Large Panaplex

[Nicholas Stock]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/226161298750

This contains two of the largest Panaplex displays that were made (SP431). Not my auction etc, and the price is aspirational... but hey!

Cheers,

Nick

[ZY]

Oh hey, that looks similar to the module I have that I posted here before, although I see small differences in the specifics in the pcb: https://groups.google.com/g/neonixie-l/c/Dh7IQG7DE1U/m/e3TvnstYAgAJ

I purchased a desoldering tool but never got to the point of actually desoldering the tubes from my module yet due to being too busy, it's still sitting in my work area. I need to get to it to save on workspace.

I paid a fraction of the price for my module compared to that listing though.

[Nick Andrews]

Haha, that figures for Houston doinks.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to neonixie-l+...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/CAOX%2BRHLu-K7KJ3gNEsvweTy0A3HqOVJqCD4bY6txMZ9HNxRCdw%40mail.gmail.com.

[gregebert]

2-inch tall numerals, which is pretty big. For that price I'd stay with b7971, though.

[Richard Scales]

As some of you may know - I just love Panaplex displays - though I now know exactly how much I love them, the answer being - not enough to sell yet another kidney to buy that thing :-(

@zy, if you ever decide to part with the one you have then I'd love to have a go with it - but as suggested above - I'm all out of organs to sell !

- Richard

[gregebert]

OK, so we all know size matters when it comes to all things nixie. Are there panaplex displays even larger than the SP431 ?

[Nicholas Stock]

Yes, the NEO-8000M is probably the largest plasma based display that was available (I think).

The only link I can find is an old TubeClockDB post (https://www.tubeclockdb.com/planar-neon-displays/170-neo-8000m-plasma-display)

I used to have one of the smaller NEO-5000 types, but it was well worn....

To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/4a03be44-1296-4da2-aabf-761a2e2688cbn%40googlegroups.com.

[Terry Kennedy]

If you're willing to settle for a VFD, the ILC1 1/7 is about the size of a soda can:

[gregebert]

I have the next-size down ILC1 1/8 for a future project. Fortunately, I'm retired now so all of the upcoming projects will use tubes I acquired when I had a paycheck. Hopefully I'll leave a mountain of completed and functional clocks in my estate, rather than a few boxes of tubes that never got to do anything other than gather dust.

[Michail Wilson]

Terry,

Do you know if a kit yet exists for those?

M1

Sent from Space

On Feb 27, 2025, at 7:17 PM, Terry Kennedy <terry-...@glaver.org> wrote:

If you're willing to settle for a VFD, the ILC1 1/7 is about the size of a soda can:

To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/f3869ffb-a974-45ea-9cf0-9f2d7ad8453cn%40googlegroups.com.

<ilc117hand.jpg>

[Richard Scales]

I think that hey key to total success for these displays is to use a true 5V A/C for the filaments. Many have used transformers to achieve this but some have produced small power supplies for true 5VAC. I bought a couple of them and they are sitting here ready for a window of opportunity to drive them. The rest is fairly simple (I believe!) and there are a number of different drivers that people have used to switch the segments. After that I plan to use my regular panaplex clock code to  actually form the displays. 

It's all just a matter of time ......

 - Richard

[Terry Kennedy]

I don't know of one, but you could start with any 7-segment VFD clock kit. These tubes have grids, so they can be multiplexed. That's why my idea for a giant IV-26 clock never went anywhere - no control grids, so you need a driver output for every dot.

You'll probably need to tweak (or buffer) the clock's segment and grid drivers, and you'll likely need an AC filament supply (these tubes are so big that there's an obvious brightness gradient when using a DC filament supply).

[Nicholas Stock]

Did someone say IV-26?

:)

To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/02743112-ddaa-4093-885d-d7f52f3e9d94n%40googlegroups.com.

[Richard Scales]

Is that all good to go now - software and all?

- Richard

[Nicholas Stock]

Still in progress I'm afraid...

To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/0ca54d4b-db73-4b00-8e54-029dddc5ebd5n%40googlegroups.com.

[newxito]

Very nice! I totally forgot about these tubes, I have enugh to build such a display... I will never be able to empty the project queue...

[newxito]

Do you plan to offer a kit?

Nicholas Stock schrieb am Mittwoch, 5. März 2025 um 04:12:20 UTC+1:

[Nicholas Stock]

At some point a kit will be available, but there are a number of projects ahead of this one at the moment.... we'll (Grahame and I) be sure to post when this is closer to completion.

To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/144ce5f0-bc5a-44f5-98a1-bf2287179e89n%40googlegroups.com.

[Terry Kennedy]

On Thursday, March 6, 2025 at 7:58:26 AM UTC-5 newxito wrote:

Very nice! I totally forgot about these tubes, I have enugh to build such a display... I will never be able to empty the project queue...

You have to be careful with IV-26 displays, because there are three incompatible types - one with the dots tied together to make horizontal-tube clocks, another with the dots tied together to make vertical-tube clocks, and a third where each dot is individually selectable.

You're also limited to vertical mounting if you want to do horizontal scrolling or other effects. The large Elektronika 7 clocks mount either 11 or 12 tubes horizontally, but of course then you get a gap between digits due to the wiring at the tube bases.

QC on the IV-26 displays was not particularly great - it's rare to find a complete dud, but in replacing all the tubes in a bunch of Elektronika 7's I've found individual dots that didn't light, a surprising amount of contaminants on the dots, and the tubes start out with bizarre brightness artifacts, then settle down after 24-48 hours, then at around 5000 hours they start developing dark stripes under the filament line, until some dots barely light at all at around 15000 hours. Part of that is that the Elektronika over-drives them, and the large Elektronika 7 doesn't have a bright/dim switch, while the smaller one does.

[Nicholas Stock]

Terry, that generally jives with my experience lighting them up... they seem to settle down after some 'burn in period'. Yes, only Type-1 tubes in my inventory, a few people do make that mistake. There are also two styles of IV26 that I've found, one (the more common) with 'clipped' edges to the illuminated discs and the rarer kind with completely circular discs (initial prototypes?).

The clock has variable brightness and PIR, so tube lifetime should be fine and each tube is individually mounted to a socket, so replacement is easy (I have a nice 3D printed jig to help with aligning them all nicely too...). 36 of them lit up is quite the sight to behold.....each has an addressable LED underneath it with a small light guide, so we can go nuts with LED colours and animations (I can hear Grahame moaning about this already... :).

I also have one of Jurgen's IV26 sound meters in the man cave, been going for many years now with no sign of display degradation, so your comment on the Elektronika over-driving sounds spot on.

--

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to neonixie-l+...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/419b8980-3c30-4947-b1bf-30ca2acffdc2n%40googlegroups.com.

[Terry Kennedy]

On Wednesday, March 12, 2025 at 2:26:34 PM UTC-4 Nicholas Stock wrote:

I also have one of Jurgen's IV26 sound meters in the man cave, been going for many years now with no sign of display degradation, so your comment on the Elektronika over-driving sounds spot on.

It's a bit odd that all the IV-26 I've seen were manufactured by Orzep, even though the Elektronika was made by Reflektor (a competitor in the tube business, at least to the extent that there was competition in Soviet industry).