprinted employees of JH win's sons and Browning Laboratories in 1943 identifies these two Winchester businesses as producing products to help the military win the war the Browning Laboratories was newer and smaller just a stort sort of business the town planners wanted to attract during the early 20th century a leader in the field of Radio Electronics the Browning Company added to the luster of Winchester's reputation the Winchester company a Radio Shack ad in the Boston Symphony orchestra's 1954 program stated this Winchester company is behaving in a manner to make new englanders proud of their area's performance in Technical and musical matters when Iowa native Glenn Hazard Browning who was born in 19 1897 and died in 1974 moved into his new home on Appalachian Road in 1926 his career was about to take off uh they developed uh research to increase the efficiency of radio frequency Transformers and developed a special mathematically designed tuned RF Transformer which was incorporated in a circuit known as the Browning Drake circuit this invention was an overnight success and sales of a kit using the circuit reached into the millions the Browning Drake company was one of the first companies to specialize in the manufacturer of precision-built radio receivers uh the company grew in size and added the Sylvester garage across the street to its facilities the building dating to 1926 had included a lower level Auto Repair Garage and Commercial main floor local architect uh designed alterations including the larger vest vestibule in the northern Corner uh here is an ad about a radio apparently and here's pictures of the factory so apparently a big radio company and this was in back in the 50s and stuff and that thing I didn't that say a century in business or something like that well the guy was born in 97 and that thing was 1990 1970s something I would assume maybe I read that wrong maybe it said 50 Years anyway I'm going to go look and see if I can see if it says the address in Lancaster South Carolina where that tester was supposedly made and let me look at that Browning sign one more time all right it says over half a century in electronics so 50 years so that makes sense okay and then the tag I'm reminded says division of diacro Corp Minneapolis Minnesota so let's see if we can figure out when diacro Corp bought Seiko electronics and where Seiko Electronics was all right so it seems seo seo whatever Electronics uh was at 2213 industrial uh Park Road in Lancaster South Carolina back in the day this is their headquarters um they're no longer there let's see what that's near in Lancaster I'd be interested to [Music] see it's 521 so this is Lancaster down here it's north of of Lancaster Almost Up near Van Wick which uh honestly it's pretty close it's not far from my shop that's interesting um there were a company a part of diacro corp diacro corp uh the the name of the company was changed to diacro in 1958 um in 1965 they owned as much as 22 companies so they were buying up all kinds of companies diacro someone posted on a News Group um that he had two seyo Electronics tube testers that are about 2 feet square has a roll sheet on it sounds very similar to the ones that we've got and he says that he got them out of a Radio Shack store so they were in use and Radio Shack so these may have been Radio Shack um this may have been a Radio Shack tester I found this index to Deeds I didn't find the actual deed but it says that SEO Electronics um says assignment of agreement from Dana Corporation in July or August of 1974 so there's some kind of agreement going on with Dana and SEO Electronics found this listing at one point uh Dana Corporation Warner electric and SEO Electronics We're All In Cahoots and then finally on Amazon I found this it's a big old industrial DC Drive um made by Warner electric Seiko Electronics division has the Dana logo on it and it says 2213 Industrial Park Road Lancaster South Carolina now that now that location is some kind of place that U makes and distributes parts for 4x4 Vehicles so that company is now out of business um so that's what that is so it looks like the one I've got may have been made in Lancaster because the company was still in Lancaster years later this was like the 80s here so it could have been made right down the road that's pretty cool to me and if you're wondering what they're worth here is one um that is for sale on the Pittsburgh Craigslist right now it's a slightly different version but it's also branded RCA uh and they won $180 for it and it's working so it's one of those things where they're not great testers they're just kind of a Nostalgia piece and they take up a lot of room but for me I kind of needed something to help store some of my tubes in anyway so why not and I got a good place to display it in that corner so I was happy to get it all right folks so there there you go I hope you enjoyed it I've been meaning to do a video kind of showing that off for a little while neat little tube tester if I find another one I'll probably buy it too just move these shelves back a little bit or something I could put it right there it would have to be a different type though you know I wouldn't want two of the same that'd be just I mean why would I have two of the same thing I mean why would I you know I don't go to extremes or anything all right so leave your comments below do you remember going to see these in the uh store your dad taking tubes in to try to test them I never remember that I was born in 78 this is a little bit before my time but not much probably five years or so a little bit earlier I probably would have saw one and I may have seen one and I just didn't realize it or something but I have no memory of ever seeing this in the store but I got my own now so I'm happy for that so I'll end this I'm going to show you um some pictures from when it was in um Bob's Radio Shack at his house so you can see it so I'm happy to have it it's working great and we fixed the light bulb for you Bob see y'all on the next video [Music]