science

Turret board

Turret board is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Turret board rather than just read about it. In short: In electronics, turret boards were an early attempt at making circuits that were relatively rugged, producible, and serviceable in the days before printed circuit boards (PCBs). As this method was somewhat more expensive than conventional "point-to-point" wiring techniques, it was generally found in the more expensive components, such as professional, commercial, and military audio and test equipment.

Key takeaways

Turret board belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Turret board to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Turret board from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

In electronics, turret boards were an early attempt at making circuits that were relatively rugged, producible, and serviceable in the days before printed circuit boards (PCBs). As this method was somewhat more expensive than conventional "point-to-point" wiring techniques, it was generally found in the more expensive components, such as professional, commercial, and military audio and test equipment. This is similar to cordwood construction. Turret boards consist of a thin (generally 1/8 inch) piece of insulating material drilled in pattern to match the electronic layout of a set of components. Each hole drilled will have a metal post (the turret) positioned in it. Electronic components are suspended between these turrets and soldered to them to create a complete circuit layout. Most of the military electronics used in WWII made use of this construction method, and Altec professional gear of similar vintage has the same construction. However, the underside of some turret boards, such as a consumer Zenith 1A10 console radio, circa 1940, consists of an array of electronics components that are simply suspended, rather than tethered or soldered down, and thus could move unexpectedly. Such construction methods tended to keep the neighborhood radio repairman in work. In general, however, the use of turrets and turret boards dramatically improved reliability and serviceability. Turret boards additionally allowed some degree of "engineered" construction. That is, an engineer could design a turret board with listed component interconnects such that it could be assembled by someone skilled in component recognition and soldering. A schematic was unnecessary for assembly. Until reliable high-temperature printed circuit boards were developed, turret board construction was considered the best available technology. Currently, the use of turret boards is limited to hand-wired vacuum tube electronics (be it commercial or hobby), often as an attempt to replicate a classic design or design approach. Popular DIY components utilizing this approach include reproduction vintage guitar amplifiers and certain professional studio components from the 1960s, such as the classic and still widely used Teletronix LA2A tube compressor. In general, however, due to the expense and time-consuming nature of turret board construction methods, experimental or test-stage electronics projects generally make use of one of the many types of perfboard available, while final circuits—both hobby and commercial—use printed circuit boards.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Turret board

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Turret board claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Turret board before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Turret board ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Turret board

In research: Turret board appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Turret board in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Turret board is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Electronic design, Electronics manufacturing, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Turret board outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Turret board in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Turret board means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Turret board out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Turret board in simple terms?

Why does Turret board matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Turret board?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Turret board.