Out of interest http://vintagecalculators.com/html/calculator_displays.html#VFD explains the origin of these tubes with unusually shaped digits: "In June 1967 the journal "Electronics" reported that Japanese calculator manufacturers were battling the high royalties that Burroughs Corporation was asking when they produced copies of its Nixie tubes <http://vintagecalculators.com/html/calculator_displays.html#Ref1>. This resulted in Vacuum Fluorescent Displays (VFDs) being developed in Japan jointly by Hayakawa (Sharp) and the Ise Electronics Co. These "Digitron" tubes were used first in the Sharp *Compet CS-16A* calculator, launched at the end of 1967.
The half-height zeros make the display more readable when the calculator does not have leading-zero suppression." "Electronics" journal explained: *"For the desk calculator, the digit patterns of the tubes were redesigned for better readability. The "0", for example, has only half the height of other digits. That way, the string of "0's" before the first significant number in the display is no longer a nuisance and there's no need to blank them out."* Hayakawa (later changing its name to Sharp) were OEM for a number of companies including Facit, as in the first eBay listing. Leading-zero suppression in calculators was soon implemented and Sharp used VFD tubes with the standard design of characters from the early 1970s. On Thursday, April 23, 2020 at 8:19:05 PM UTC+1, DaveE wrote: > > That’s very weird! He must think if he gives the illusion of value it’ll > be worth it. > > I’ve been watching out for things like this for ages and out of nowhere > there are actually another 2 opportunities to buy calculators with these > types of very unusual vfd tubes: > > https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/114134477686 > https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/114142691885 > > I would go for one of these but when I checked I found I had plenty of > DG12B tubes I’d had to get from Japan for quite a lot more once shipping > and customs got involved :( > > On Thu, 23 Apr 2020 at 20:12, Michail Wilson <[email protected] > <javascript:>> wrote: > >> It didn’t sell for 99eu + shipping. >> >> So, he relisted it for 156eu + shipping. >> >> >> >> What am I missing? >> >> >> >> Michail Wilson >> >> 206-920-6312 >> >> >> >> *From:* [email protected] <javascript:> < >> [email protected] <javascript:>> *On Behalf Of *David Eustace >> *Sent:* Friday, April 17, 2020 8:10 AM >> *To:* [email protected] <javascript:> >> *Subject:* [neonixie-l] Nice purchase for anyone interested in unusual >> single digit vfd tunes >> >> >> >> https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/283849766507 >> >> >> >> (Not my sale, just came up on one of my alerts) >> >> -- >> 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] <javascript:>. >> To view this discussion on the web, visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/CALY4pG34j_tz5bYMvdEVJmCW4BNfZafT3UDb4xPqND8DqcYaLg%40mail.gmail.com >> >> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/CALY4pG34j_tz5bYMvdEVJmCW4BNfZafT3UDb4xPqND8DqcYaLg%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >> . >> >> -- >> 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] <javascript:>. >> To view this discussion on the web, visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/BL0PR01MB4337AEAD3EA31073FF2C980182D30%40BL0PR01MB4337.prod.exchangelabs.com >> >> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/BL0PR01MB4337AEAD3EA31073FF2C980182D30%40BL0PR01MB4337.prod.exchangelabs.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >> . >> > -- 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 view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/bbc6b883-e529-4cb1-afda-d8b2dda14509%40googlegroups.com.
