Electroluminescent displays (I-195)

[gregebert]

On a whim, I bought 4 E-L displays I saw on Ebay; According to the seller they are Soviet I-195 units.

Anybody happen to have a datasheet ? The seller posted enough info for me to get them running, though nothing beats the genuine datasheet even if I cant read it.

I've had only limited experience with E-L displays, and they dont seem to be very reliable, but they were just too unique for me to pass-up, especially given their 95x65mm size.

[Dekatron42]

Unfortunately I don't have any datasheets for these but I bought a few probably from the same seller but I can't get any of them to shine as bright as they do in his photos.

I've driven them at the voltages, frequencies and currents that the seller told me and also with a very similar setup like his with a dynamotor and a variac to produce the correct voltages but mine shines maybe a quarter as bright as they do in his photos. I've also driven them from a power output of one of my school experiment oscillators which was then hooked up to a small transformer to produce the correct driving conditions. Either I got a poor batch from the seller or there is something else that don't add up. I've bought similar (larger and smaller) and identical displays from other sellers that shine a lot better than these did.

I got most of the information on these from Russian books and from this webpage: http://www.155la3.ru/electroluminescent.htm

/Martin

[Keith Moore]

Oh my!  I must have some...  Droooool!

[gregebert]

Although the E-L display look neat, I've concluded it's not possible to showcase them in a clock that runs 24/7 because of the poor lifetime of ~500 hours from what I've researched. Assuming I get them running, it will be more of a museum-piece clock.

I'd be interested in teaming-up with someone who has a 3D printer to make 'fake' displays with green neon bulbs to emulate this particular E-L display. They would have very long lifetimes and have a similar color, not to mention, the large size.

[gregebert]

Of course, small LED or OLED displays would be even better and you could match any display color or style.....But that's blasphemy for neon enthusiasts.

[robin bussell]

On 29/03/2016 18:26, gregebert wrote:

> I'd be interested in teaming-up with someone who has a 3D printer to
> make 'fake' displays with green neon bulbs to emulate this particular
> E-L display. They would have very long lifetimes and have a similar
> color, not to mention, the large size.
>

I have a 3D printer that's currently loaded with a nice transparent PETG
filament... The printer actually behaves itself most of the time too,
nowadays :) If I were to use ABS then a bit of acetone would frost the
plastic nicely I daresay.

What had you in mind?

Cheers,
Robin.










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[gregebert]

I was thinking of a PCB with various green neon bulbs (there are other colors as well), and a driver that will get us AC on the bulbs (such as an HV507). On top of the PC board would be a 3D-printed gizmo (black, so it's opaque) that fit over the bulbs to create isolated light patterns for the various segments, and a plastic or glass top-cover. The cover would need to be tinted or colored so you wouldn't see the underlying bulbs.

I'm not sure if you would want to coat the interior of the 3D printed block with a shiny/reflective surface, to maximize emitted light. 3D objects as-printed are not polished, though I've heard you can give them a vapor-bath in acetone to do that.

----------------------------------

I already have a 7x9 neon-bulb matrix display on the drawing-board; obviously that would be much easier to build. But it lacks the artistry of a nixie and E-L display pictured earlier.

[Cqr]

Ah, you're thinking of a printed mask when I was thinking printed light pipe diffusers... Both are possible :) Can you do the Cad to produce an STL file I could try and print?

Otherwise I could have a go if you do some sort of drawing.

Cheers,

.   Robin.

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[gregebert]

My only experience with STL generation is with OpenSCAD; creating a model for the I-195 would be difficult because the shapes are so odd. On the other hand, making the model for a 7x9 matrix for NE-2 bulbs would be pretty simple and could be done in a few minutes.

I'm going to wait until I get my displays and have a chance to light them up to see if like them enough to make copies of them. Here's a picture from the seller with all segments lit. From that you could produce a model for 3D printing. This display is pretty large: 65x95mm so each segment is roughly 1/4" thick (about the diameter of a neon bulb....).

If I do decide to go ahead, I'll be making PCB's for the 7x9 dot-matrix, and this I-195. I predict the I-195 will use 26 to 28 bulbs.