So I have a vibrator… power supply

[DrGonz78]

So I havre been rummaging through the electronics war zone known as my garage. I came across this ac delco 7265604 vibrator power transformer. It’s gotta be from late 40’s and I understand it probably came from a farmer’s radio that used batteries or car tube radios. But I must admit my understanding of what I am holding is not as good. So 12vdc at the primary transforms to 250v @ 50ma. So I see vibrator condensers or something but what is this transformer? Does it vibrate a reed inside to conduct?

[The Dude]

I started to write a description. It's a rather complicated and hard to describe thing, IMO. So, I thought, "surely, someone must have written this down already".

https://www.radioremembered.org/vpwrsup.htm

[DrGonz78]

Yeah I started to post here then I went and read that page a bit. It didn’t explain the power transformer itself and is more about entire circuit. My feeling is that there is something between the transformer cores that rectifies the voltage and steps it up. But then I see all these different pictures online and look at the circuit. They draw the actual vibrator part on the schematic as if it is not in the transformer. I almost want to apply power to it but I should understand it better.

[DrGonz78]

[The Dude]

The circuit is basically a primitive DC to DC converter. They were used lots in tube car radios.

[DrGonz78]

It seems some are rectifying with 6X4 tubes while mine is like a synchronous vibrator power supply. On this one I think the synchronous schematic example is what I have here. It shows a core winding with the vibrator part as part of T1. When I first looked at it I was confused. But interesting to see a transformer that passes DC current and steps it up. The HV output has a chance of flipping negative but that didn’t cause a problem on a farm radio but a car radio? I guess I was surprised to find a tranny that had a vibrator in a box in my garage. Maybe that didn’t sound right to most folks.

[The Dude]

......I guess I was surprised to find a tranny that had a vibrator in a box in my garage. Maybe that didn’t sound right to most folks.

..

[Helmholtz]

It's actually a SMPS.
More exactly a switching half-bridge step-up converter.
Today we would replace the switches by transistors driven by HF, which allows to use a much smaller HF transformer.

[35L6]

Now you can build a vacuum tube busker amp with normal batteries !