Nixie Power Supply NK02

[JBro63]

Hi all.

I'm looking to incorporate a 12v -> HV power supply in to a PCB design rather then use the excellent external 6300/8200 Omnixie's. As a starter, have sourced the components for the threeneurons NK02. The only change was replacing R5/RX with a single 9.1k resistor.

Once assembled (all components soldered) it seems to work ok - lights up a neon or nixie as expected. I'm unable to get a reliable reading of the output voltage using a multimeter, the values are all over the place sometimes exceeding the 600v max of the meter which concerns me a little.

Anyone have any tips or insights on this behaviour?

The NK02 design is from this page.

Thanks.

[Nick Andrews]

You may need a higher impedance meter to measure high voltages, especially low current supplies as the typical meters will pull the measured voltage down.  If you use a 1 GOhm resistor to make a voltage divider, it's much easier to measure high voltages more accurately on these tiny supplies.

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[Joe Croft]

I found that with no load, switching power supplies can swing wildly.

-joe

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[JBro63]

I don't have anything that big lying around unfortunately. Would an oscilloscope be a better instrument? I have a very old Tektronix I can try.

I'm reading board layout is very important for these types of supply; currently this test piece is all soldered together adhoc with bits of wire so I think I'll built order a test PCB in the meantime.

Thanks.

[gregebert]

A scope will tell you a lot. I suspect the power supply is generating spikes and your meter is picking them up at different times, giving the impression of random voltages.

[Dekatron42]

Just check the maximum input voltage on the oscilloscope so you don't blow the input with over voltage!

Maybe buying a cheap digital multimeter would be th ebest solution here, just make sure it has the voltage range you need.

/Martin