For direct-drive of true nixies (non-segmented), I'm really happy with the design of my last clock. The cathodes are driven by a HV5532, and the anode has an adjustable current-regulator. Having the HV driver and the deserializer+latch in a single device is really handy. The only drawback to this device is that it's spec'd to run at 12V, so a level shifter is needed.
I have 2 different clocks using cathode-current regulation and I'm not seeing any problems with the circuit. My first nixie clocks use unregulated drivers, but the anode supply is rather high (+340V) so variations in the tube's voltage-drop over it's lifetime have minimal impact on the current. That approach wastes a lot of energy (about 330mW per tube * 6 tubes/clock * 4 clocks running 24/7 =70KwHr per year....), which is why I switched to current-regulators and lowered the anode supply to around 190V. I hate to think how many kilowatt hours each year are wasted running my 6 nixie clocks; that adds up to 53 tubes..... -- 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/7138d2a0-3651-401a-80ca-7773a4be85db%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
