On Jan 30, 11:21 am, John Rehwinkel <[email protected]> wrote: <snip> > What I came up with is a little nuts, and probably would do horrible things > to tube life, but I haven't tried it yet. I was thinking of using a circuit > like the General Radio 1538 Strobotac, which has a cute way of building up > charge for its flashtube by running a flyback type converter with a pulse > train, charging up a storage capacitor incrementally until it has the desired > amount of energy (they also claim nearly 100% efficiency, as their device can > operate from batteries as well). This would be an interesting concept for a > multiplexed nixie display: configure the cathode drivers, then dump a packet > of charge into an anode capacitor. If the voltage is high enough, ionization > should be gratifyingly fast. Since the capacitor is small, the total amount > of energy would be limited. However, this would be running a nixie rather > like a flashtube, with brief, high-current pulses. The duty cycle would be > tiny, but the overload would be great. What this would do to tube lifetime, > I don't know. It might be just fine, it might blast the cathode to pieces in > hours. It would also be hard on the cathode drivers, but you can get SCRs in > SOT-23 packages that can withstand 7A repetitive pulses (STM P0102BL, for > example). > - John
Hey! And what about using a HV supply (that would be mostly static) and keep a low ionization current from anode to "glass" like the outgassing testers or plasma balls do ? BTW when I was a kid, my father gor a Strobotac and it was mesmerizing to look at while "stopping dead" a fan, while still kept blowing the air :) Gaston -- 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.
