Hi Shane, The IV-17 is a VFD (Vacuum Fluorescent Display). It is not a Nixie. Don't put 180v+ through any part of it! :D If there is a way to search through the old group archives, you will find many a beautiful and florid prose about how to drive VFD's. Here's the 5cent version: 2 of those pins are for the Filament. You will want to run 2.4v between these pins. Ideally AC, but DC is ok on tubes this small (there will be some brightness gradient, but not that noticeable). There is another special pin, the "Grid" pin. VFD's are triodes, so you will need to apply 25-30vdc (direct) or 50-70v (multiplexed/pulsed) in order for the tube to turn "on". The rest of the pins will be for segments. You have a 16 segment tube, you will find that if you apply the same voltage as for the grid onto a segment, it will light. Tada, you have now lit up your VFD. My favorite IC for driving them is the MAX6921, MAXIM-IC will happily send you a tube of them as samples. Sadly, there is no DIP package for that IC, but you can get SOIC breakout boards from sparkfun or wherever. Alternately, there are DIP sockets for TQFP package. Attached is a link to the VFD clock project I designed a while back (with bits cribbed from many giants). http://www.jacobstribe.org/files/6-digit-VFD.zip
-Adam On Thu, Oct 7, 2010 at 9:23 PM, Shane Ellis <[email protected]> wrote: > So I bought a dozen IV-17 tubes from ebay, and was wondering: How the > heck do you use there!? There must be 17 pins on these, how does one > connect, and operate one of these. Can anyone recommend a good clock, > or schematic or resource to use and learn about these tubes. I'd hate > to run 180v+ through these if they take 9V+! > > Thanks > Shane > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "neonixie-l" group. > To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]<neonixie-l%[email protected]> > . > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/neonixie-l?hl=en-GB. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/neonixie-l?hl=en-GB.
