Hello, I am new to the forum. I am currently working on a Carillon, about 50 years old that was given to me by a church. I managed to get the roll player and the upper two octave bells working on 12V, the output is magnetic like a guitar. There is also a "harp" and "flemish" instrument that uses what looks like metal strips in glass tubes surrounded by a coil in parallel to a resistor. The tubes have one leg in common, as do the coils (see picture.) Unfortunately there are components missing between the note elements and the audio input to the pre-amplifier. My best guess is that the tubes are part of an oscillator that is missing, with the coil as the pickup element.

Also the lower two octaves are in stand alone cabinets and all the wires were cut so I am so far unable to trace the connections. I found the audio output of the bells and the solenoids which seem to be wired the same as the upper octave, and got the solenoids to "click" by applying 12V, but no tone to the speakers. I used my stereo PA system. There is a vacuum tube amplifier in one of the two cabinets (one for octave 2 and 3) but again, since the wires were cut I have no way of tracing the circuits. The amp uses 6592 and 93 tubes, still looking for the rectifier.... if anyone has any information on this I would really appreciate it, I was already informed by a representative of the company that they would not have any information on anything this old. Anyway I can return the favor please let me know, I used to be an electronics technician in communications equipment. Thanks in advance.

 

Hello,

As no brand or type is given, I can offer you this query:
carillon circuits vintage schematic

Bertus

 

Hello,

As no brand or type is given, I can offer you this query:
carillon circuits vintage schematic

Bertus

Thanks. I was able to find a site that had manuals, for a fee, but there was no guarantee it would have been the right one.

 

The carillon is an old Schurlmerich.

 

http://www.antiqueradios.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=217889

There is concrete data in there.

 

http://www.antiqueradios.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=217889

There is concrete data in there.

Thanks for the info. The amps in the other posts are apparently older, mine uses 6593 and 3 tubes. There are what look like power leads coming in, black green and white, and they go to fuses but only connect to what reads as a 500 ohm power resistor. There is a transformer that delivers 6V to the filaments, the only other wires lead off to what was probably the main cabinet where there are more power transformers... This may make an interesting thread in "projects" maybe, at any rate it's a mystery...

Right now my main interest is in getting the larger "bells" to chime. The ground return to the pick up seems to be missing.

 

here is a photo of the front of the main carillon

 

As Don Lancaster suggested always about a new subject, I would conduct an "aggressive search" (his words thinking of a library) through the Web. Have you?

Even in the church, maybe an (now old) altar boy (are they RC?) could say something helping you to trace valid info.

Where in heaven (or Earth ) is that church located? Any old priest (or is it minister?) in charge, that would like to dig in a bunch of dusty documents? Who knows... Is it Belgium or France?

You say "bells". What are they, actually? Not a brass thing, I understand. If so, not a carrillon, strictly speaking.

Edit: to add link /Edit

 

As Don Lancaster suggested always about a new subject, I would conduct an "aggressive search" (his words thinking of a library) through the Web. Have you?

Even in the church, maybe an (now old) altar boy (are they RC?) could say something helping you to trace valid info.

Where in heaven (or Earth ) is that church located? Any old priest (or is it minister?) in charge, that would like to dig in a bunch of dusty documents? Who knows... Is it Belgium or France?

You say "bells". What are they, actually? Not a brass thing, I understand. If so, not a carrillon, strictly speaking.

Edit: to add link /Edit

The first thing I did was ask my pastor if he knew anyone, all he said was they don't bother any more because you can't get parts for them. I also talked to the person who got me the carillon, he said I'm the only one he knows who is interested in that. Also the documentation that came with the unit originally had gone missing, much to my disappointment. My friend has a a slightly newer carillon, which is microprocessor controlled, and has the docs, and supposedly still works, we're hoping to get that up and running some day when he has time. It uses what looks like an 8 track tape cartridge to play programs. I remember Don Lancaster, years ago I got a reply from him to a technical question. I'm in Lima Ohio, USA, I think Carillon bells originated in Belgium. Here is a pic of the upper two octave "bells" you can see they are metal rods that are struck by solenoid. These I managed to play.

 

How do you get two octaves from only 13 'bells' ?

 

How do you get two octaves from only 13 'bells' ?

Each "bell" has two solenoids, so each can produce the same note on both octaves, except the last bell only has one. So the notes are G3 through G5.