The HV5530 is an open-drain (aka, open-collector) device, meaning that it can only pull it's output low. The voltage rating of 300V means that you can apply up to 300V at the output pin, and when that pin is off/disabled, the maximum current that goes into the pin is the spec'd leakage current, which is 10uA.
The way you would use it is to tie the anode lead thru a suitable resistor to the anode supply, which should be > 180V. The higher the anode voltage, the less-variation in tube-current due to aging and tube-to-tube variation effects. The downside is that at higher voltages you will waste more energy, as heat of course. Alternatively, you can design a simple PMOS-based current-regulator which allows you to run at a lower anode voltage (saves energy), and maintain constant current. I use this approach wherever possible on my designs. Each cathode is tied to an individual output pin of the HV5530; if you tie the POL & BL pins high, a cathode will be energized when the corresponding shift-register bit is a '1'. If you are making a PCB board, I recommend layout out the board to eliminate signal crossovers, and use software to re-arrange the bits. There's no reason why bit0 needs to drive a '0' cathode, etc. The HV5530 will not 'send out' 300V; there are other devices that have totem-pole (push-pull) outputs and they will drive high as well as low. Lastly, be careful with timing on this device. Make sure you fully understand setup & hold requirements, and the control pins. There have been a few postings in this forum with problems that were encountered, and I'm certain they were the result of misinterpreting the datasheet. -- 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/947f71d8-5140-498d-9f02-fcdca2f8a2fc%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
