My experience was a high rate of failure through leaks... the digits would start to glow with a brighter pink intensity and then die....
Even though they're 'cold cathode' tubes, they do generate some heat.... maybe after 40 seconds or so, thermal expansion of one of the anodes shorts something out? Grasping at straws here... On Fri, Jun 6, 2025 at 12:10 PM <padlernped...@gmail.com> wrote: > Huh… I’m surprised to hear that Nick! I have another clock I made using > used IN-16s and it’s been going strong for about 8 months now. Granted > that’s not a long time in the big scheme of things, but I figured since > they appear to have that same mercury amulet as the IN-14s they would > last. I did have one of the used IN-16s go dead suddenly a while back, so > to your point, maybe I just haven’t had as much experience with them as you > have to better see their failure rate. > > That one went dead shortly after I built the clock and it had relatively > short leads — maybe 4mm or so — so I thought perhaps I may have stressed > one of them when installing it in the clock and caused the gas leak out > (although I could see no signs of distress where any of the leads entered > the tube). > > But this current tube was NOS. It’s just strange how it lights up on > power cycle and then fades out. But I don’t see how it could be a thermal > issue. > > > On Jun 6, 2025, at 2:20 PM, Nicholas Stock <nickst...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > IN-16 tubes are *the worst*... I gave up making clocks with them as the > failure rate was so high (maybe I had a bad batch?). > > Tis odd that it keeps coming back to life on a power cycle though.... > sounds like it could be thermally related? > > On Fri, Jun 6, 2025 at 11:18 AM <padlernped...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> Hi all, >> I just built a 6-digit nixie clock using NOS IN-16 tubes. The clock was >> working fine for about a day but then suddenly one of tubes went dark, >> except for the right hand decimal which is used as a status indicator. >> When the clock is power cycled, the errant tube comes back to life for >> maybe 30-40 seconds and then fades out again. It’s in the seconds position >> so I can see it sequence through each digit before it fades out. When I >> swap it into another position on the clock, the problem follows the tube. >> I’ve replaced it with another NOS tube and the clock is working fine again. >> >> Does anyone have any thoughts on why tube would come to life for a short >> period of time when power cycled and then fade out? >> >> Thanks, >> Randy >> >> -- >> 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 neonixie-l+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >> To view this discussion, visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/42E92C91-6240-4200-BBA2-3B2EE2B29F83%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 neonixie-l+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To view this discussion, visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/CAOX%2BRHJoQD%2B2nE%2B7Dsrr1xh4KWEGE-0GjtF4zAMac_%3DfR0jA-w%40mail.gmail.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/CAOX%2BRHJoQD%2B2nE%2B7Dsrr1xh4KWEGE-0GjtF4zAMac_%3DfR0jA-w%40mail.gmail.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 neonixie-l+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To view this discussion, visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/9DB89D01-91D3-434B-AEDA-AF178B536BDE%40gmail.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/9DB89D01-91D3-434B-AEDA-AF178B536BDE%40gmail.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 neonixie-l+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/CAOX%2BRHLzupB75mJFydQXTZ2onE3H0Nmt8XLN4js5nOdVnappnQ%40mail.gmail.com.
