At the last radio rally I came back with a box of CV1070 regulator valves.
Internet sources say they are 100v 8ma regulators, I was looking to use them in a power supply project.
The question I have is the specs say it needs a striking voltage, how would I produce this???
I was thinking of a capacitor but am unsure how I would build a circuit around the valve.
All help greatly received.
Many Thanks
Luke
They are not valves
They are before Zeners existed!
They are in fact Neon, Argon, Xenon and mixtures. They are noisy gas discharge tubes. They are used just like a Zener, they rely on a series resistance. If the series resistance is too high the load of the rest of the circuit means it's below the strike voltage and they don't regulate, even though the voltage is above the regulator volts.
If the series resistance is too low then the tube is destroyed due to over current. If the load is removed the tube current may be too high.
I have a box of B7G types here. They should only ever be used as replacements in vintage gear, never in new designs.
http://www.radiomuseum.org/tubes/tube_cv1070.html
The CV1070 is absolutely only for replacement in pre 1940 vintage gear. You'd be mad to deliberately use one. A TV LOPT valve makes a better shunt regulator if you don't want to use semiconductors.
Here is one I have here 0A2 (Zero not Oh) with example circuit.
http://www.radiomuseum.org/tubes/tube_0a2.html
They are noisy ill-tempered Valve era high voltage Zener. Essentially a Neon Bulb.
If you try to "quieten" them with a capacitor you can end up with a "Relaxation oscillator"!
Remember that these valves are designed to produce a stabilised REFERENCE voltage. The idea is that when struck, the voltage across them will be 100V but the load must be such that at say 5mA current, the voltage drop across the load plus 100V will equal the supply voltage. These valves are intended to be part of a regulator, not the regulator itself. They produce the referenced against which the output voltage of the PSU is compared.
I have just seen Michael's post which approaches what I've said in a different manner.
Yes, you hit the nail on the head Brian.
They need a ripple / hum free supply and then provide a reference voltage (like a 400mW zener used in a 2N3055 5A regulated PSU)
Unlike EL34s or EF86 which can be utilised in building a modern amp, these have no use except as replacements in original circuit. Actually my HP141T Analyser had some in a Transistor based regulator for 120V and I replaced the gas regulators with Zeners. They wear out!
Thanks for the replies everybody, perhaps not a good idea to use them then 
If anybody needs one for a spare I have quite a few going spare 
as it seemed a shame for them to be chucked in the skip at the end of the rally.
I will stick to my solid state power supplies and rectifier valves although did build a power supply with a VR105 in which gives a nice glow.
Many Thanks
Luke
They are not that bad! The noise can very easily be filtered out. The guys are correct though they dont handle much current and can blow if over-run BUT they are useful and good comms sets used them in oscillator stages, no harm in playing with them
Hi Trevor,
I will have to have a tinker with them, I have a box of 50 that was going to be slung in the bin at the end of a rally as no one wanted them so I thought it a shame not to try and utilize one or two.
I can remember my first encounter with voltage regulators as the AR88 has one which can glow a fair bit, when I first saw it in there I thought it was a valve gone faulty
Thanks for the encouragement
Many Thanks
Luke
They can make interesting test oscillators from a fraction of a Hz to several kHz. Which can be used in a leakage tester.
With enough of them it's possible to make a counter/clock!
