Ever since I got a clearly marked 5031 nixie, I assumed the others with the same shape with no visible marking were also 5031's but there apparently are other numbers such as 6844 and HB-106.
I too have several dead ones, and I often wondered if they had been circulating in Ebay-land as untested devices. I knew the risk when I bought them. I have tried to rehab them, with zero success. The ones that are dark cant be coaxed to glow even at 500 volts; others have partially-glowing cathodes or glowing only on the bondwires. As best I can tell, the gas is compromised. I suspect that since these were early-production devices the glass-to-metal seal was not nearly as good as later devices. A few have darkened interiors, which is probably sputtered material due to a lack of mercury; of those, some still have a slight orange glow. In hindsight, I should have tried zapping them in a discarded microwave oven I found last week, just to see if anything is in there. BTW, there were a few things I scrapped from the microwave, but I made sure the deadly MOT was recycled. On Friday, April 5, 2024 at 9:31:49 PM UTC-7 liam bartosiewicz wrote: > Fairly certain that all HB-106’s are standard life. You could probably get > somewhere around 10,000 hours with a “new” one. > > > On Apr 5, 2024, at 7:55 PM, David <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > The truly long-life tubes had mercury added. If you see a hazy purple > glow when the tube is lit, it's long life. Solid orange is not so long > life. > > > > > > David Forbes, Tucson AZ > > > >> On Apr 5, 2024, at 6:45 PM, Jasper nagle <[email protected]> wrote: > >> > >> i picked 9 of these up for $90 $10 a pcs for A clock project, and iv'e > tried searching all the data sheets about them the most i can find is one > stating long life, but long life in 1955 i would assume wouldn't compare > well to like a 1960 one ? > > > > -- > > 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/F79C6E98-2B92-4DCF-8193-A519270B6324%40gmail.com > . > -- 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/a2efca74-9295-4f46-83b9-0803bd411cf1n%40googlegroups.com.
