Hi
Consider using a capacitive dropper if you have AC easily available.
My first ring clock used XC18 tubes which were originally radioactive
doped. It failed overnight if left in the dark but ran ok if lit. The
second clock uses Z700U which have a priming electrode and that runs in
the dark. I have found that some tubes are initially out of spec but
come in to spec when run for a while. Some tube drift out of spec and
the rings can then fail. I think some ageing and measurements is a
worthwhile step ahead of soldering them in.
Well done to you both for an interesting ring clock.
Grahame
On 02/05/2021 12:59, 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
<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/
<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
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