Thanks to everyone who responded.It seems that the half wave diode trick is the way to go. Clocks using real nixies of course start instantly when the PIR triggers and you sort of expect that from other clocks too. The CRT is a 7ABP7A and they are not too hard to find. I think I have a spare anyway. I would like to avoid the starting inrush if possible by keeping the heater warm and a quick start is always good..
Totally OT but on that subject, I recently had to replace the lamp in our 30 year old fridge. It would have been pretty cold each time the power was applied and I estimate it withstood about 100,000 switch ons during its life. It will be interesting to see if its replacement is as reliable, if it is I'm unlikely to be around to see it! Cheers, Morris On Monday, August 11, 2014 7:10:36 AM UTC+10, nixiebunny wrote: > > On 8/10/14 2:00 AM, Morris Odell wrote: > > > > I also have a question - among other things the PIR motion detector > > switches the power to the CRT heater. Is it worth dribbling a little bit > of > > current through the heater when it's off so that it heats up faster when > > the PIR senses an observer? If so, how much? The CRT heater draws 300 mA > at > > 6.3 volts when it's working but takes about a minute to get to full > > emission. Will preheating it like that shorten its life significantly? > > > > Any opinions much appreciated, > > > > Thanks, Morris > > Morris, > > Most television sets made in the 1970s used a half-wave rectified > version of the 6.3VAC, applied to the heater continuously, for instant > start. I assume that they did enough study of the idea to ensure a > minimum of expensive warranty repairs. > > > -- > David Forbes, Tucson AZ > > -- 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/752aa237-f080-4651-b1be-0e4cb908ce7f%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
