On Jul 8, 2:34 pm, xdugef <[email protected]> wrote: > I had an idea the other day which may not be possible because of the > heat involved in the making of a nixie or because of the conditions > inside the tube once it's filled with gas but it were possible to > include an ic inside the tube then you would beable to reduce the > number external connections. >
There are chip-on-glass VFD displays that are built like that. Fabricating a custom IC die, bonding it and building it inside a vacuum tube would be an order of magnitude more difficult to do in on a small scale than just passing through a bunch of wires though. I think a large holdup here is worrying too much about exactly duplicating existing tube designs. David has a good point with the B5870, it's a simple tube that was optimized to be manufactured in huge numbers by automated machinery. There is no reason you need to have an array of heavy socket pins sealed directly into the glass. Even some larger Nixie tubes were built with small wire leads. An inline pinch seal would be the easiest, but one could probably cast and anneal a glass biscuit with a circle of dumet wire leads through it. I have a dental kiln that might do the job if I had inert gas to keep the wire from oxidizing. Mercury-free tubes are possible, they have shorter lifespans but not all Nixies were made with mercury. You can get neon sign electrodes that have a small mercury capsule in them, so somebody must make these, or a tiny drop of mercury could be added during the pumping stage as is done traditionally with argon/mercury "neon". I'm not convinced that laser cutting the digits is out of the question either. I don't know anyone with a laser cutter but I'd be curious to try. -- 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.
