I wasn't aware there were sockets; I just assumed the leads were too flimsy to go into a socket. So, for those who do have these socketed, how are they working out and how difficult is it to plug them in ?
I have a few of these tubes and they have the plastic standoff and were soldered-down. When the time comes (sooner rather than later I hope...) I will be soldering them onto a PC board and 3D print any additional standoffs. Although they are on the smaller side, the fine-mesh, character shape, and gas mixture make them very cool. On Wednesday, February 12, 2025 at 8:59:36 AM UTC-8 Leroy Jones wrote: > If you can't find these sockets, here are two options both of which I have > used. > First option is make your own socket. Copy the pin pattern and drill > holes in plastic or wood > big enough to fit snugly some appropriately sized plastic wire insulation > pieces. Take a length of > #30 gauge kynar insulated, silver plated wirewrap wire with one end > stripped sufficiently long to > go through the insulation and loop back on itself and tightly twisted. > Put this into the hole. > The tube pins fit snugly down inside the insulation, and touching the > silver plated wire. > Make the wires long enough to terminate elsewhere to suit. > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Option #2 is remove the black plastic standoff from the tube. This > exposes the wire leads which are just barely > long enough to hand wrap very carefully some of that same #30 ga wirewrap > wire onto each tube pin. > Make these wires at each least a few inches long. After getting them > all wrapped on there, then terminate the other > ends of these wires to a 14-pin DIP header plug. I make header pin 1 > the anode and then pin 2 is tube digit 1. > The tube digits 1-2-3-4-5-6 occupy the left side of the header. Then on > the right side it continues with tube digits 7-8-9-0, then > decimal point or points if it has them. These assemblies can be made > to stand the tube up and hold it about 1.5 inches off the socket > where the header ends up being plugged in to. > > --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > I have used both of these methods and I think the best one is option > #2. Did this 17 times to create a 16-tube array of NL-1220 tubes, > B-5853, B-5870, a mixture of tubes but they all look identical when lit > up. The nice thing about hand wrapping wire wrapping directly to the > tube > wire pins is there is no heat applied. And then when you solder the > other ends of those 30 ga wires to the DIP header, very little and > practically no > heat gets through the wire to significantly raise the temperature of the > tube pin. > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Anyway that is what I did. I hope this helps. -Chuck > > > > On Saturday, February 8, 2025 at 5:31:35 PM UTC-5 Michael Harpe wrote: > >> I have gotten a hold of some 5870S units and I would like to get sockets >> for them. >> >> I am in the USA. Any help appreciated. >> >> Michael Harpe. >> > -- 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, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/fc2bfaba-89ae-4459-9ed0-c2d9494aa078n%40googlegroups.com.
