Hello John,

I put the LED in series like you suggested and it was indeed blinking, so 
re hooked up the Nixie Tube and it started working fine!

Now that I have one Colon going can I drive another Colon of the same 
Transistor? or do I need to use another Transistor?
I guess i'm asking which is the best way to do it.

Cheers Rob.

On Thursday, November 1, 2012 12:05:26 PM UTC+8, randyrob wrote:
>
>
>
> On Thursday, November 1, 2012 11:56:39 AM UTC+8, jrehwin wrote:
>>
>> > I would like to make the Microcontroller flash the colon's in between 
>> the Hour and Minute Numbers. 
>> > (I will be later on using this for Temperature trends - fast flashing 
>> for warming up and slow flahsing for cooling down) 
>> > 
>> > anyway I got some MPSA42's of the 'bay and wired them as following ==> 
>> > 
>> > http://www.halfluck.com/source/nixie/MPSA42.jpg 
>> > 
>> > Then uploaded the simple blink sketch to the Microcontroller. 
>> > 
>> > The issue I'm having is the Colon's just stay lit, they don;t actually 
>> blink. 
>>
>> You may have a weak pull-up enabled on your microcontroller, which leaves 
>> the transistor on enough 
>> to light the colon.  If your microcontroller is an Arduino and you're 
>> using pin 13, the LED on the Arduino 
>> could be pulling your transistor on too. 
>>
>> I'd suggest trying a different I/O pin.  Another thing you can do if you 
>> have an LED lying around is to 
>> replace your 33k resistor with a 1k to 10k resistor and put your LED in 
>> series.  That way, the LED 
>> should light when you're turning the transistor on.  If you see the LED 
>> flashing, that means you're 
>> sending current into the transistor.  If the colon still stays on, try 
>> adding a resistor from the transistor 
>> base to ground to absorb stray current. 
>>
>> Other things you might want to investigate: does the colon stay on if you 
>> power off the microcontroller? 
>> If not, it means your transistor is okay, but your microcontroller isn't 
>> turning that I/O pin off enough. 
>> How about if you disconnect it from the transistor?  If it still stays 
>> on, you may have a bad or misconnected 
>> transistor. 
>>
>> - John 
>>
>
> Hello John,
>
> Fantastic Advice - Many Thanks.
>
> Yes it is an Arduino. I have it on Digital Pin 10 & had 13 Blinking too so 
> I could see what was going on.
> That definitely gives me some ideas to work with. I will try all of your 
> recommendations and report back. 
>
> Cheers Rob.
>
>
>
>  
>

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