As a matter of personal taste. I like to have a generous margin on BVceo, like always larger than Vcc. To me, anything else is penny wise and pound foolish, especially in hobby quantities. I always use transistors rated at 300V even if my Vcc is less than 200V.
Gregenert is probably right about amplified leakage, but another possibility is that you have avalanche breakdown of the CB junction in the driver transistor. Given the nonlinear IV of neon, this might mean that your lamps are off when you first apply power, but it will not turn off on command. -- 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/d8b249ea-1813-45a3-afff-4926d7cb3ebb%40googlegroups.com.
