On Mon, Jan 23, 2017 at 8:47 PM, Paul Andrews <[email protected]> wrote:
Hi Paul. > Is your tester anything like this one > <http://www.decadecounter.com/vta/articleview.php?item=109>? I would love > to make one, though that isn't what I was asking about! > I made one of those out of a laptop CFL driver circuit. It's handy to carry around, but as Ira pointed out, it only tells if the tube is outgassed. When I acquired my first Nixies two years ago I bought a Nixie PSU kit (from Lumos, excellent if you're in Europe). Since then it has been repurposed as the HV PSU for my first project. So, unless you want to keep your tubes in their boxes, I think a ready made circuit is well worth the investment. I am currently playing with a booster circuit that uses PWM from an ATmega/Arduino processor and I am facing stability issues in the generated voltage: too high without load, too much "fall" under 1mA load. It behaves like a voltage generator with a high internal resistance :-) I think these circuits do need a true real-time control through a feedback loop (I am using Ian Sp.'s code and circuit, but he managed it right). I came up with two workarounds I am trying before implementing an all-software solution: throw in a 180V zener or keep the booster constantly under load so that the voltage won't go too high. Or maybe some HV wizard in the group will now guide me in the right direction. ;-) I could buy another PSU kit indeed, but for a single-nixie device it's an overkill and takes space. Paolo -- 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/CABj2VaZKqdHxYK6jX0zgF-N9FWZp7WJGqy9m6yKB%3D1ikpOj0Sw%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
