I had a radio (can't remember the type,) that had a small neon bulb under the chassis ...and NE2 perhaps. I think it was used as a cheap and dirty voltage reference . The thing was, when the chassis was flat on the bench in operating position, the bulb would never fire. When I tipped it on its edge and the bench light shined brightly on the undersides, it would fire fine as apparently the bench light induced just enough additional excitation to allow it to light.
It took a while to figure that out. John On Thursday, November 30, 2023 at 10:28:27 AM UTC-5 Tidak Ada wrote: > Why not a trial with UV-LED’s 365 nm is a useful wavelength and you don’t > need to use then at full power. > > You can use them in a pulsed mode only during refresh of the display to > avoid too much O3 production. Iyt is not as hazardous as the use of > ß-radiating isotopes as used in rigger tubes. > > > > eric > > > > *Van:* [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] *Namens > *Jon > *Verzonden:* donderdag 30 november 2023 9:25 > *Aan:* neonixie-l > *Onderwerp:* [neonixie-l] Re: Helping Nixie Tubes Fire in a Darkened Room > > > > I think the best approach would be to increase the HV. If you look at the > discussions of glow physics in Weston or Acton for example, the lag in > striking a glow from dark (which is what we're talking about here) is > reduced by using an anode voltage materially above the threshold striking > voltage. Overdrive is a matter of tube current rather than anode voltage > per se, so a simple compensatory tweak to the current-limiting resistor > value will get you back to the same tube current as now. The cost of the > change will be a little extra power dissipated in the current-limiting > resistors, but that should be immaterial in most circumstances. > > > > Jon. > > On Thursday, November 30, 2023 at 3:27:11 AM UTC gregebert wrote: > > UV light source, such as from an LED ? > > On Wednesday, November 29, 2023 at 6:43:48 PM UTC-8 Jeff Walton wrote: > > I've recently come across a situation where I have some tubes in a clock > that are being directly driven and are having trouble starting when the > room is darkened but light right up when a room light is turned on. These > particular tubes were probably intended for use in a calculator. They are > seven segment neon MG-17G tubes. Once the tubes have any of the segments > lit, there is really no issue with the performance. It's when the tubes go > completely dark if a space is used while scrolling a message or lighting a > dash on and off to emulate a colon. I'm wondering if others have found any > particular tricks to help convince tubes to light up. There is no > "baselighting" and the HV is ~172v. I'm considering increasing the HV by > 10-15v but don't want to over drive the tubes. Short of putting a > radioactive source in the vicinity, are there other things that anyone has > had any luck with? > > > > Jeff > > -- > 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/ee14735e-1e40-4c6b-a815-77e670e1c89cn%40googlegroups.com > > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/ee14735e-1e40-4c6b-a815-77e670e1c89cn%40googlegroups.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/6d377880-35da-4c7c-bdd7-4a6c8f3ead96n%40googlegroups.com.
