I'm not a fan of multiplexing nixies because of the additional current that can lead to shorter lifespan. Multiplexing was common when components for driving tubes were expensive and tubes were plentiful; today it's the opposite. As long as the tubes dont run 24/7, you will probably get a lot of enjoyment from your display. A lot of us use passive IR (PIR) sensors to activate our displays only when someone is there to look at it.
I would use 12mA for 1msec as your starting point, and if it's bright enough, try reducing the current. On Monday, September 11, 2023 at 11:23:20 AM UTC-7 Craig Garnett wrote: > Hi, I'm Craig from the north of England. > > A friend of mine has had a liking for nixies for a while and we've spoke > about building clock kits before. However, he bought 12 x Z570m tubes and > after a (probably drunken) conversation that I wasn't involved in, it was > decided to build a device that displays the distance from Earth of the two > Voyager spacecraft and display it on the nixies. > > So the question was asked, "do you think you could build it?" to which the > obvious answer was "I don't know but I'll have a go" > > A couple of months later we have a working prototype displaying the > distances of both craft in miles and km on multiplexed 12x7 segment leds. > > Next step it to get it working on the nixies, > > I know from the datasheets (google translated from German) that typical > anode current is 2mA and I think that the max multiplexed current is 12mA > for no more than 2mS although I've seen elsewhere that it could be 2mA > averaged over the duty cycle which would be 24mA > > My output routine can do all 12 tubes in 1mS but I can insert microsecond > delays to slow it to whatever works best. > > I'm sure that I'll be back with questions soon. > > Nice to meet you all, > > Craig > -- 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/4446b4d4-04e9-4060-9b55-32f8ff484e28n%40googlegroups.com.
