Recently I got hold of a nixie tube without an anode mesh, and thought it would be of your interest. This tube, as seen in attached photos, completely lacks anode mesh in front of digits. Instead it has an unusual, oblong, oval shaped anode *between* cathodes, plus an upside-down 8 at about middle of the cathode stack (which I think is more common as an auxiliary anode). Since the anode is between cathodes, the frontmost digit 3 looks *very* clean when lit.
The type is JRC 4806. Quick googling did not yield any data or specs of this tube, but it looks like it is just one of many B-5991 compatible tubes. I bought 6 of the same type but only one of them has this mesh-less configuration. Others have usual meshes that are similar to the ones B-5991 and 8422 tubes have. Also, digits in this tube have different shapes than the other tubes. I guess this is very old variant of this type of tubes. I personally think this mesh-less configuration is better in terms of visibility of digits, but in reality almost all nixie tubes have anode meshes. I suppose this fact suggests that anode meshes have some advantages over mesh-less configurations. Can any of you suggest what the advantage would be? My twitter friend says anode meshes may give some stability when tubes are multiplexed. I'll give it a try, but I think there should be another reason(s) to describe why mesh-less is so uncommon. Any other thoughts? ko <https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-6qTu1lZnQk8/WJ6Ou3k21DI/AAAAAAAAABU/sBx1or7gcFYcfvJ09YfuKu1ewRtoChRswCLcB/s1600/IMG_0017a.jpg> <https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-NzLMwZm5_ck/WJ6O23kyViI/AAAAAAAAABY/mip5TqBvlBQ3Zpea_nFb03Y9u3XEa7tsgCLcB/s1600/IMG_0017e.jpg> <https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-YUNuHuJYFXc/WJ6O9q6WyxI/AAAAAAAAABc/SmbtW5mVRoUsmpbYLpAZkdJrs71XXN7_QCLcB/s1600/IMG_0019a.jpg> -- 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/7d49b2a3-45dc-4950-96b6-84c4f7346df9%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
