Double-check the datasheet; maybe you're connecting the wrong pins ? See http://www.tube-tester.com/sites/nixie/data/B-5094/b-5094.htm
How much voltage are you applying ? If it's too low, some cathodes wont fire. 150V-170V is usually enough, but a used tube may need more. As long as you limit the current to a safe value (0.8mA for the 5094), you can apply higher voltage to a tube to fire it. As an example, my first nixie clock uses 340V for the anode supply, even though the tubes only require about 150V to run. If you have a 300V supply, you can take a guess at a safe series-resistor. Just assume the tube needs 150V to fire. That means you need to select a series resistor that will drop (300V supply-150V tube) at 0.8mA. By ohms law, your resistor will be 150/0.0008 = 187K. The exact value isn't critical, so 180K to 200K should be fine. You can use other supply voltages and calculate the series resistor accordingly. Fortunately, the current is quite low so 1/2watt resistors will work fine. If you're fortunate enough to have a current-limited supply, just set the current to 0.8mA and crank-up the voltage. -- 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/27864054-ed34-4a3d-9724-b8b296538307%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
