IN-12 Socket compatibility

[Erick Anderson]

I've been toying with the idea of building a Nixie Sudoku like the one posted on Trashbear Labs. I don't know whether I can use some other tube instead of the IN-12's shown. I've never been a fan of the 5 made from an inverted 2. Looking at Dieter's database I can see that there are a number of  tubes (e.g. ZM1180) of similar size and with a similar-looking pin arrangement on the bottom, but I don't know if they're similar enough to use the same socket. The other problem is finding an alternate tube in sufficient quantity to build the thing.

Alternately I could try to adapt the design to use the smaller IN-17 tube since that one has a proper 5. I've never done any PCB design before so that would be a challenge.

[Adam Jacobs]

I guarantee that the IN-12 was selected because it is available for
cheap and in high quantity.. The fact that it is also 18mm digit height
is bonus. (Sad to say, 18mm digit height nowadays is considered very large.)
The IN-17 would also be a good solution, since it is also cheap, but I
think they have a 9mm digit height. You would need less power to drive
IN-17's. I've never understood this hangup that some people have about
the "upside down 2's". But as I've said before: You all can keep your
hangups.. it just drives down prices on the offending nixies and more
nixies for me. :)

-Adam W7QI

> before so that would be a challenge. --
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[Dieter Waechter]

Hi!
The bases are slightly different.
Here at page 5 you will find the russian version RHS31a
http://www.tube-tester.com/sites/nixie/dat_arch/russian_bases.pdf

And here the oter (SK-136) version:
http://www.tube-tester.com/sites/nixie/dat_arch/Siemens_1972-04.pdf
Dieter

[Jon]

Availability of nixies is a pretty dominant consideration for this kind of design IMHO. When I was building the 42 tube clock (video here: http://youtu.be/4FnxWsp58EM), I thought about this bit for quite some time. There really wasn't anything to touch the availability and $/tube of IN-12 (unfortunately). IN-17 are really pretty small and I always find the display rather fuzzy and indistinct. Plus they're leaded, which gives a maintenance disadvantage on a tightly packed 2D display field. The simplicity of just plugging in a replacement IN-12 is pretty unbeatable.

 

I believe I have one clock kit left, in case anyone's interested... :)

 

Jon.

[Turbokeu]

On Saturday, 21 July 2012 03:08:41 UTC+2, Adam Jacobs wrote:

I've never understood this hangup that some people have about
the "upside down 2's". But as I've said before: You all can keep your
hangups.. it just drives down prices on the offending nixies and more
nixies for me. :)

 

It's congenital...;)
I just can't stand those hideous upside down '2' digits as '5' (as I can't stand orange nixies).
I even sold my finished IN-8-2 nixieclock with CNC'ed aluminum K8 Klok housing to one of my sisters because I don't like the smaller shape of the '4' digit of the IN-8-2 ('4' shape as you can see here: http://www.tube-tester.com/sites/nixie/data/I/IN-8-2/in-8-2.htm).

The only russian nixies that I'm keeping are my 24 pieces of IN-18 tubes.
IN-18 with Klok K7 housing: http://www.turbokeu.com/myprojects/nixie/pict0014.jpg

When you own lots of nixies (I started to collect/buy them in 2004) you start to pay attention to the shape and the height/width ratio of the digits, the shape of the anode grid (wire, honeycomb) and the overall beautiness of the nixie.

In the smaller nixies (16mm) my preference goes largely to the Japanese Rodan CD66:
http://www.turbokeu.com/myprojects/nixie/pict0033.jpg
Fortunately I was able to buy 14 pieces NOS of them for about 30$.

In the very small nixies I started with a cheap set of 50 pieces of IN-17 (9mm) that I never used.
In the meanwhile I found sets of minimum six pieces of Burroughs B4998, B7977 and Okaya CD13a (smallest nixies available: 7.8mm).
BTW, a week ago I sold my set of unused  50x IN-17 at the price of 1€/each (which is what I payed for at the time).

Why?
IN-17: http://www.turbokeu.com/myprojects/nixie/pict0040.jpg
Okaya CD13a: http://www.turbokeu.com/myprojects/nixie/pict0041.jpg

Chris 'Turbokeu'