@richnormand , interesting re the little storage box, I have seen some photos with a lid in that area and wondered (till now). Would be useful. There do seem to be a lot of variances in these units, e.g. varied HV diodes can be either silicon or tubes, the LV rectifiers - at least two different versions.
If you could measure your power consumption it would be interesting.
Later today I will fire mine up and put up the true power, VA etc.
When having a good look at the unit, measuring the DC power consumption, (by measuring voltages across the current limiting resistors on the "low voltage" 150-500v supplies) the consumption figures look ok. i wondered whether it is due to the issue that I am running at 235v and I think it was really made to run at 115v.
I have run it as long as an hour without trouble - so i am reasonably happy things are 'ok' - it is an old unit so things will pop up from time to time.
I have a bit of old gear and on the first of the month I try to switch on all my gear for 10-15mins (not all at the same time), my postulate is that might keep ageing electrolytics a little happier for longer and also if something doesn't work, I find out before I need to use it.
Re next project, is either
1 An HP 5221 with one dead digit (MSD), real problem is the nixes in them are really hard to find, but i am not sure it is the nixie or the driving circuit yet.
2 My 5245L, if I recall the plug in was a bit dodgy and I have ordered an "AS IS" 5261 plug in, so I might have a bit more of a go at the 5245L and its plug ins.
I am seriously running out of room so have to be careful with purchases!
I have to tell a funny story, while showing my completed 545 to my 19yo daughter, she went out to my 'shack' rolling her eyes as only a 19yo can, when she switched it on, and as the tubes started to glow etc , she actually said 'wow that's cool' . She would deny it now, but for a second or two she was interested. My 12yo just said "are you going to sell it?"
Regards Rob