The clicky sound won't be very loud, but still audible if you use reed relays, and many of these have the added advantage of being low current enough to drive directly off the output pin of a microcontroller (25 mils, or even less). It's a little difficult to find ones rated for 250 or 300 volts; most have contacts rated for 100 volts, but I suspect that they would still work fine in this application.
Here's one that only draws 10 mA, and has the suppression diode built in: http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/prodinfo.asp?number=G18683 Since you'd only have one relay per digit energized at any time, the total current drain for the relays would be 60 mA, or 300 mW. Too much for a wristwatch, but completely reasonable for any plugged in device. I bet the nixie DC-DC converter will draw more. If a bit of noise doesn't bother you, and you *do* have a beefy power supply, you could make one using the digit wheels from a pinball machine. These are mounted on large rotary stepper switches, which draw *amps* while switching, but only for 50 mSec or so. They're pretty loud, though, and if you use these, you might as well just leave the number wheel mounted and have a pinball machine clock - maybe with a nixie remote repeater display... ~~ Mark Moulding -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/ae919114-fa05-4efa-81a9-6d66453bbaf5%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
