On 5/16/2012 3:10 PM, Matthew wrote:
Adam, good point about the multiplexing - I picked up on the idea of multiplexing the segments somewhere, but I guess it would affect the brightness and it seems simpler to just fire all segments of each digit at a time. As you suggest, I figured it will extend tube life - I don't mind the extra coding for it, but David, you are suggesting direct drive would be better? Is there some penalty from the constant switching?
The advantage of direct drive is that you avoid having to deal with timing issues. Nixie tubes are not very fast, so you have to pay attention to how many microseconds elapse between when you issue the command to turn off the tube via its anode switch, and when the gas stops ionizing, before you may change the cathode signals to that for the next tube.
If you get this wrong, then you start to see ghosts of different characters in the tubes. It can be rather frustrating to eliminate these ghosts, particularly if you don't have an oscilloscope to see what's going on with the signals.
Simply put, your task is simpler if you don't multiplex the tubes. -- David Forbes, Tucson, AZ -- 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.
