SP-351 and SP-352 Panaplex displays

[Tomasz Kowalczyk]

I've came across a deal for some piece of equipment containing these two displays for 15$. As panaplex displays weren't used in my country back in the day of their times as lab equipment, they almost never appear on auctions here.

As I wasn't ever looking for the prices of panaplex displays on eBay, I did not track their prices and therefore I'm asking here - is 1x SP-351, 1x SP-352, used and glowing after powering up the said equipment worth 15$? Or are there better NOS displays for similar price appearing now and then on eBay or somewhere?

The equipment might contain some driver chips, but can also be damaged - it is supposed to be powered from 120VAC and I have no trust to the seller, so he might have powered it from 230VAC (display would survive this, but the circuitry - I don't think so).

[gregebert]

If you like segmented displays, and want to do some experimenting, this is a chance to get some at reasonable price. I've seen these displays listed for sale a few times. There's a good chance the equipment has a nice transformer for producing nixie and logic supply voltages.

I've used a similar display (SP151); very straightforward, but the pins are not on a 0.1" grid, so you'd want to make a small PCB to bring the pins to a usable connector. Perfect OSH Park project, and if you like the displays and get more, just run some more boards. I've heard sockets exist for these, but I've never actually seen one.

Trying to reverse engineer the design has many drawbacks; might be worth the effort if it's in a nice instrument case.

[Tomasz Kowalczyk]

Thanks for answer. I ended up not buying them  - I think that it is not wise to buy "experimental" pieces that I'm not likely to use unless they are very cheap, and 15$ isn't what I'd call cheap.

Making own PCBs is not a problem for me, fortunately, so if I end up buying some panaplex display I will be able to mount it somehow.