In fact, it seems the only difference according to the document between the 5031's and 5092's is that the 5092 is "wide angle," I assume that means the digits are packed closer together in the front of the tube, I wonder if that has something to do with the durability?
On Friday, January 6, 2017 at 2:45:49 PM UTC-8, Ben W wrote: > > Thanks for the info! I will keep an eye out for the 5902's. It's > interesting you say the 5031's are not long life—I see them quoted in a > Burroughs document from the time as being designated as "long life" and > tested to have a "dynamic" lifetime of 200,000-500,000 hours. Questionable > estimation from the manufacturer, but certainly not anywhere near the quote > you would expect from a nixie that has no special Penning mixture as you > describe. > > On Friday, January 6, 2017 at 1:15:35 PM UTC-8, gregebert wrote: >> >> > and some round top-view "ultra long life" Burroughs 5031 to try out. >>> >> >> You really want the 5902's, not the 5031's, for long life. These tubes >> are interchangeable, but the 5092 has the long lifetime. My first nixie >> clock design uses six 5092's and from the 4 clocks we built, we've had no >> failures or visible degradation after 5 years (that's over 1 million device >> hours). >> >> I have a few 5031's, and several have deteriorated (partial or no glow on >> certain digits) and multiple attempts to rejuvenate them have accomplished >> nothing. Based on the coloring & behavior, I'm fairly certain the original >> 5031's (orange glow) are neon-only, and the 5092's (orange+violet glow) use >> a mixture (probably modified Penning w/ Ne+Ar+Kr) and Hg. >> > -- 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/8c88a3fb-8470-4a95-801a-c89c18aae9b8%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
