NL4998 4 digit watch

[nixiebunny]

Well, I finally noticed that Surplus Sales of Nebraska had a bucket-load of NL4998 tubes. So I bought them. I keep getting requests for 4 digit Nixie watches, and these tubes are the best candidates for making a Metro: Last Light style watch. It seems to be in some demand.

Curiously, four of these tubes almost fit in the diameter of my round 2-digit Nixie watch.

The trick will be to make it have an acceptable thickness. The watch in the video game is imaginary, so its thickness is unknown. My round watch is .80" thick. The 4998 tubes are .81" tall not including the leads. I much prefer socketing tubes rather than soldering them in, so a very low profile socket is on my list of things to find.

Thoughts?

[gregebert]

No easy solution for a wristwatch.

Tubes that are intended for socketing have thicker pins, so clipping them will put the tube under a lot of stress. Even a rotary tool with a cutoff wheel will subject the tube to a lot of vibration. 

I wouldn't even think of bending the pins.

I think that leaves 2 options

• solder the tubes directly to the PCB. The big question there is if the pins have a solderable surface material. Maybe you could use a rotary tool after soldering the tubes because the PCB will reduce vibrations traveling up the pins.
• use socket pins. It will work, but it will also worsen the height.

Instead of a wristwatch, maybe a small wall-clock ?

[jb-electronics]

Nice find! Just out of curiosity, how many tubes are we talking?

Cheers
Jens

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[JohnK]

1).  a shear cutter should be ok

and/or

2). wrap wire around the pin [and secure with silver-bearing epoxy?]

 

John K

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[John Rehwinkel]

I'd probably go with flush-mount socket pins like Tektronix used to use to mount ICs and transistors.

There's a picture here:

http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/115309/what-is-flush-mount-socket-in-this-40yr-old-tek-scope

They're a specialty part, but they're still made.  It's FCI's "Minisert" line.

http://portal.fciconnect.com/Comergent//fci/drawing/75540.pdf

- John

[David Forbes]

I acquired enough tubes to make a hundred watches. I sure hope they
work! Military surplus, 1979 or so.

I am presently using some Mill-Max pins on my 2 digit watch. They are
0.170" tall and fit in a .040" hole. I will consider the FCI pins if
they fit better.

I do like the idea of cutting the pins, perhaps using a clamping gizmo
to reduce the stress on the tubes. I'll check them out when they arrive.
I don't mind buying a shear-type cutter if needed. I've trimmed the wire
leads on thousands of 5870 tubes over the years, but they are flexible
wire.

On 11/3/15 7:31 PM, John Rehwinkel wrote:
> I'd probably go with flush-mount socket pins like Tektronix used to use to mount
> ICs and transistors.
>
>

> - John
>


--
David Forbes, Tucson AZ