Brightness is a function of current; more current=more brightness, but also causes more wear out of the tube. It's important to stay within datasheet recommendations, otherwise your tube will fail prematurely. Brightness is increased by increasing the high-voltage supply or reducing the series resistor value, or a combination of the two. I have a single A-101 dekatron in one of my clocks, and it's been running 27/7 for 11 years now with no visible degradation. I think my supply voltage is around +500VDC, and the series resistor is around 470K [sorry, that's from memory from 2013...]
Brightness is also a function of how much (or little) the pattern changes. If you are trying to get a full-circle on a dekatron, it will need to be spinning about 30 times/second to trick your eyes. There are 30 dots per revolution on a dekatron, so that's around 900Hz. Since the individual dots are only glowing 1/30 of the time for a full-circle pattern, they are going to be noticeably dimmer than a stationary dot; you can see this in your photos. If brightness is paramount, then you would be better off using 30 LEDs (or 30 neon bulbs....) in a ring and drive them individually so they can be on 100% of the time for max brightness. It's not as cool as a dekatron, but it is brighter. On Saturday, October 5, 2024 at 2:21:25 PM UTC-7 Martin Kaufmann wrote: > https://threeneurons.wordpress.com/ - yes, this was/is my main info site > regarding these tubes. being a noob, I did not fully understand everything > though. Also cannot recall to have read something about controlling tube > brightness, but I might have missed it and will check again. > > On Saturday, October 5, 2024 at 11:08:38 PM UTC+2 Mac Doktor wrote: > >> >> On Oct 5, 2024, at 4:50 PM, Martin Kaufmann <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> maybe one of you who truly understands dekatrons, can explain to me or >> give me a hint, >> >> >> Just to be clear, have you seen/devoured this site? >> >> https://threeneurons.wordpress.com/ >> >> >> I take it that Mike is one of leading lights in the Dekatron realm. >> >> >> Terry Bowman, KA4HJH >> "The Mac Doctor" >> >> https://www.astarcloseup.com >> >> "If only you could see what I've seen with your eyes."—Roy Batty, *Blade >> Runner* >> >> -- 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/2ed2470c-8164-40e5-b0c9-2ca11d33d359n%40googlegroups.com.
