Thanks everyone! I will go ahead and try measuring the voltage Sent from my iPhone
> On Mar 3, 2014, at 5:14 AM, NoCampersFluffy <[email protected]> wrote: > > Spencer. > As per Jon's post - there is a little arrow at the bottom of the glass > envelope that helps to determine the polarity of he IN-3s. Arrow points to > the cathode. Details are on the data sheet (in rRussian) on Dieters web site > as to which is cathode and which is the anode. > > Did you measure the strike and maintain voltages of the IN-3? I've found > wide variations in strike and maintain voltages even within the same box of > 100 tubes. Typical operation in the data sheet is 0.8ma with a low of 0.2ma > and a high of 1ma. If your IN-3s maintaining voltage is at spec (55v), then > by my maths you are dropping 125v over the 220k anode resister which is a > 0.5ma current. This is within tolerances but on the low side. > > I have tubes that have maintaining voltages as low as 36v and some other are > as high as 70v. If you run the math you will find that you can lower the > anode resister to 180K, and even lower for tubes with higher maintaining > voltages (probably best not to go below 150K!). I try and run all of my IN-3s > as close to the 0.8ma spec as possible - but this is for consistency in a > ring circuit where I am also trying to get all of the tubes strike/maintain > voltages aligned. Note even at 0.9 to 1ma I still got flicker and coverage > variations in some tubes, but higher current did help with getting full > plasma coverage. > > My own experience is that some IN-3s flicker and the plasma can even form at > the back rather than the front of the tube before returning to the front > again. I have also had bulbs where the plasma forms on the wire lead at the > bottom of the tube. In some applications the flickering is endearing, it > others, such as ring circuits its down right annoying negating the circuit. > Like John S, I've also aged my IN-3s and it does not seem to make much > difference - there are always some that just want to flicker. If you age the > IN-3s then after a couple of hours these "flickering" ones will become > visible to you. Having said this I have aged IN-3 with a couple hundred > hours of ring circuit use that decided to flicker and become unreliable - go > figure. From what I have observed, increasing the strike voltage or (minor) > current changes has no impact, but higher current do get better glow > coverage. There also appears to be no correlation when it comes to flicker > between the strike and maintaining voltage differences between tubes. Having > said this beware of tubes which have a high strike and maintain voltages as > from examination I often found these to have some visible internal physical > variation to a "normal" IN-3 and of course they were no good for a ring > circuit. From aging several hundreds of these IN-3s and building 2 > ring-counter clocks, to me it just looks like there are differences in the > manufacture between tubes. IN-3s look to have wide tolerances between and > within the same box. Ive discarded 80% of some boxes and less than 10% of > others due to variations in performance - but again this is for ring circuits. > > In your application you are using the IN-3 as a colon separator. If it > worries you replace it. If not you can call it an extra feature. One of my > fellow workmates really likes the flickering of one lock I have at work, > which takes the form of the plasma pulsing, she says it has personality. > >> On Sunday, 2 March 2014 00:17:46 UTC+11, Spencer wrote: >> Hello All! >> >> I bought these for the nixie clocks, http://www.ebay.com/itm/251373901401, >> and they will work for a bit then start flickering all over in the tube, and >> lighting up in odd places and not where it should be lighting up! >> >> An example can be found at, http://imgur.com/O32rVBi . Only the left side is >> light up, the little light has a mind of its own and has traveled to the >> back of the tube. >> >> I am feeding the little guy +180V and the anode resistor is 220K. I am not >> sure if its too much current or what not. Several have done this to me. >> >> Suggestions? >> >> Thanks! > > -- > 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 email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web, visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/62f4a52a-b22a-466e-b3ad-fca353d6100a%40googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. -- 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/F41F88BE-484A-47F6-B184-4778C0957A40%40yahoo.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
