I tried this back when building my NE-2 ring-counter based clock, and there it didn't work. The red neon light simply didn't help the striking process, in contrast to blue light. Note that we're talking about two totally different processes here. The light emitted by the neon gas has a wavelength (colour) determined by the physical properties of the neon atoms, while the light needed to help the striking process must have photons with sufficiently high energy (sufficiently blue colour) to kick an electron loose from the electrodes, which depends on the physical properties of the electrode material.
Regards, Pieter-Tjerk On Sunday, May 2, 2021 at 2:09:23 PM UTC+2 Dekatron42 wrote: > Have you made any experiments with putting them closer to each other so > that the one that is lit always shines on the next one in turn to light up > - this would need an extra tube at the first position connected to the last > tube so that it would trigger at the same time and so that there would be > some glow on the first tube when the last one is lit, or you'll have to put > them in a proper circle so that there is always glow falling on the next > tube in turn. > > /Martin > > On Sunday, 2 May 2021 at 13:59:44 UTC+2 Mike Mitchell wrote: > >> I've built two clocks out of the MTX-90 tubes, following Pieter-Tjerk de >> Boer's schematic. The longest I've gotten one to run is about a week, at >> which point I have to change out tubes. The clock runs fine in the >> daylight but some random tube will stop firing in the dark. I'm thinking >> about sprinkling some blue or green "neon" tubes throughout the clock just >> to provide some extra photons. Something like these: >> https://www.amazon.com/Othmro-Pieces-6x16mm-Bright-Indicator/dp/B07WFNSKSM/ >> I do have some near-UV LEDs (400nm) but the clock is line powered and I >> don't really have space for a buck converter. I hate to drop nearly 300 >> volts across a resistor just to light a string of LEDs. >> >> Does anyone have any other ideas? >> >> Thanks! >> Mike >> >> >> >> On Thursday, December 31, 2020 at 8:21:16 AM UTC-5 Pieter-Tjerk de Boer >> wrote: >> >>> Yes, at first I tried to use them as proper trigger tubes, in multiple >>> ways, but I couldn't find or come up with a circuit that worked reliably >>> over a range of supply voltages (which is also an indication for how robust >>> the circuit is for variations of the tube properties). So I went back to >>> the neon tube counter circuit, and found that to work more robustly, thanks >>> to the very large difference between striking and maintaining voltage of >>> these tubes. Somehow, this seems "wrong", >>> as the trigger electrodes are there precisely to make this kind of >>> circuits easier, but... >>> >>> Regards, >>> Pieter-Tjerk >>> >>> On Thursday, December 31, 2020 at 12:00:07 PM UTC+1 Dekatron42 wrote: >>> >>>> Really nice! >>>> >>>> Thanks for sharing the circuit diagram! >>>> >>>> Did you try to use them as proper trigger tubes and not just as neon >>>> tubes? >>>> >>>> /Martin >>>> >>>> On Thursday, 24 December 2020 at 19:13:10 UTC+1 Pieter-Tjerk de Boer >>>> wrote: >>>> >>>>> >>>>> I recently completed a nixie clock without any transistors, >>>>> microcontrollers or other ICs, instead using trigger tubes to implement >>>>> the >>>>> digital counters: >>>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3PBJUcKeoo >>>>> >>>>> Actually, I'm not even using the 'trigger' function of these tubes, >>>>> they are just used as neon lamps with a large difference between strike >>>>> and >>>>> maintaining voltage. It's this difference which allows one to build >>>>> counters with them. I'll publish a more detailed description on my >>>>> website >>>>> later on. >>>>> >>>>> Some may know that I built a similar clock over ten years ago: >>>>> http://pa3fwm.nl/projects/neonclock/ >>>>> That clock used regular NE-2 style neon lamps for the logic; >>>>> unfortunately it became unreliable, as the lamps' properties changed with >>>>> time. I hope the new clock will turn out to be more reliable... >>>>> >>>>> Regards, >>>>> Pieter-Tjerk >>>>> >>>>> -- 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/487c413f-df1a-4a94-9401-1bc3d3536f13n%40googlegroups.com.
