Many thanks Adrian - I actually bought these from a pinball repair place in Australia several years ago - I assumed that they were pulls from repairs - I guess they could have been pulled from machines that were being parted out.
I note that there is a listing on eBay in the US for a new board - looks the same - I don't think he has sold many/any though! I already have a nice filament drive for another VFD project with is +/- 4.5V so I'll give that a go with these displays. The next issue will be multiplexing the displays as I have done very little with multiplexing (OK Nothing!) though late last year I came up with some state machine based code to drive an 8 digit multiplexed panaplex display which seemed to work just fine - these have 20 digits so I'll need to be quite swift to avoid flicker! Without thinking about it too much I was considering using HV5812 drivers for the cathodes and grids. I have a few on hand and they seem to do what's necessary - I believe that they are actually designed for running vfd displays though I have used them for Nixie tubes in the past. Thank you for the advice. - Richard On Monday, 16 February 2026 at 10:48:00 UTC Adrian Godwin wrote: > Filament should be AC though various schemes exist for DC use. The aim is > to have an average voltage between filamant and anodes that';s similar > across the width of the display. If DC is used there will be more > acceleration and hence brighter digits at one end. > > > On Mon, Feb 16, 2026 at 10:45 AM Adrian Godwin <[email protected]> wrote: > >> These are unobtanium in the pinball community. You might want to see >> whether you can get a good price for them there. >> >> I'd reduce the filament voltage a little. It shouldn't be possible to see >> the glow easily. Maybe faintly, in a dark room. Actual voltage will depend >> on filament length. >> >> Anode/cathode I'd normally use about 15V but less will lead to longer >> life. The phosphor on the digits tends to burn with exposure and as usual >> this is particularly noticeable if they're left static. >> >> Schematics are available for pinball machines if you can identify a >> display of similar size. >> >> >> On Mon, Feb 16, 2026 at 9:17 AM 'Richard Scales' via neonixie-l < >> [email protected]> wrote: >> >>> Further to my post - I did a little research and decided to give it a go. >>> >>> I connected the filament to a DC supply and increased the volts until a >>> discernable glow was seen on the filaments - this was around 10V. >>> >>> I took the easy route of using the same voltage to supply a grid and a >>> cathode - and it worked! >>> >>> For maximum brightness and kindness to the display (those may be >>> contradictory!) I would love to know the 'proper' drive method/voltages and >>> whether or not it is absolutely necessary to use A/C on the filament. >>> >>> - Richard >>> >>> On Monday, 16 February 2026 at 08:11:29 UTC Richard Scales wrote: >>> >>>> Hello, >>>> I am fortunate to have a few of these 20 character multi segment >>>> displays and would like to drive them. >>>> >>>> These have come from Goetlib games machine displays where where are two >>>> of them mounted on a board (for which I also have no data) and I have >>>> several of these boards and I hope that the displays are OK. >>>> >>>> Can anyone point me towards any data sheets or perhaps suggest what the >>>> filament, grid and segment voltages and currents might be? >>>> >>>> Should the filament be DC or AC? >>>> >>>> All pointers gleefully received - thank you. >>>> >>>> - Richard >>>> >>>> -- >>> 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/b3e56859-2b73-4126-a863-d9b6a3348823n%40googlegroups.com >>> >>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/b3e56859-2b73-4126-a863-d9b6a3348823n%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, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/5388c910-cdc9-4568-b546-a359843e70e0n%40googlegroups.com.
