On 5/9/12 5:13 PM, Terry Kennedy wrote:
I've collected a number of one-of-a-kind Russian VFD panels,
constructed with laminated-glass technology similar to the UDT-3. I'd
like to try to light some of them up and eventually turn them into
conversation pieces.
First question is the filament. The active display area is around 4" x
3.5", with multiple parallel filament wires running down the long
axis. I don't want to over-drive the filament and burn out the
display. Also, am I going to have a brightness gradient across the
display if I drive the filament with DC?
Each of the actual elements that lights up is typically quite small -
there's probably 70 or more individual elements in there. Most are the
normal blue-green VFD color, though there are some pure green ones and
even a few red ones.
The only picture I have of the display being lit just shows the
filament pins connected to an out-of-picture power supply, and all of
the elements and the grid tied to each other with a strip of foil.
Start low and turn it up until it looks good.
You could do some comparison with a known VFD of similar size, to get in
the ballpark. The anode voltage should be a function of the
inter-electrode spacing, i.e. the thickness of the insides.
A filament resistance measurement will help figure out a starting point.
If you get the filament too hot and it glows a little orange for a short
time, you won't hurt it.
--
David Forbes, Tucson AZ
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