[neonixie-l] Blast from the Past

[petehand]

I was sorting out my office and came across TWO ORIGINAL RAY WEISLING FOUR 
LETTER WORD KITS. I ordered them years ago, but during the wait of more 
than a year before he shipped them (old timers here will remember that 
frustration) I had lost patience and designed my own. I thought about 
putting them on Ebay, but then I figured everyone who could possibly want 
them is on here. So I'm offering them here, I'll sell them for the best 
offer I get by Friday August 4th. The two kits are in their original 
packing, together in one box, so you have to take them both.

There's a story about how I got them. I got so frustrated with Ray ignoring 
me that I asked someone from the Malaysian government to have a word with 
him. The kits arrived a few days later, posted from Los Angeles! But by 
that time I didn't need them.

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Re: [neonixie-l] Re: AC VFD Filament Driver Question

[petehand]

I use H bridges for my VFD designs. The VFD heaters are designed to run as 
slow as 50Hz, as the thermal inertia is more than sufficient for a steady 
display. There will be no beating. I generally run them at about 200- 500 
Hz. The bias needed is negligible, just enough to make the anodes slightly 
negative relative to the heater - 1 volt is usually plenty. It is, as you 
say, equivalent to half the P-P AC voltage.

For individual tubes, AC drive is not really needed. All the segments will 
be the same brightness. It only becomes important with a long multi digit 
tube, which can show a real brightness gradient from end to end on DC.

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Re: [neonixie-l] VFD pinout required

[petehand]

Since an extensive search of the web failed to turn up any actual 
information about this display, I'll post my own findings here. The heater 
voltage is 5V. Reasonable brightness requires an anode/grid voltage of 
30-35V. Here's the pinout and footprint. Pins numbered from bottom left ACW 
to top left, like a conventional IC.
[image: 209s.jpg]

[image: 209F.jpg]

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Re: [neonixie-l] VFD pinout required

[petehand]

It's ok, I looked at the back of the glass and traced it out.
[image: Picture 2 of 8] 

On Thursday, March 30, 2023 at 5:05:11 PM UTC-7 Audrey wrote:

> Accidentally sent before proofreading 
>
> VFD pinouts are easy to reverse engineer, find the cathode pins by 
> checking for ones with continuity (usually the ones at the outer edges), 
> you can find the heater voltage by using a buck converter and raising the 
> voltage to a bit under where it starts to visibly glow, then map out the 
> anodes and grids with 12v or so, usually displays like with that one with 
> lots of characters are muxed at a higher voltage in operation.
>
> On Thu, Mar 30, 2023, 8:02 PM Audrey  wrote:
>
>> VFD pinouts are easy to reverse engineer, find the cathode pins by 
>> checking for ones with continuity (usually the ones at the other edges), 
>> you can find the heater voltage by using a buck converter and raising the 
>> voltage to a bit under where it starts to visibly glow at all,  then map 
>> out the anodes and grids with 12v or so, usually displays like with that 
>> one with lots of characters are muxed at a higher voltage in operation
>>
>> On Thu, Mar 30, 2023, 7:34 PM petehand  wrote:
>>
>>> Does anyone have the pinout for the Noritake Itron DC209-H2 glass? It's 
>>> a 20 character dot matrix VFD. There are plenty of pictures online but no 
>>> trace of a data sheet.
>>>
>>> -- 
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>>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/937ebefb-a83a-4e4b-8d03-ff3a138a7090n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email_source=footer>
>>> .
>>>
>>

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Re: [neonixie-l] VFD pinout required

[petehand]

Ok never mind, it's on the back of the glass. [image: Picture 2 of 8] 


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[neonixie-l] Re: Does anyone have the accurate angles and dimensions of the IN-18 pinout?

[petehand]

For what it's worth, it fits the same 14 pin socket as the 3LO1 and 6LO1 
small CRTs.


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[neonixie-l] VFD pinout required

[petehand]

Does anyone have the pinout for the Noritake Itron DC209-H2 glass? It's a 
20 character dot matrix VFD. There are plenty of pictures online but no 
trace of a data sheet.

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[neonixie-l] Re: Expensive?

[petehand]

I've told my wife, when I'm gone, under no circumstances sell my nixie junk 
for what I told you I paid for it!


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[neonixie-l] Re: Green Nixie tube?

[petehand]

I suspect any green or violet nixies have been re-gassed, as I'm sure they 
were never manufactured. The electrical characteristics must be entirely 
different from the usual neon. However, I have seen such a thing before - 
in the bottom left corner of a screen in the "Guitar Heroes" video game, 
which featured a four digit green :nixie" display.

On Friday, December 23, 2022 at 8:57:43 PM UTC-8 milesan...@gmail.com wrote:

> Ahh I see. I suppose nothing that would be physically similar looking to a 
> standard nixie display with layers of cutout digits as cathodes
>
> On Friday, December 23, 2022 at 11:14:17 PM UTC-5 jaspern...@gmail.com 
> wrote:
>
>> the closet to a green nixie tube is a thyratron display tube  
>> https://www.ebay.com/itm/224938767987?hash=item345f653673:g:lXEAAOSwDzFiWSpa=enc%3AAQAHkCbHe5IVLZ3Ws2LeT1cVeZzER6Yq6CfrxU9OsDZwyzv%2FvdaWvmJyeSMXJ%2FBsd%2BWzNW1uc7wIKWatEQ2nzRTf6D0nt148FB6riCPXb5BM4C0EYcCirsBmZ6nPZ7Q1OLIOyi96ZOqw7cs%2F4lvNle6ojUGesmCCeHc0mcqolEIgZDcitYCA38vT%2BiON4maGcDqpnQ%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR5TKrKWoYQ
>>
>> On Saturday, December 24, 2022 at 3:53:48 AM UTC milesan...@gmail.com 
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Good day, everyone.
>>>
>>> I'm wondering, do green Nixie digital display tubes exist? From what I 
>>> understand, the color of the discharge depends on the vacuum and type of 
>>> gas but I've not seen any images showcasing one with a green color. Is 
>>> there such a thing?
>>>
>>

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Re: [neonixie-l] Japanese Nixie Watch

[petehand]

Oh, yes indeed. Reports were greatly exaggerated. Thank you for remembering 
me.

I glance at the digest most days, though I missed the one about my demise. 
I seldom post because I haven't done a nixie device in several years now. 
Retirement has turned out to be an altogether busier place than I 
anticipated and I haven't had time to be a hobbyist for years.

On Friday, November 19, 2021 at 4:51:21 PM UTC-8 Terry S wrote:

> Pete -- a few months ago a post appeared here that implied you had passed 
> on -- I assume the reports of your death were greatly exaggerated?
>
> Glad to see you are still with us.
>
> Terry
>
> On Friday, November 19, 2021 at 6:28:59 PM UTC-6 petehand wrote:
>
>> I've made half a dozen IN16 clocks. The only one that failed is the 10 
>> hours '1' cathode on my Altoids tin clock, which has gone open circuit. The 
>> '0' and the '2' still work, in 24 hour mode.
>>
>>
>>

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Re: [neonixie-l] Japanese Nixie Watch

[petehand]

I've made half a dozen IN16 clocks. The only one that failed is the 10 
hours '1' cathode on my Altoids tin clock, which has gone open circuit. The 
'0' and the '2' still work, in 24 hour mode.


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[neonixie-l] Japanese Nixie Watch

[petehand]

A few years ago I noticed that pretty much all the IN16s appearing on Ebay 
were being bought by a Japanese customer, in lots of 1000. I wondered when 
they would reappear.

Tokyo Flash 

[image: watch.jpg]

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[neonixie-l] Re: Any circuit diagrams for Non-Linear Systems digital voltmeters, especially Model 64?

[petehand]

I had a few of those stepper switches at one time. They found a use in a 
few other things besides DVMs, including some slot machines I worked on. 
Until I found that article I linked above, though, I could never understand 
why they were always ELEVEN POSITIONS (count 'em).
Two different models - two different manufacturers.
[image: stepper1.jpg][image: stepper2.jpg]

On Wednesday, April 21, 2021 at 10:07:31 AM UTC-7 gregebert wrote:

> Stepper relays are likely to be a problem. The first clock I made, back in 
> 1980, was a cannibalized voltmeter that used stepper relays and 
> incandescent edge-lit numbers. The relays had intermittent connection 
> issues despite many careful attempts to clean them. I literally abandoned 
> this clock in 2005 when I moved to a different worksite.
>
> Most likely you will need to clean the contacts, coat them with a 
> conducive grease, and take steps to prevent dust/dirt from collecting on 
> the grease. TV tuners (remember those ?) were notorious for having the same 
> problem.
>
>
>

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Re: [neonixie-l] How to kill a microcontroller with one finger

[petehand]

Ah, this is not uncommon. A lot of AVR Dragons were slain for the same 
reason. Touching the regulator affects its feedback and therefore its 
output voltage. A tiny ESD, not enough to cause any damage, can drive the 
output high for enough milliseconds to cook a 3.3V IC downstream.

On Wednesday, December 9, 2020 at 3:33:06 PM UTC-8 nixiebunny wrote:

> The voltage feedback resistor is a low impedance node on every voltage 
> regulator design that I have worked with. Typically 1k ohm. I don't see how 
> that could happen. 
>
>
> On Wed, Dec 9, 2020, 12:30 PM newxito  wrote:
>
>> I just wanted to share something that happened to me yesterday. I killed 
>> the ESP32 on my nixie board just by touching the adjustable voltage 
>> regulator IC with one finger. I’m pretty sure that I touched the feedback 
>> pin causing the voltage to increase. 
>> I already changed the design, and, in the future, I will only use 
>> regulators with fixed output voltage. I hope they are less sensitive.
>>
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>>  
>> 
>> .
>>
>

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[neonixie-l] Re: FW-4 rev c

[petehand]

Mark is correct in all respects. Sometime in the past the 78L05 regulator 
was removed and presumably the logic was powered externally.

I strongly recommend replacing the 78L05. The board only draws 10-20mA from 
5V and using an external 5V supply is a nuisance and an unnecessary point 
of failure. If you have any trouble getting it going, just ask me. I seldom 
post here but I keep an eye on the forum.


On Tuesday, November 24, 2020 at 9:15:38 PM UTC-8 5-ht wrote:

>
>
> Hi Jeffry,
> Your circuit board appears to be missing U1 which is a 78L05 5V regulator 
> in a 8-SOIC SMD package.
> This design originally required a 12-18VDC external power supply 
> (350-500ma should be sufficient, the coaxial connector is center-pin 
> positive) but I guess one could power it with separate 5V and 12-18V power 
> sources. The 5VDC powers the logic and the 12-18VDC the high voltage 
> generator for the tubes.
> The part number for the missing 5V regulator is LM78L05ACM-ND form Digikey 
> and 511-L78L05ABD from Mouser.
>
> Mark
> On Tuesday, November 24, 2020 at 9:00:00 PM UTC-6 Jeffry P wrote:
>
>> I have a FLW by Pete Hand  that has been in storage a few years and I 
>> hope the group can help me get it working up and running. The device was 
>> functional when I put it into storage.
>>
>> 1) What are the power requirements?
>>
>> 2) there is a jumper wire dangling off a pin in between the #4 and the 
>> power connector and I don't know where is supposed to attach.
>>
>> 3) There was another jumper wire in the box and I'm not sure where it 
>> goes.
>>
>> I've attached some pics
>>
>> Thank you ,
>> Jeffry
>>
>

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[neonixie-l] Re: NASA APOLLO Era Fairchild/Systron Donner 7050 Volt Ohm Meters

[petehand]

I picked up a Systron Donner model 7004 about 10 years ago, dating from 
about 1970. I was going to scrap it for the nixies before I realized it was 
still as accurate as my best modern DVM and had one more digit. But it 
wasn't NASA - I think the calibration sticker (now lost) said Goodyear. It 
had the optional battery pack. Inside the case were two 6V lead acid 
batteries driving a board that delivered 12V AC to a separate winding on 
the main transformer. I have the manual, but it doesn't say what the nixies 
are - just "Tube, readout, V0132". The next item is "Socket, readout tube, 
X0179" so I know they aren't wire ended.

(poor photo - low light)


On Wednesday, July 17, 2019 at 10:52:56 PM UTC-7, TLaing wrote:
>
> I live less than 15 miles from Wapakoneta Ohio the hometown of Neal 
> Armstrong. Big celebrations are going on for the 50th anniversary of the 
> APOLLO 11 moon landing. That got me to thinking about the NASA surplus 
> Nixie Meters I purchased off EBay some years ago. I posted some pictures on 
> the TCA group reflector just a little while ago for those that are 
> interested.  I have at least 5 of these units both Fairchild and Systron 
> Donner. All model 7050 Volt Ohm meters. They use a neon lamp for the 
> leading one digit and 3 Nixie tubes. I think NL 841 series.  I think 
> Systron Donner was a second source manufacturer.  One of them has a date of 
> 8-24-67 written on the power transformer which puts these meters in the 
> APOLLO era at NASA.  Tim Laing 
>
> Sent from my iPhone 
>

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[neonixie-l] Re: While we're talking 7971's, I have a 4LW clock question

[petehand]

I suspect it's the tubes. As they get older they take a little longer to 
ionize when they've been off for a while. Shoot, some that I've bought in 
Ebay took a day before they would strike. Once they're running, although it 
is a multiplexed design there are always residual ions in the tube during 
the dark period, and often for hours afterward, so it should come up 
instantly after a short break.

On Monday, April 15, 2019 at 6:37:51 PM UTC-7, Terry S wrote:
>
> I have an early Pete Hand 4LW clock using B7971s. Since day 1, tube # 2 
> has been slightly slow to energize when the IR sensor wakes the clock up. 
> No big deal, I just noticed it, always tube # 2. Maybe a second late at the 
> most. Always figured it was the tube.
>
> Now as of this week, it's tube #3 ! --   Tube #2 lights when it 
> should. WTF??
>
> Pete -- I think you read the group -- any ideas? Just a weird curiosity, 
> nothing else.
>
> Terry
>

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[neonixie-l] Re: Q: Active full-wave rectifiers

[petehand]

I would use four discrete schottky diodes in a bridge, and a low dropout 
regulator like an LM1117. The 5V version of the LM1117 regulates down to 
6.2V input and delivers 800mA.


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Re: [neonixie-l] Pinball score reel clock

[petehand]

Most pinball score reels are 10 position, but Bally made one that is 12 
position, part number CD-29-1600. Those would come in very handy for the  
hour and 10's minute indicators. They're very hard to find. They were used 
as payout multipliers on multi-coin slot machines, since they were able to 
divide by 3 4 and 6, while 2 and 5 were handled by conventional 10 step 
counters. You occasionally find them on Ebay. They were used in the Bally 
EM slot machines and sometimes you can buy them from scrapped machines. The 
wheel is completely blank so you would have to make a strip for it.

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Re: [neonixie-l] Re: IV-17 FLW clock.

[petehand]

No. You can't upload anything onto it. But if you send me the number font 
I'll consider programming it in.

On Wednesday, January 23, 2019 at 12:32:48 AM UTC-8, Thomas Kummer wrote:
>
> Pete, can I upload a custom font for the digits onto it? 
>
>
>

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[neonixie-l] Re: B7971 "Repair"

[petehand]

I have. I had a similar problem and cured it by rapping the tube face down, 
hard, on a wooden board. The crossed segments sprung apart. I figured it 
must have been mechanical shock that crossed them to begin with so another 
shock might separate them. I'm not recommending it, just saying it worked 
for me. Of course there's a chance of breaking the tube, but you can't use 
it the way it is anyway. Strike it square so that a large surface area hits 
and you don't get stress concentrated on a small area.

On Saturday, December 29, 2018 at 11:26:16 PM UTC-8, Jeff Walton wrote:
>
> Has anyone successfully "repaired" a B7971 where there is a mechanical 
> short between two segments? 
>

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Re: [neonixie-l] Re: Welcome & please introduce yourself!

[petehand]

Ok, I'll probably make some more after Christmas.


On Sunday, December 23, 2018 at 8:21:07 AM UTC-8, Thomas Kummer wrote:
>
> Yes, like those!! I would love to buy an IV-17 FLW clock from you!! 
> Please!! 
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Oct 3, 2018, at 15:10, petehand > 
> wrote:
>
>

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[neonixie-l] Re: Single inductor supplies and heat issues

[petehand]

In my opinion, 100uH is a bit low for a frequency of 40-60kHz. I would use 
at least 220uH. For estimating saturation current, multiply the total load 
current by the voltage step-up and double it (since the input current is a 
triangle). So if you want 15mA at 180V from a 12V supply, you can expect a 
peak primary current of (180/12)*0.015*2 - you should be looking for an 
inductor with a saturation current of at least 0.5A.

You can ease the strain on your driver transistor by using a split coil 
inductor - the transistor only sees half the secondary voltage. This is the 
generator I use on my FLW design that can drive 50mA at 180V. 

[image: step-up.jpg]



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[neonixie-l] Re: Welcome & please introduce yourself!

[petehand]

I quit making them because I didn't think there were enough B7971s left to 
justify it.


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[neonixie-l] Re: Welcome & please introduce yourself!

[petehand]

Pete Hand here. I've been a member of the group for at least ten years but 
I hardly ever post. I just scan the digest and log in if I see something of 
interest. I'm a retired EE. I'm probably best known here for my Four Letter 
Word designs, which I created because I had promised my daughter a Weisling 
FLW for a wedding present and he didn't deliver. Since then I've probably 
distributed about 150 of them in three or four formats. I mention this 
because people still occasionally ask me for one and I was considering 
making some more.

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[neonixie-l] Re: Edge lit displays identification help needed

[petehand]

The smaller one is made in England. I picked up a 1960s DVM that had five 
of them at a government surplus auction.They were driven by stepping 
switches.

I also have some that were made in Japan, by Stanley Electric Co in about 
1970. These are not numeric. They have images.

[image: stanley.jpg]

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Re: [neonixie-l] OT: Looking for folks interested in 3l01i CRT discussion

[petehand]

That would not prolong its life for more than a few days. The screen is too 
small, there are no dead areas except between the ticks around the edge. 
The hands pattern visits the entire screen 24 times in a day. It gets more 
action at the center, near the hands roots, and that's the section that 
goes out first, leaving just the tips showing. There is no sign of burning 
- you can't tell a used tube from a new one by inspection.

On Wednesday, May 16, 2018 at 9:39:45 AM UTC-7, GastonP wrote:
>
> A technique that could extend tube life would be to shift the image 
> lightly in a random way from time to time to even out.
> As the deflection is 100% digitally controlled, it should not take much 
> effort to implement this effect. Just code in a random variable 
> displacement of the whole image every, say, 10 minutes or so...
>
>

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Re: [neonixie-l] Ever seen this?

[petehand]

I'd like one. Those would be a drop-in replacement for the 3LO1 in my clock 
- just a bit smaller.

On Monday, May 14, 2018 at 12:08:17 PM UTC-7, nixiebunny wrote:
>
> I made a little tiny scope clock with this CRT back in 2001. 
> http://www.cathodecorner.com/sc60.html
>
> I have collected a few dozen of these tubes, if anyone's interested in 
> this gizmo.
>
>
>

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Re: [neonixie-l] Re: OT: Looking for folks interested in 3l01i CRT discussion

[petehand]

I don't know - it's a mystery. I checked everything very carefully, 
including the heater voltage (with a true-RMS voltmeter, since the driving 
waveform isn't a sine wave), in case I was overheating the cathode. I have 
a few more tubes, but when the second one failed like the first I put the 
clock away. Maybe I should get it out again and sacrifice another tube just 
in case.

I've seen a lot of tubes, but I've never seen any with such a thin phosphor 
coat as these. Usually they're white and opaque. These are gray and 
translucent.

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[neonixie-l] Re: OT: Looking for folks interested in 3l01i CRT discussion

[petehand]

After a couple of weeks the phosphor gets too dim to see in daylight. I 
know it's the phosphor because when I adjusted it to move the ticks to new 
locations where it had never been scanned, they were bright again. I put a 
new tube in and the same thing happened. The phosphor coating is really 
really thin, almost transparent.

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[neonixie-l] Re: OT: Looking for folks interested in 3l01i CRT discussion

[petehand]

I've got something to say about them. It's a good thing you bought a dozen, 
because that means if you do a project using one, you'll be able to keep it 
going for a whole year.




On Saturday, May 12, 2018 at 10:43:39 PM UTC-7, gregebert wrote:
>
> I just bought a dozen 3l01i tubes from Yuriy and if there is anyone in 
> this group who wants to start a side discussion to share knowledge, send me 
> a private message and I will start a new google group.
>

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[neonixie-l] Re: B5991 sockets

[petehand]

Whatever you do, don't try to plug them into Russian IN12 sockets! They are 
superficially the same and look as if they will fit, but the dimensions are 
off just enough that your B5991s will break when you push them home. 
*Ask me how I know.*
On Friday, March 16, 2018 at 1:08:55 PM UTC-7, Jonathan wrote:
>
> I am starting on my fantasy ham radio transceiver project and of course 
> it will use nixie tubes for the frequency display, B5991's. It will also 
> have a neon bar graph for an S-meter. I am looking for 7 or 8 sockets, I 
> have plenty of tubes. I'll pay cash or maybe trade some tubes for them. 
> Panel mount type would be best but I might consider PCB mount. I also 
> have some HP equipment style sockets that I would trade, they are too 
> large to easily fit in my enclosure. 
>
>

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Re: [neonixie-l] Re: status of original Weisling FLW kit design? Clone kits? Software?

[petehand]

There must be hundreds of that design out there. I personally sold more 
than 100 kits of one kind or another and the Jeff Thomas version used the 
same circuit. I've used it with regular nixie tubes as well as B7971s, and 
I've never heard of one failing.

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Re: [neonixie-l] Re: status of original Weisling FLW kit design? Clone kits? Software?

[petehand]

You obviously missed that in my design, pin 1 of the HV5812, the VPP pin, 
is tied to approximately 60 volts. An "off" output then is pulled up to 
60V, which is high enough that the cathode is extinguished, and any leakage 
current is clamped to 60V.

On Tuesday, March 6, 2018 at 8:58:46 AM UTC-8, gregebert wrote:
>
> Interesting. The HV5812 is a CMOS device rated for 80V, so it will be 
> vulnerable to overstress if the nixie tubes leak (no bleeder resistors are 
> present).
>
> Has anyone ever had driver failure ? If not, then I guess the blanking 
> time is sufficient enough for charge to decay to a safe level, or the 
> HV5812 is more tolerant of high-voltages than the datasheet indicates (or a 
> combination thereof).
>

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Re: [neonixie-l] Re: status of original Weisling FLW kit design? Clone kits? Software?

[petehand]

On Monday, March 5, 2018 at 2:43:13 PM UTC-8, Paul Andrews wrote:
>
> Its an HV5812, with cathode resistors and MPSA42/92 anode switching. I 
> guess Pete could give you all the details.
>
> On Monday, March 5, 2018 at 5:36:13 PM UTC-5, gregebert wrote:
>>
>> What kind of segment driver does the FLW use ? From the PCB layout, I can 
>> see it's a multiplexed display.
>>
>

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FLW-TH-sch.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document

[neonixie-l] Re: status of original Weisling FLW kit design? Clone kits? Software?

[petehand]

*Calling Sam Guss! *Your kit has been sitting here ready for a month and 
you haven't replied to my emails. Please respond if you still want the kit, 
otherwise I'll offer it to someone else.

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[neonixie-l] Re: status of original Weisling FLW kit design? Clone kits? Software?

[petehand]

*Calling Sam Goss! *Your kit has been sitting here ready for a month and 
you haven't replied to my emails. Please respond if you still want the kit, 
otherwise I'll offer it to someone else.

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[neonixie-l] Re: status of original Weisling FLW kit design? Clone kits? Software?

[petehand]

The PCB is the same size, same tube spacing and same mounting holes as the 
original Weisling board.

On Monday, February 12, 2018 at 12:04:59 PM UTC-8, Paul Andrews wrote:
>
> Hi Pete,
>
> Are dimensioned drawings available? I need to design a case.
>
>>
>>

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[neonixie-l] Re: status of original Weisling FLW kit design? Clone kits? Software?

[petehand]

I started shipping kits this week. I should have them all packed and ready 
in a couple more days, so watch your emails.



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[neonixie-l] Re: status of original Weisling FLW kit design? Clone kits? Software?

[petehand]

SOLD OUT - all gone, sorry.

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[neonixie-l] Re: status of original Weisling FLW kit design? Clone kits? Software?

[petehand]

Everybody seems very anxious to pay, but I have a principle, that I don't 
take any money until I have the stuff in a box ready to ship. So relax.

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[neonixie-l] Re: FLW kit

[petehand]

Oh ye of little faith. };>


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Re: [neonixie-l] Re: status of original Weisling FLW kit design? Clone kits? Software?

[petehand]

As of 6pm Pacific time on January 5th, there is ONE KIT LEFT. Everyone who 
emailed me should have had a confirmation email.

Just in case anyone has the impression that I'm an insane philanthropist,  
I should explicitly mention that the kit DOES NOT INCLUDE B7971 TUBES.

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Re: [neonixie-l] Re: status of original Weisling FLW kit design? Clone kits? Software?

[petehand]

Everyone who wants a kit, please send me direct email to peteh...@gmail.com. 
There are only about a dozen boards and when they're gone, they're gone, 
unless the offer is massively oversubscribed. JW, I already got your email. 
Mike M, it was your inquiry that started this so you're at the front of the 
line. I'll have to order some of the parts so I won't be kitting up until 
next week some time. Kit price is $100 plus shipping.

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[neonixie-l] Re: status of original Weisling FLW kit design? Clone kits? Software?

[petehand]

LOL, I ordered a Weisling kit for my daughter too, and it didn't arrive, 
and that's why I designed my own version. I still have a dozen PCBs that 
use all through hole components, if you want one. With this design all the 
components are underneath the board, tubes on top.






On Wednesday, January 3, 2018 at 11:48:28 AM UTC-8, Mike McCauley wrote:
>
> I've searched for an answer to these questions both in the group and on 
> the Internet in general, but I can't find anything. Sorry if I've 
> overlooked something.
>
> Wondering if anyone has developed a Weisling FLW clone (B7971 tube based) 
> kit, either reverse engineered or all new hardware?
>
>

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Re: [neonixie-l] Four Letter Word partial kit

[petehand]

I also have a couple of Weisling kits, unassembled. By the time I received 
them, more than 2 years after I ordered, I'd made my own and used up my 
B7971s.

On Saturday, December 31, 2016 at 8:49:30 AM UTC-8, Greg P wrote:
>
> Surprised you received them, John. 
>

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[neonixie-l] Re: Four Letter Word partial kit

[petehand]

I'm PEH, yes. Whoever buys it, feel free to email me if you need any help.

On Saturday, December 31, 2016 at 5:37:21 AM UTC-8, John wrote:
>
> If your middle initial is "E" it's probably yours, as the schematics are 
> initialed "PEH".
>
> It looks to have a couple of micros on it and some headers installed . All 
> BOM / etch drawings and instructions are included.
>
> $25 shipped?
>
> John
>
> On Saturday, December 31, 2016 at 5:02:38 AM UTC-5, petehand wrote:
>>
>> Probably mine. I'm not aware that anyone else ever offered a kit.
>>
>>
>> On Friday, December 30, 2016 at 12:41:29 PM UTC-8, Greg P wrote:
>>>
>>> What kit is it?  Not many out there for the 7971 tubes.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Friday, December 30, 2016 at 2:20:28 PM UTC-5, John wrote:
>>>>
>>>> I've got a "kit" for this (board, with chips) that I never put 
>>>> together.  Along with it are the instructions, etc.
>>>>
>>>> Make me a fair offer and it's yours. When I find them, I'll post the 
>>>> big nixies that go with it, as somewhere in my junk I have a box of 8-10 
>>>> of 
>>>> them 
>>>>
>>>> Thanks
>>>> John
>>>>
>>>

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[neonixie-l] Re: Four Letter Word partial kit

[petehand]

Probably mine. I'm not aware that anyone else ever offered a kit.


On Friday, December 30, 2016 at 12:41:29 PM UTC-8, Greg P wrote:
>
> What kit is it?  Not many out there for the 7971 tubes.
>
>
>
> On Friday, December 30, 2016 at 2:20:28 PM UTC-5, John wrote:
>>
>> I've got a "kit" for this (board, with chips) that I never put together.  
>> Along with it are the instructions, etc.
>>
>> Make me a fair offer and it's yours. When I find them, I'll post the big 
>> nixies that go with it, as somewhere in my junk I have a box of 8-10 of 
>> them 
>>
>> Thanks
>> John
>>
>

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Re: [neonixie-l] How hot should a mosfet get?

[petehand]

It's an unfortunate characteristic of MOSFETs that the Rds(on) increases 
with temperature. As they get hotter, they dissipate more power and get 
hotter still. I've had MOSFETs get so hot they actually unsoldered 
themselves, though remarkably, they still worked once they cooled down. But 
it's always a good practice to run them as cool as possible.

If you have a HV converter running hot, it's nearly always a consequence of 
the driver not turning it off quickly enough. That results in the FET 
absorbing a lot of power from the inductor, which goes off in heat instead 
of high voltage. You need a driver that can bring the gate down hard and 
fast with power to spare, and then things will run a lot more efficiently. 
The turn on time is far less important, as the inductor limits the current 
rise time anyway. The popular MC34063 is a particularly bad choice for a HV 
supply, because it has a powerful high side driver to turn the FET on 
quickly,but no active pull-down to turn it off.

>

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[neonixie-l] Re: Question about LM4871 application for VFD fiament.

[petehand]

The LM4871 wouldn't be my choice for a filament driver. I use the Si9986, 
which is an H bridge, with my VFD projects.

http://www.alliedelec.com/siliconix-vishay-si9986cy-e3/70026303/


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Re: [neonixie-l] My NixiChron is sick, what do I do?

[petehand]

It's not necessary. The HV5530 is a CMOS chip, so its low and high logic 
thresholds are 30% and 70% of whatever the VCC happens to be. It only needs 
to be run at 12V if you want to meet the datasheet specs for maximum clock 
rates (8MHz). I have never seen a nixie clock design that clocks out at 
more than 2MHz, and it works quite well at 3.3V at that frequency. My only 
concern about supply voltage is whether it's high enough to turn on the 
output HV FETs properly, so I wouldn't run it at less than 5V.


On Tuesday, May 10, 2016 at 4:44:39 PM UTC-7, gregebert wrote:
>
> Is there a level-shifter going into the HV5530 to drive the inputs to +12V 
> ? I've heard some folks are driving at 5V or 3.3V levels, which doesn't 
> meet datasheet specs.
>
>
>

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Re: [neonixie-l] Re: The Light Clock Kickstarter

[petehand]

I've seen other nixie clocks on Kickstarter that looked like absolute 
garbage, yet had tens of thousands subscribed. I always ask myself, who ARE 
these people with so much money, and where the hell are they when I put 
something nice on Ebay or Etsy? I guess I could put something on 
Kickstarter myself.


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[neonixie-l] Re: Need Nixichron!!

[petehand]

I have a bare PCB somewhere and could build it up, but I don't have a 
programmed PIC for it.

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[neonixie-l] Make a clock, go to jail

[petehand]

Although nothing should surprise me by now about the insanity of the 
American school system, this one touches a nerve. A kid - a young teenager 
- made a clock of his own design, took it to school, and found himself in 
police custody accused of making a fake terrorist bomb - a "movie bomb". 
Maybe it wouldn't have happened if he'd used nixies instead of 7 segment 
displays, as then the morons at his school might have asked him what it was 
instead of instantly recognizing it as a deadly bomb like the ones they've 
seen in Hollywood movies. Way to go, teachers, for discouraging him from 
ever doing anything creative like that again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mW4w0Y1OXE

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Re: [neonixie-l] Re: Questions regarding IV-17 or IV-14 vfd tubes.

[petehand]

I use AC drive for multicharacter displays, where there's a definite 
gradient from end to end. I use the Si9986 H bridge. It works over the 
range 3.5V to 13.5V with TTL level inputs over the whole range.

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Re: [neonixie-l] Re: Questions regarding IV-17 or IV-14 vfd tubes.

[petehand]

Beg pardon. I had originally written 4.7 ohms, changed one instance, not 
the other.


On Wednesday, July 22, 2015 at 8:43:22 AM UTC-7, I wrote:

  Yellow violet gold  ??  Try again.  Ira

  

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Re: [neonixie-l] Re: Questions regarding IV-17 or IV-14 vfd tubes.

[petehand]

Not quite. The pin 11s go to a (20 divided by 8) ohm resistor, like 2 point 
7 ohms. Yellow Violet Gold.

On Tuesday, July 21, 2015 at 6:05:22 AM UTC-7, Chaos Hydra wrote:

 Thanks for your reply! Yeah I mean pin 12 to 25 VDC, mis-type.

 So for the first part. I will have 8 tubes. So I put 47 ohm in series with 
 pin 1 to 5 v and all 8 pin 11s together and through a 20 ohm. Well, 
 everything gets better when my dmm gets here.
 The method of testing you said is great! I will keep it in mind. 



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[neonixie-l] Re: Questions regarding IV-17 or IV-14 vfd tubes.

[petehand]

Heater voltage, I think you mean. How many are you running? Connect one 
heater pin (1 or 11) of each tube to 5V through a 47 ohm resistor, then the 
other pin of all of them together to ground through one resistor, of 20 
ohms divided by the number of tubes. So for 4 tubes, use a resistor of 20/4 
or 5 ohms - 4.7 ohms is ok. This raises the cathode enough above ground 
that the tubes blank properly, and having them all on the same resistor 
makes them all at the same potential. Check by powering up the heaters in a 
dark room. If you can see the heaters glowing even very dull red in total 
darkness, they're too hot, increase the common resistor until you can't see 
them.

I don't know why you would connect pin 2 to 25V. Maybe you mean pin 12, the 
grid. Connect it to 25V for permanently on, or switch it for multiplexing.


On Monday, July 20, 2015 at 8:49:56 PM UTC-7, Chaos Hydra wrote:

 As the topic says, what do you guys do for the 1.5v for the anode voltage. 
 an AA battery? I was thinking to use two bias resistor and get it from my 
 5VDC logic circuit input. Are there any better options to do this?

 Also, just double check my Russian, Pin 1 goes to 1.5V and pin 11 goes to 
 ground, right? pin2(for IV-17) goes to 25V and the rest pins are 25V 
 soucing inputs.

 Thanks in advance!


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Re: [neonixie-l] Re: First Nixie Project Schematic Review

[petehand]

I was looking at my posts again and see I missed out a necessary tip. The 
ADC conversion period *must be longer* than the PWM rate, otherwise it may 
go crazy making multiple changes to the period in the same cycle. The ADC 
and the PWM don't need to be synchronized. I find making the conversion 
time between three and four times the PWM period gives a good balance 
between transient response and good regulation.

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Re: [neonixie-l] Re: First Nixie Project Schematic Review

[petehand]

, still well below the limit.)

 Second, I was planning on running the PWM at 200kHz because it allows the 
 boost to run in continuous mode with a much smaller load.  This way I can 
 test with a single nixie (around 1.5mA).  I have worked through the boost 
 calculations and the PWM register values in a spreadsheet here 
 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1AlgrgIQSByZBakUH5zwjJ94VcO_23aLYUsACbMPxswc/edit?usp=sharing.
  
  Please take a look if you are curious.  I may be off base with my desired 
 values.

 One concern I had based on your feedback is the ratio of the A to B 
 register.  This ratio sets the duty cycle of the PWM output, right?  To 
 boost 24V to 200V, I need to duty cycle of 88%, which exceeds your 
 recommendation of 80% max.  Can you talk a little bit about why this is 
 important?  I know the inductor needs some time to discharge, but isn't 
 controlling that on/off time the only way to set the output voltage?

 I also had a question about driving the FET gate.  Why set the pin to an 
 input and rely on the pulldown rather than driving the pin low?

 I really like the soft start idea and the guidance about using the ADC 
 interrupt routine.  Plus I appreciate your advice on ramping the voltage up 
 slowly, I will make sure I take care when testing (and especially 
 debugging).  Good to know about the HV5530 at 5V too!

 -Brian

 On Wednesday, June 10, 2015 at 5:34:19 AM UTC-4, petehand wrote:

 I've used the main CPU as the switching regulator in just about all my HV 
 projects, and I can tell you exactly how to go about it. A word of warning, 
 though - the STM chip is 3.3V VCC. That is exceedingly marginal for turning 
 on even a logic level FET of the rating you need. You should probably 
 choose a different processor. Anyway, to the technique.

 Choose a timer for PWM. It needs two compare registers, one for setting 
 the maximum count (A) and one for toggling an output (B). Most CPUs have 
 this. Set it up for a free running frequency of at least 30kHz - that is, 
 it runs from 0 to max count and resets in 30us. 40kHz is better (25us). It 
 doesn't need many bits - 8 bits is fine for this job. Example, if you have 
 an 8 bit counter clocked at 8MHz, the modulus (maximum count, 'A' compare 
 register) would be 200 for 40kHz. Set this value in the A register and a 
 low value, like 1, in the B register. This gives you a soft start.

 The pin toggled by the B comparator should be settable as input or 
 output. Connect this pin to the FET gate with a 2.2k pulldown resistor. 
 When the pin is set as input, this should pull down close to ground to keep 
 the FET off. After reset, start off with this pin as input.

 Choose an ADC channel and input, and connect through a resistor divider 
 to the HV output. Calculate what the ADC reading will be at the desired 
 voltage - this will depend on the reference voltage, the resistor values, 
 etc. Set the ADC going in free run, with an interrupt on conversion 
 complete.

 In your ADC interrupt routine, compare the ADC reading to the setpoint 
 you calculated. If it is below, increment the counter 'B' compare register 
 by 1, up to about 80% of the top value you set in the 'A' compare register. 
 Don't go past that point! The FET needs some off time to discharge the 
 inductor. Then set the PWM pin as an output. If the ADC reading is above 
 the setpoint, decrement the 'B' compare by 1 and set the PWM pin as input, 
 to turn off the FET. If it is equal, do nothing. When starting out from 
 nothing you may need to limit the B register to less than 80% of A, to 
 limit the current. I start mine out with a 25% limit and change that to 80% 
 when the voltage comes up above 75%. At low voltage there's no load so it 
 comes up quickly even with a low duty cycle.

 For 20-30kHz, you need about a 220 to 270 microhenry inductor with a 
 saturation current of 1A or more. The IRF640 is a suitable driver. You'll 
 find there's a limited choice of high voltage FETs with a logic level gate. 
 A technique I've been using for some time is to use a center tapped 
 inductor with the FET attached at the center tap. That way it only 
 experiences half the HV pulse.

 The only problem I have with this system is when I'm debugging and stop 
 at a break point. Because the PWM is completely asynchronous there's a good 
 chance the processor halts with the FET turned on, and things quickly get 
 quite warm. I find it expedient to put a jumper in the FET gate that I can 
 remove to shut down the HV. Most of the time when I'm debugging I don't 
 need the tubes lit anyway. For the finished clock no doubt you'll have a 
 watchdog timer, and the first thing that will do when it trips is turn off 
 the PWM port.

 If you had a 5V processor you could use the HV5530 with a VCC of 5V and 
 no level shifting. It works perfectly well at 5V for nixie currents, but 
 not at full speed - the clock timing is about 4 times longer. I've tried it 
 at 3.3V though and it's no go

Re: [neonixie-l] Re: Any one have a dutchtronix kit or PCB?

[petehand]

I was shishlakji on the old group, it's the same clock. Here is the 
schematic. The M62354 DAC may need a little explanation. It's a voltage 
output serial input DAC. The voltage reference is floating - does not need 
to be ground at one end - this is unusual in DACs. Here the reference is 
the voltage across diode D7. I jacked it up off ground for proper biasing 
of the long tail pairs, but I ended up giving them a negative supply, so 
any old DAC would do now. I have no idea where you could get a M62354 today 
-I just happened to have some in my junk box.

The 3LO1 tube life is definitely a phosphor problem. The phosphor layer is 
so thin it's practically transparent and the brightness fades from the 
center, where the beam traces over it most frequently. Towards the end of 
life the center doesn't glow and only the tips of the hands are visible. I 
don't know what such a short life tube could have been used for - perhaps 
an instrument on a weapon when they expected the next war to be over in 24 
hours.

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scope clock sch.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document

[neonixie-l] Re: Any one have a dutchtronix kit or PCB?

[petehand]

My experience with Russian tubes, the 3LO1 in particular, is that they 
barely last 500 hours. I did an extremely simple scope clock six or seven 
years ago and I was going to publish it for anyone to make, but I make the 
mistake of mentioning it on this forum and within days the Russian seller 
tripled the price of the tubes. I was so annoyed that I sat on it, and then 
I noticed after three weeks the brightness was fading and in five weeks it 
was so dim that you couldn't see it in daylight. I switched out the tube 
and the second one faded in less than 4 weeks. Such a pity, it was a real 
cutie. So your point 6 is important - secure lots of spares.


https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-peO8sP_m8CI/VW1otYjt2rI/AVk/Q6UxQNz95Rc/s1600/scope%2Bclock.jpg

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[neonixie-l] Re: FLW Clocks

[petehand]

I would do that for you. How many have you got?

On Friday, April 17, 2015 at 5:26:47 AM UTC-7, Greg P wrote:

 I wish someone would build a kit that uses the 5971 Alpha tube.  I have a 
 stash of these just waiting to be lit.


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Re: [neonixie-l] FLW Clocks

[petehand]

That is an excellent list.

On Thursday, April 16, 2015 at 9:18:09 AM UTC-7, Nixcited delighted wrote:


 Grahame, I was working on a list of proverbs and quotes mentioning time or 
 related to time in some way, for a similar reason.




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Re: [neonixie-l] Re: Multiplexing noise

[petehand]

A lower voltage on the base would work, or an extra diode in series with 
the EMITTER to raise the turnon voltage by another 0.6V, or just pullup 
resistors on the chip outputs to make sure they go to a righteous 5V. 
Remember you still need those emitter resistors, otherwise the B-E diode 
will short the driver output to Vcc and cook it. It may be worthwhile to 
use those resistors to set the cathode current, since they have to be there 
anyway, and not use an anode resistor. I don't know, I've not tried it 
myself, so you're a pioneer. Be sure and tell us how it works out.

On Thursday, March 12, 2015 at 10:18:22 AM UTC-7, Dekatron42 wrote:

 Thank you for your answer!

 I'll try that as that makes it possible to use either the 74HCT42 or a 
 pair of 74HCT138s instead of a 74141 with just a few extra transistors and 
 resistors, unless you don't want to use anything more modern like any of 
 the Supertex HV-VFD drivers. Thanks for pointing out the difference between 
 TTL and CMOS in this case.

 Would an extra diode in series with the base or lets say a lower voltage 
 on the base work with TTL? If so a simple voltage divider or a zener and 
 resistor to the base would be a simple solution.

 /Martin

 On Thursday, 12 March 2015 17:58:55 UTC+1, petehand wrote:

 Yes, it should work perfectly in that application with a CMOS gate. I 
 would not try it with a TTL gate though, as it relies on the output going 
 to the 5V rail to turn the transistor off and bipolar can't get up there. 
 To use TTL you would need to add pullup resistors to 5V on the gate outputs.

 On Wednesday, March 11, 2015 at 1:34:54 AM UTC-7, Dekatron42 wrote:

 Pete, will the cascode circuit work properly as a cathode driver if you 
 use for instance a 74HCT42 or a 74HCT138 to drive the transistor (they both 
 have inverted outputs going low when selected), using the collector of the 
 transistor to drive the cathode of a Nixie?

 /Martin



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Re: [neonixie-l] Re: Multiplexing noise

[petehand]

Yes, it should work perfectly in that application with a CMOS gate. I would 
not try it with a TTL gate though, as it relies on the output going to the 
5V rail to turn the transistor off and bipolar can't get up there. To use 
TTL you would need to add pullup resistors to 5V on the gate outputs.

On Wednesday, March 11, 2015 at 1:34:54 AM UTC-7, Dekatron42 wrote:

 Pete, will the cascode circuit work properly as a cathode driver if you 
 use for instance a 74HCT42 or a 74HCT138 to drive the transistor (they both 
 have inverted outputs going low when selected), using the collector of the 
 transistor to drive the cathode of a Nixie?

 /Martin


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Re: [neonixie-l] Re: Multiplexing noise

[petehand]

With the conventional circuit, you have two saturated transistor switches, 
each of which needs to turn off to blank the anode. Each may take a few 
microseconds, and the second stage doesn't start its time delay until the 
first stage turn off is completely finished. With most designs the 
transistors are over-driven, which makes the delays worse. Switch-on time 
of the next stage is not delayed, so you can easily get more than 10 
microseconds overlap with the next anode. 

The cascode stage has essentially zero switching time, and with a bit of 
attention to base current and resistor values you can cut the switching 
time of the PNP to a minimum, so even if there is a slight overlap it's 
likely to be less than the ionization time of the next tube. I don't claim 
that this circuit will always eliminate ghosting entirely, but I do assert 
that I've made half a dozen multiplexed clocks using a similar circuit to 
this (I use a 2ms digit period), switching the anodes simultaneously with 
the digit cathodes, and I've never had any ghosting. 

My example 1mA current to turn on Q2 is ridiculously high, by the way. 
Experiment with the R2 emitter resistor - it should work with 100k. But as 
you increase R2, make R1 an equal value, otherwise Q2 won't turn on.

On Thursday, February 26, 2015 at 5:46:52 AM UTC-8, Terry S wrote:

 Pete, that's a nice application for the cascode circuit... Help me 
 understand how it eliminates concerns about dead time and ghosting.
  
 Terry
  

 On Thursday, February 26, 2015 at 3:05:55 AM UTC-6, petehand wrote:


 https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-_PML27wwc9w/VO7hHsuYRwI/ATA/LVcwCOp5mWw/s1600/IN17.jpg
 I did mean to change R22 to 10k, but I can suggest an even better way. 
 This is a circuit I've used to multiplex IN17s, with no dead period and no 
 ghosting. It looks terrifyingly unsafe. Let me explain.

 When the processor pin is high, Q1 base-emitter voltage is 0 and the 
 transistor is cut off. The port pin sees no high voltage. When the port pin 
 goes low the transistor turns on as a constant current source, the current 
 set by (5 - 0.6)V/R2 or about 1mA. This drops 170V across Q1 and 10V across 
 R1, which turns on Q2. Q1 is operating in linear mode, not saturated, so it 
 switches in nanoseconds. Resistor R1 is necessary to help Q2 to switch off 
 rapidly.

 This configuration of Q1 with the implied transistor inside the MPU is 
 called a cascode http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascode.




 On Wednesday, February 25, 2015 at 3:45:43 AM UTC-8, joenixie wrote:

 Hmmm... interesting observation Pete, are you talking about changing R21 
 or R22 to 10K? I chose 100K because I have them in my NixieNeon clock. 

 -joe



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Re: [neonixie-l] Re: Multiplexing noise

[petehand]

One more thing about the cascode. Transistor Q1 is dissipating 170mW with 
the values shown. It may get a little warm - you have to watch that. You 
can put a helper resistor between Q1 collector and Q2 base. The value is 
completely immaterial since the current is set by the R2 emitter resistor, 
so something in the order of 100k will do. This will then dissipate 100mW 
and take the burden off the transistor. But as far as the circuit operation 
is concerned, it's completely unnecessary.

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Re: [neonixie-l] Re: Multiplexing noise

[petehand]

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-_PML27wwc9w/VO7hHsuYRwI/ATA/LVcwCOp5mWw/s1600/IN17.jpg
I did mean to change R22 to 10k, but I can suggest an even better way. This 
is a circuit I've used to multiplex IN17s, with no dead period and no 
ghosting. It looks terrifyingly unsafe. Let me explain.

When the processor pin is high, Q1 base-emitter voltage is 0 and the 
transistor is cut off. The port pin sees no high voltage. When the port pin 
goes low the transistor turns on as a constant current source, the current 
set by (5 - 0.6)V/R2 or about 1mA. This drops 170V across Q1 and 10V across 
R1, which turns on Q2. Q1 is operating in linear mode, not saturated, so it 
switches in nanoseconds. Resistor R1 is necessary to help Q2 to switch off 
rapidly.

This configuration of Q1 with the implied transistor inside the MPU is 
called a cascode http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascode.




On Wednesday, February 25, 2015 at 3:45:43 AM UTC-8, joenixie wrote:

 Hmmm... interesting observation Pete, are you talking about changing R21 
 or R22 to 10K? I chose 100K because I have them in my NixieNeon clock. 

 -joe



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[neonixie-l] Re: Multiplexing noise

[petehand]

Just move R22 etc to the other end of R21 etc, on the base of the PNPs. 
Where they are now, those resistors are are doing nothing but wasting 
power. When the NPNs turn on they're going to draw 1.6mA and drop 160V 
across the 100k resistors R21 etc. You need no more than 3V to turn on the 
PNPs, so in theory you could drop the values of R22 etc to 2.2k, but I 
suggest 10k is more suitable. 100k is way too high and may as well not be 
there.



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Re: [neonixie-l] Re: Little machining Job - slightly OT

[petehand]

Touch of Stockholm Syndrome, Nick? Our captors aren't so bad! Those other 
people over there are much worse! 

Or is the the British stiff upper lip - It's only a flesh wound!

Or has it reached the point of, We've always been at war with Oceana, and 
the chocolate ration has been increased!

I remember when the British VAT was introduced, at 8% by the way, that it 
was going to reduce the income tax.How's that going? I guess what they 
didn't explain was that the British VAT was going to reduce the income tax 
for the* rest of Europe*.

On Saturday, February 7, 2015 at 5:00:34 AM UTC-8, Nick wrote:


 We have 20% VAT on most stuff, but that's on the lowish side for Europe 
 where it goes from about 20% to 25%.

 Certain things, like baby stuff  heating fuel is either VAT-free or at a 
 lower rate.




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Re: [neonixie-l] Re: Little machining Job - slightly OT

[petehand]

Paul Parry's in England. I don't think they have Harbor Freight over there 
- they have to pay double price for everything, and then 20% tax on top. A 
Harbor Freight tool costs less than the tax they charge on a similar tool 
in England.

On Thursday, February 5, 2015 at 7:51:53 AM UTC-8, I wrote:

  
 Rotary tools, like the Dremel, are and have been available from Harbor 
 Freight Tools, HFT for short, also known as The Adult Male Toy Store. 
  

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[neonixie-l] Re: B7971 Ultronics ticker display?

[petehand]

I say these are not B7971 displays. They are too large, and the segments 
are too fat for neon and not evenly lit. They have bright spots, as if lit 
from behind by incandescent lamps. I happen to have a similar incandescent 
lamp display, though smaller, made by IEEE.

On Thursday, January 22, 2015 at 6:51:36 AM UTC-8, Nick wrote:

 Pretty sure this is a B7971-based display, though not 100% certain - I've 
 not seen this photo before - it could be a segmented incandescent 
 display... the font looks right...

 There are plenty of distant photos of such displays, but I've not seen 
 one like this in close-up...

 Thoughts?

 Nick


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[neonixie-l] Re: Little machining Job - slightly OT

[petehand]

Have you looked to see if you can buy brass tube stock? Here's some I found 
in a few minutes -

https://www.onlinemetals.com/merchant.cfm?pid=19814step=4showunits=inchesid=84top_cat=79

It's 25 thousandths oversize outside diameter but precisely right inside. 
You need about seven inches, allowing for waste. Now this is of course in 
the USA and we've never heard of that metric hooha, but if you look I'm 
sure someone in Europe must sell brass tube with 15mm OD and 3mm walls. You 
can clean out 0.5mm inside with a drill more easily than you can turn down 
the outside, then cut it into 7mm lengths with a pipe cutter or even a 
hacksaw.

If you want, I can buy this stuff and make them for you.

On Wednesday, February 4, 2015 at 8:30:48 AM UTC-8, Paul Parry wrote:

 Hi Guys,

 Anyone suggest where I can get some little spacers made ( brass preferably 
 ) I need 15mm O/D with a 9.5mm I/D hole and 7mm in height. They are to 
 allow me to fit some little glass tubes that hold little Neon colon 
 indicators into some regular 15mm copper pipe fittings.
 It would take someone with a lathe about half an hour, but it isn't 
 something I have. I would need 20 of them and clean out of ideas. One 
 engineering company quoted me a 3 figure price just to set a lathe up :(

 Kind regards,
 Paul



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[neonixie-l] Re: 5 x CD27s on eBay...

[petehand]

I think I'll suggest that he reposts and sells them singly. Maybe he should 
put them on Etsy as antiques, there seem to be a lot of monied folk over 
there.


On Sunday, October 5, 2014 5:08:45 PM UTC-7, gregebert wrote:

 No bidders came forward to start at $2500 US. It's amusing to watch the 
 bid-up during the last few seconds on these auctions, but the starting 
 price was probably too high.


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[neonixie-l] Re: 5 x CD27s on eBay...

[petehand]

Not my auction either, but I know the seller, and he brought me these tubes 
to check out. I wired them up and created the composite photo to show all 
the digits evenly lit at 4mA. All the tubes are a little darkened, but it's 
very slight in the one on the left and most marked in the one on the right 
- I arranged them in order of darkening, left to right. It doesn't make 
much visible difference when the tubes are lit.

I thought he might sell them one at a time, but I see he's selling them as 
a set. Price wise, I think he's going by the fact that Z568s seem to go for 
$400 and they are common as dirt by comparison.


On Monday, September 29, 2014 3:27:47 AM UTC-7, Nick wrote:

 Not my auction - they are rare tubes though... 
 http://www.ebay.com/itm/221561797737  
 http://www.ebay.com/itm/221561797737

 No activity by the vendor in the last 12 months... who knows? They seem 
 pretty up-front about the slight darkening on a couple of the tubes.

 Nick


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[neonixie-l] Re: Looking for documentation package for pete hands old FW-4 clock board

[petehand]

Sorry Michael, I don't remember seeing your email or I would have replied. 
I should put all the docs on a web site somewhere. I still have some PCBs 
if anyone wants one.

Pete


On Thursday, August 21, 2014 8:08:35 AM UTC-7, michael ohara wrote:

 I found an old FW-4 board but I don't have the instructions for it (which 
 switch does what, what kind of wall wart does it need?)
 Does anyone here have a copy of those files? I tried emailing pete hand at 
 the last address I had but haven't heard back.
 Many thanks for your assistance.

 (I bought some 7971s and plan on getting this working...)


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[neonixie-l] Re: Strange Strobe Behavior on my Nixie Clock

[petehand]

Looks like a design problem to me. The proper way to blank a nixie tube is 
to remove the anode voltage, either by killing the HV power supply or 
disabling the anode drivers. If you leave the power on and the anodes 
multiplexing with no cathode grounded, the anode has some capacitance to 
ground, and the multiplex signal is effectively AC, so some small anode 
current flows and the gas glows. I had a cathode go open circuit on one of 
my clocks - it was the '8' of minutes - and when that digit was selected, 
the whole inside of the tube lit up with a dim diffuse glow. Being as it 
stayed like that for a whole minute it was quite noticeable. Since in this 
case it's entire digits lighting up, probably the cathode driver is 
breaking down. Does it use one of the Russian 74141 equivalents? They're 
only rated for about 70V and if there is no cathode grounded to pull the 
anode voltage down, considerably more than 70V can appear at the driver.

The clock probably won't die from this problem for years, but why take a 
chance? If I were you, I wouldn't use the timer function to turn off the 
tubes, since the tubes run continuously will last longer than a TTL chip 
being broken down by HV pulses on a regular basis.

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[neonixie-l] Re: Extraordinary nixie/dekatron clock design

[petehand]

What kay486 said - spoiling the ship for a ha'porth of tar. But if the 
front panel was in cyrillic and it was knocked about a bit, all rusty and 
dented and with intermittent faults, then those nixies might be appropriate.

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Re: [neonixie-l] Re: O.T.but...

[petehand]

Is THAT what the V-shaped thing is for? I'm indebted to you sir - I never 
knew what it was for.


On Tuesday, July 22, 2014 10:39:42 PM UTC-7, Nixcited delighted wrote:

 I use a fairly cheap device found in most UK hardware/tool shops as part 
 of a sliding rule set. In my case it included just the sliding square on 
 the left and the circle centre finder on the right. The middle piece is an 
 angle finder/setter.

 You use the centre finder in exactly the way Nick described - place the 
 angle around your circle in several places and draw lines along the rule. 
 Where the lines intersect is your point. Punch it and drill.



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Re: [neonixie-l] A use for all those Itron displays I've got in the garage

[petehand]

Grahame,

Your comment nagged at me, so I did include Huffman compression and got 
nearly 100k of text down to 48k. I wrote a program to take a text file and 
output it a line at a time to a file I can directly include in my AVR code, 
along with the Huffman tree and a symbol table for looking up the string 
addresses. It took me a few days, including a 40 hour day over a weekend, 
but the satisfaction pays for all.

On Sunday, July 6, 2014 10:38:12 AM UTC-7, Grahame Marsh wrote:

  Pete,
 snip
 Did you use any compression for the text? I just about doubled the number 
 of proverbs I could fit in doing so.



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Re: [neonixie-l] What type/size of plug for power supply of clock?

[petehand]

The most common size is 2.5mm barrel, 1.2mm pin. It looks like one of those.


On Saturday, July 12, 2014 11:59:54 PM UTC-7, Dman777 wrote:

 But  I can't tell what size that is...don't they come in different sizes?

 Thanks,
 -Darin



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Re: [neonixie-l] A use for all those Itron displays I've got in the garage

[petehand]

Grahame,

Thank you for the idea. I looked at the proverb list on your site, but in 
the end I used a combination of several other lists that includes 
quotations. I have other kinds of list I've been putting together, 
including bible verses and latin epithets, but regrettably I have only one 
lifetime and many other things to do with it.

The basis of this clock was a full calendar that I wrote some years ago. It 
knows how to work out all the special days, including Easter, and has a 
variety of messages for all of them. Apart from what I put in, it will 
store user messages in EEPROM for birthday and anniversary reminders, etc. 
American calendar, though - perhaps I should do a British calendar version 
and send it to my mother. She would appreciate the bible verses. I made the 
prototype with some HP LED dot matrix displays I had laying around, 
HDSP2503 - simple parallel interface - but they cost nearly $50 each and 
the clock needs two, so my attention turned to the VFDs.

I considered using compression, but I had 64k of flash available and found 
it difficult to fill it up even uncompressed. Besides, see comment above 
about number of available lifetimes.

Here's a pic of the HDSP clock. I have a bag of Noritake graphic VFDs that 
I rescued from a dumpster, complete display, serial/parallel. I haven't 
quite decided what to do with them. It seems sacrilegious to waste them on 
text or numbers. Maybe I'll do a clock with rolling graphic numbers like an 
odometer.

Pete

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-T2Jb_ePgwnY/U7pg5AP7T1I/ALo/0pzZDFZpsQs/s1600/HDSP+clock.jpg

 

 Pete,

 I'm glad you found the ideas useful. I have a much larger proverb list 
 which I chose from for my proverb generator when I became short of flash.  
 I can let you (or anyone else) have it to play with. It includes a lot of 
 other sayings, almost duplicates and the Way of Mrs Cosmopolite (Thief of 
 Time, Terry Pratchett).  Also here

 http://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/index.php/The_Way_of_Mrs._Cosmopilite

 I also have a few hundred proverbs in French (somewhere).

 Did you use any compression for the text? I just about doubled the number 
 of proverbs I could fit in doing so.

 I have a few 20x4 Itron display but I have been seriously distracted by 
 scope clocks.  They requires just 5V and generate all the required VFD 
 voltages and multiplex signals, and have a simple parallel interface.  I 
 was going to use a SD card for text storage as simple ascii files so they 
 could be edited on a PC and then the SD card transfered into the 
 clock/proverb.  With just a 1 MB card that is almost infinite storage.

 Cheers Grahame



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Re: [neonixie-l] Will Nixies match correctly if they all come from the same case/batch?

[petehand]

Soviet era nixies are not admired for their quality control. The digit 
alignment can be off noticeably even with tubes from the same batch in the 
same box. Soviet VFDs are just as bad - I've had IV16s out of the same box 
that differed by as much as 50% in brightness, so I have to program the 
duty cycle for each digit individually in the software to get them matched. 
If you want a matched set your best bet is to buy a box of 100, sort out 
six or a dozen that look close, and sell the rest. Otherwise buy American 
tubes - they don't cost a lot more these days and they'll have a proper '5' 
as well.

On Friday, June 27, 2014 2:01:27 PM UTC-7, Dman777 wrote:

 Ok, would the whole same batch be inside the same carton? And would it be 
 better to get a carton that has never been opened? Or would it be better to 
 get a carton that has been opened with the tubes tested by the seller? I 
 wasn't sure if that would mean the batch could get mixed up with others if 
 they get tested. 

 Thanks,
 -Darin



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Re: [neonixie-l] Re: Nixie Clock - Time Cycle enough to protect against cathode poisoning? Without slot machine effect

[petehand]

On Wednesday, June 25, 2014 9:48:29 AM UTC-7, Jonathan wrote:

 I guess i don't know why cathode poisoning is such a big deal. If the 
 digits i don't use don't work, what do I care?

 I guess I agree with you. With wired-in tubes you don't have the option to 
rotate them anyway, and it's highly unlikely they'll ever be unsoldered for 
reuse. Once they're soldered in and the leads clipped, it's a life 
sentence. I have had to deal with some protests from the tens minutes and 
tens seconds nixies in my clocks once they realize their higher anodes are 
wasted, and the tens hours nixies sometimes get suicidally depressed, but 
with proper counseling they eventually accept their fate and I haven't had 
one follow through with its suicide threat yet.

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Re: [neonixie-l] A use for all those Itron displays I've got in the garage

[petehand]

In principle yes, but it's difficult to put together a kit for a surface 
mount project. For one thing, I can't program the QFP processor chip until 
it's soldered into the board. I can do you an assembled board if you like.

On Wednesday, June 25, 2014 3:51:02 AM UTC-7, William Lee wrote:

 Very nice!  Any chance of a kit?

  

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Re: [neonixie-l] Without words

[petehand]

What does he care? He was only asking for $6000 on Kickstarter and raised 
nearly $20,000. I've seen other primitive Nixie projects on Kickstarter 
raise similarly unbelievable amounts.

What I want to know is, who are these people willing to hand over that sort 
of money. Obviously Kickstarter is the place to find them.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-bDjxPM6a6NQ/U6tCld8ccOI/ALM/F_izaGho3os/s1600/kickstarter.jpg
On Wednesday, June 25, 2014 12:03:34 PM UTC-7, Tidak Ada wrote:
Saw  the clock already on YouTube. No dispute for tastes, but besides that, 
the price is (ridiculous) high. 

eric 



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Re: [neonixie-l] MC34063 SMPS questions

[petehand]

There are so many things wrong with this circuit that I scarcely know where 
to start.

The basic operation of an up convertor is that a certain amount of power 
from the low voltage supply is stored as magnetic energy in the coil, and 
then released as high voltage when the field collapses. Hhopefully most of 
it goes into the output capacitor. You cannot of course get more power out 
than goes in, and every milliWatt of it has to be stored and then released 
by the magnetic core on the way.

Let's start with C8, the cap directly on the coil. At the moment of turn 
on, this capacitor supplies essentially all of the coil current until it 
discharges - thus completely defeating the current limiting function of the 
34063, which senses only the current flowing through R3-R6. The coil could 
saturate and the chip still think it has no current at all.

The coil is 220uH and there is some series resistance, 0.5R in the FET, 
0.25R in R3-R6 and some unknown series resistance in the PSU and elsewhere. 
Let's guess it's 1 ohm total. The time constant of the coil = L/R, or in 
this case 220us. Note that the bigger the series resistance, the smaller is 
the time constant - counter-intuitive, but true. The time constant is the 
time it takes the inductor current to rise to 63% of its final value, which 
in this case would be about 12V/1R or 12 amps. Unless you run it from a car 
battery the PSU probably can't source that much current, but that doesn't 
matter in the short term. 63% of 12A is 7.56A. If we assume the current 
rises in a linear fashion, which it does approximately, the straight line 
from 0 to 7.56 takes 220 microseconds. If you were to plot that on a graph 
you would see that the current passes the coil saturation point of 1.25A 
after 36 microseconds - actually it will be a bit less, because the current 
rises faster at the beginning. (If the current limit was working properly 
it would limit the current to about 1.2A.) The switching frequency is set 
by C3 and with 1nF, the frequency is about 33kHz. The maximum on period 
is therefore 30 microseconds, which is kind of close to the saturation 
point. You must not, therefore, make the timing capacitor C3 any larger 
than 1nF unless you also increase the size of the coil.

Now, power-in versus power-out. If you want 180V at 35mA, that's 6.3W at 
the output. Allowing for 85% efficiency (the 34063 spec) that's about 7.5W 
at the input. From a 12V supply, that requires a mean forward current of 
625mA in the coil. The current waveform is roughly a triangle and the 
maximum permissible peak current is less than twice the required mean - 
therefore, you can only just barely put enough energy into the inductor to 
get close but still short of the output you want, running flat out with no 
losses. To get more, you need to use a physically bigger inductor and 
reduce the current limit resistors, to input and store more energy.

Let's look next at the losses. Only one thing really matters in a flyback 
convertor and that's how fast you can turn off the switching transistor, 
because every nanosecond the drain voltage takes to rise, it's dissipating 
magnetic energy that isn't going into the output. The dual emitter follower 
configuration Q1-Q3 in the schematic doesn't do a good job here. For a 
start, the NPN Q1 is not only unnecessary, it's harmful. We don't care how 
slowly the FET turns ON, only how fast it turns OFF. We want to wham that 
FET gate down to ground so hard and so fast it doesn't know what it it, and 
all Q1 does is fight it. Q1 could be replaced with a 4.7k resistor (and R12 
removed). Then there's the configuration of Q3. Emitter followers are fast, 
but they have a very high input impedance (rie * hfe) - for the 2N3906 in 
this configuration, it would be in the region of 20-50k. Since the 34063 in 
this configuration can only source current and not sink it, any stray 
capacitance on the base side has to discharge through Q3 and R11, with R11 
being dominant. If the stray capacitance is 25pF, the time constant is 125 
nanoseconds, which is the time for the voltage to fall by 63%. At (100-63)% 
of 12V the base of Q3 is still at 4.5V. and its emitter is Vbe above that, 
ie at 5V - the FET is therefore still turned hard on. Then it gets worse, 
because the discharge curve flattens after 1 time constant - it takes about 
5 time constants to lose 95% of the charge, so over the next microsecond 
the FET gate voltage falls slowly from 5V to 1V, and the FET channel 
resistance rises equally slowly. During that whole time, the magnetic 
energy in the coil has an easier path to ground than through the rectifier 
to the output. It's all wasted by making the FET hot.

So without totally ripping up the circuit, here's my suggestion. 
- Remove C8, the cap across the coil, and replace C2.
- Remove Q1 and replace it with a 4.7k resistor. Remove R12.
- Replace R11 with a 680 ohm 1/4 watt to shorten the rise time.

If you really want to rip up the circuit, 

[neonixie-l] Re: Camera Neons

[petehand]

Maybe these small neons? Left in the picture - a standard neon is on the 
right for comparison. The grid on the paper is 5mm, 0.2 inches.

These are Chicago Miniature Lamp, part number A1B, Mouser part number 
606-A1B.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-keKTXtdXf3Q/U4vFVLAxiDI/AKM/ZSyq_XlkGMA/s1600/small+neon.jpg

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[neonixie-l] Re: About this type edge lit display.

[petehand]

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-IWUu0t6ko9k/U3nDLaAWO_I/AJQ/EqyZQC4SXGA/s1600/pds008001.jpg

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-vpATmPZ5wDM/U3nDOOUclfI/AJY/YUW4jOxxBKA/s1600/pds008005.jpg

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-i22XeRGHqaw/U3nDHipi5XI/AJI/xRcJfC0Nilc/s1600/pds008004.jpg
They are nice displays - I had a handful of them once, that plugged in to a 
multi pin socket.

Now I have a few of these - rather special ones, made by Stanley 
Electronics, Tokyo. 

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[neonixie-l] Re: About this type edge lit display.

[petehand]

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-u8DwLE_kL9s/U3nFJK65rRI/AJs/JLNhKAD8cxc/s1600/pds008006.jpg

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-I1tQBB_DVtc/U3nEaPZMzWI/AJk/laPR0MaAJsM/s1600/pds008007.jpg
This is what they were made for and what they look like lit up. There are 
color filters between the lamps and the acrylic. The machine is a small 
bartop slot machine, made around 1970. It's tiny, about 12 inches in each 
direction. It was a complete wreck when I got it, but it cleaned up nicely.

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[neonixie-l] Re: VFD power supply plans or kits?

[petehand]

LM9022 - tens if not hundreds of thousands of them available here -

http://www.chinaicmart.com/buyer/search.html?sel1=1keyword=LM9022Submit.x=0Submit.y=0Submit=Submit

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Re: [neonixie-l] Nixie thermometer in Elektor journal

[petehand]

I had a bit of trouble finding the SHT21 in the US - all I could find from 
Sensirion was a *Parallax module at $43 
http://www.digikey.com/product-search/en?vendor=0keywords=sensirion* - 
but the *SI7020-A10 from Silicon Labs 
http://www.silabs.com/Support%20Documents/TechnicalDocs/Si7020.pdf*appears to 
be an exact equivalent for $3.50.

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Re: [neonixie-l] Interesting document on Krypton-doped nixies,,,

[petehand]

I notice in the Burroughs Bulletin N101 Nick posted that the block diagram 
on page 2 shows a core memory! Reference in the text to the recirculation 
loop leaves no doubt. I'm curious to know if anyone has ever seen a Nixie 
instrument with a core memory? Presumably they must have existed sometime, 
somewhere, but I would have thought the cost - together with the 
recirculation loop and write electronics - would be substantially more 
than a few BCD to decimal decoders, even in the days before TTL.

I do recall, however, that one of the Anita nixie calculators had a 
magnetic memory - a torsion delay line. It was kind of like a clock spring 
made out of stiff wire. An actuator would twist it at one end and the 
torsion wave would go round all the coils and appear at the other end some 
milliseconds later, where it was sensed and fed back to the beginning. So 
you could store data in it, like a very fast tape loop.

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[neonixie-l] Re: Four CD27's on eBay again.....

[petehand]

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-Rm3RaXGYkcs/U040lK3pWfI/AIc/9Lcz8hEWZeA/s1600/P1010675.jpg

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-i7r0-PwKwl8/U040g0gUHwI/AIU/X_A2mLw9q4w/s1600/P1010674.jpg
Oh yes, the photo is genuine. Here are a couple of hi-res pics for future 
reference. A friend of mine has five, and has asked me to try and sell them 
for him.



On Monday, September 23, 2013 1:10:01 AM UTC-7, Nick wrote:

 On Sunday, 22 September 2013 12:13:47 UTC+1, MrNixie (UK) wrote:

 CAUTION! New eBayer! Genuine photo, but genuine offer???


 True - they have no feedback as a seller. The photo may be genuine as 
 Google Images can't find anything similar.

 Caveat emptor ! 

 Nick


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[neonixie-l] Re: Trigger clock revisited

[petehand]

Last word on the trigger clock, from me anyway:

Upping the anode resistors to 43k didn't work as expected. I finally 
settled on the optimum value at 30k. I swapped the 50 minute tube with its 
associated nixie driver tube. The ring counted just fine but the '5' never 
went out - the tube was WAY too sensitive and had to be changed out.

Most unexpectedly, it now runs just fine in the light and in the dark 
without any UV stimulation. It seemed to be getting a bit sensitive, so I 
removed the LEDs as an experiment. None of the rings has missed a step in 
over a week. Perhaps after being run continuously for three or four weeks, 
the tubes aged and settled down.

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[neonixie-l] Re: Whatbox

[petehand]

Let's apply some engineering to see what kind of battery would do the job.

Assuming a neon strikes at 90V and extinguishes at 60V, the average voltage 
across the resistor would be 15V. Initially, I arbitrarily choose the 
series resistor to be 1M and the capacitor to be 2.2nF. The flash rate 
would be about 1 every 2 seconds. The average current per neon would be 15 
microamps. Let's say there are 8, and we want it to run for a year (8000 
hours), that means we need 960mA-hrs.

Somehow I don't think the old radio battery was anywhere near an amp-hour. 
So how about 10M resistor and 1nF capacitor. The flash rate would be about 
1 every 10 seconds. It wouldn't be very busy or very bright but with 8 
lamps, something would be happening often enough to be interesting. The 
average current would be 1.5uA so for a year we would need about 100mA-hr. 
That's doable.

So take a block of something insulating - wood might do - 3 inches square 
by an inch deep, drill four 1/2 inch holes right through, each hole takes 
15 LR44-size cells. Fashion a couple of end plates out of PCB material, 
solder on bits of spring out of a ball point pen. Solder a neon christmas 
tree together like joenixie, attach to base and connect to battery ends. 
Stick it on top of the TV and enjoy it for a year. Sounds like a perfect 
wet afternoon project for the (grand)kids!

Now excuse me while I submit this as a little project to fill the gap in my 
favorite magazine. Actually, all kidding aside, this is the kind of thing 
that might appeal to Make Magazine.

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Re: [neonixie-l] Re: Whatbox

[petehand]

Wow, it's been a while since I saw one of those.

These are better value - 75V in this pack for $3. But you'd have to make a 
holder.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/50pcs-x-AG13-G13-L1154-LR44-SG13-357-A76-303-GP76-Button-Cell-Coin-Battery-T7-/121208181765?pt=US_Single_Use_Batterieshash=item1c38921405


On Thursday, April 3, 2014 11:43:06 AM UTC-7, charles wrote:


 Or link a bunch of these 

 http://www.ebay.ca/itm/2-15F20-22-5V-Carbon-Zinc-Battery-412-U15-VS084-MN122-/220781419843?pt=US_Single_Use_Batterieshash=item3367991d43
  




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[neonixie-l] Re: Touch sensitive Nixe?

[petehand]

You should probably un-bin it and run it for a couple of days before doing 
anything so rash. I brought up a set of B6091s this week that had been 
sitting in a box for years. One of them worked. On the others, some 
cathodes wouldn't light, some struck at the pins but not the numeral, one 
wouldn't work at all - I finally got it to light just the '1' cathode by 
zapping the envelope with my wife's tazer. All of them flickered. I left 
them on overnight and 24 hours later, all work, all cathodes, no flicker.

On Wednesday, April 2, 2014 2:56:43 AM UTC-7, Paul Parry wrote:


 Many thanks for the advice,
  
 I raised the voltage to 180v and the tube seemed to behave more like I 
 would expect and at 190v was ok. However the other tubes in the multiplex 
 developed a hazy pink glow so I quickly turned the voltage back down. I can 
 only conclude that the tube is on its last legs and I would never use 
 anything even remotely suspect so I've binned it.
 I had another tube that for some reason the bottom half of the digit would 
 not light, is Neon lighter than air and just risen to the top of the tube?
  
 Cheers,
 Paul
  


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Re: [neonixie-l] Re: Trigger clock revisited

[petehand]

Oooh, those are sterilizing wavelength. They could erase an EPROM and do 
some damage to your eyesight.

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