> I recently aquired a few Western Electric 6167 dekatrons. I have not > been able to find a schematic drawing for these nor any equipment > where they have been used. > > Does anyone know of any schematic drawings where it is shown how these > dekatrons should be hooked up. I have checked the usual websites but > only found datasheets, photos or videos of them.
These are unidirectional, single pulse dekatrons. This makes them a little easier to drive than some other dekatrons. To just get one pulsing around is easy enough. Hook all the cathodes together (except for the "normal cathode"), and connect the guides together (pins 11 and 14). Hook the anode to a few hundred volts via an appropriate current limiting resistor. You can ignore the auxiliary anode. To figure your current limiting resistor, divide the desired current by the difference between your supply voltage and the maintaining voltage. The minimum supply voltage is 300V, and the maintaining voltage is 110V. The current the tube wants is 100 to 3000 microamps. If you have a 450 volt supply, you could use a 1 megohm current limiting resistor to provide (450 - 110) / 1,000,000 = .00034 amps, or 340 microamps. That would be a reasonable starting value. Then alternately ground the cathodes and the guides, with some overlap. You can do this manually with a pair of switches, or electronically with transistors. The glow should march around the dekatron, taking a step every time you switch between the cathodes and the guides. If you want to do counting and/or calculations, then it gets a little more intricate, and you use the "normal cathode" and auxiliary anode to make sure the glow starts where you want it to, and route one or more cathodes to separate circuits to detect when the glow comes to them. But the above should at least get you started. - John -- 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.
