Stress on the pins is a result of the pins not fitting properly into the
sockets. It has been known to break the glass seal around the pins. Real
tube sockets have floating pins to solve this problem. That's one reason
that they are so tall.
Some people have used connector pin inserts such as the ones used on D
serial connectors. The height of the contact allows it to flex a bit
when installing the tube. However, this is not any shorter than a tube
socket.
Others have used oversized machined-pin socket pins, which have enough
room inside to accommodate some misalignment of the tube pin. The
contacts tend to have a wide diameter acceptance range, so this trick is
feasible. There are hundreds of different socket pins available from
Mill-Max via Digikey and Mouser. They are pricey, but so are IN-18 tubes.
Whatever pins you choose, make sure that the pins are straight when you
install the tubes.
On 6/26/15 10:36 AM, gregebert wrote:
Has anyone had problems, notably cracking around nixie tube pins, using
socket-pins soldered to a PCB, rather than using an actual tube socket ?
I'm doing my pcb design right now, and I'm hoping that I can avoid
pin-stress if I put the socket pins on the tube, then solder in-place. I
will not be physically switching tubes between sockets, though I may
occasionally insert/remove a few times during final assembly.
Actual sockets might be an option, but space is pretty tight.
This clock has fourteen IN-18 tubes, so I want to protect my investment.
--
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/558D9C4A.8090809%40dakotacom.net.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
