Newbie would like to introduce himself

[Richard Nicewonger]

      Hello everybody! I'd like to introduce myself to all. My name is Rich Nicewonger and I am a retired electronics technician. I worked in the field of power and energy measurement instrumentation for 40 years at a leading NJ company. Gas discharge displays have always interested me. In fact, the company I worked for used Beckman displays in some of their products! My particular interest is not necessarily clocks (although I do have a nixie version) but more toward calculators and test equipment using these type of displays. I am always a sucker for more of these that may require some work to be operational. Sometimes I shoot myself in the foot because of the difficulty in finding replacement parts for 50+ year old equipment, especially displays! I hope to get some insight from knowledgeable folks here. So, looking forward to having some interesting and useful conversations.

My best to all,

Rich

[Dekatron42]

Hi,

Welcome to the forum!

/Martin

[Jon]

Welcome Rich!

Jon.

[Mac Doktor]

On Aug 4, 2021, at 2:39 PM, Richard Nicewonger <nice...@optonline.net> wrote:

My particular interest is not necessarily clocks (although I do have a nixie version) but more toward calculators and test equipment using these type of displays. I am always a sucker for more of these that may require some work to be operational. Sometimes I shoot myself in the foot because of the difficulty in finding replacement parts for 50+ year old equipment, especially displays!

You're in good company. The cost of replacement tubes is rising at an increasingly non-linear rate. Service manuals range from free pdfs to over-priced eBay listings to non-existent.

As for other parts, there are those lighted push-buttons on my Systron-Donner Time Code Generator/Reader. My apologies for complaining about this at least three times before but the d*mn thing is working perfectly and all it needs is a fix for those broken caps!

I hope to get some insight from knowledgeable folks here. So, looking forward to having some interesting and useful conversations.

You came to the right place. I shot myself in the foot by not joining up a year earlier.

Terry Bowman, KA4HJH
"The Mac Doctor"

https://www.astarcloseup.com

“...the book said something astonishing, a very big thought. The stars, it said, were suns but very far away. The Sun was a star but close up.”—Carl Sagan, "The Backbone Of Night", Cosmos, 1980

[Keith Moore]

Welcome! This place is my fave read of the day each day! :-) 

[gregebert]

"Abandon all hope ye who enter here".......it's too late to turn back; nixie tubes are not only addictive, but they are known to cause other addictions.

[Nicholas Stock]

Welcome to the madhouse! Only kidding....lots of very knowledgeable and more importantly, friendly and helpful folks on this list. No such thing as a stupid question here (unless you ask the same one twice..... ha ha).

Cheers,

Nick

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[Bill Notfaded]

Welcome Rich... I too collect nixie tube test equipment including calculators, frequency counters, scalers with dekatrons, and nixie voltmeters.  I even have some X,Y machining displays.  I've been wanting to take some time to document some them.  Once I get a piece of classic display technology gear then I'm always looking for the original manuals to go with them as well!  It's kinda a sickness.

Bill

[Audrey]

Please do! I've always suspected those X, Y, Z tubes were for machining 

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[Richard Nicewonger]

Hi Bill,

Thanks for the welcome! Yes, I agree with you about the “sickness” and I’m probably not getting any better!

It’s bad enough trying to find parts that are generally considered unobtainium, but you bring up another point

when trying to find a manual (either owner or service) that may be harder to locate than the parts themselves.

One example of that is my search for Sperry Panaplex display SP-737. This 3-digit bugger has one anode for

the left digit and another common to the other two digits. This is used in a Marlin calculator for the two least-significant

digits as well as polarity and error indicator. Sooner or later it will probably appear for sale at a price equal to an

ounce of gold! Such a deal! All the best.

Rich N.

  

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[Bill Notfaded]

Wow Rich I have some panaplex and devices with them but the model you mention is rarer it seems.  I wonder if they were used in some arcade games as I found a picture here:  https://www.andysarcade.net/store2/images/source/comp/disp05.JPG

You can see the common for digits on the right and one on the left.

Bill

[Richard Nicewonger]

Hi Bill,

I have a little story about that piece. When searching online a few weeks ago, I saw the ad from Andys Arcade that featured that part.

The ad claimed only one left so you know I quickly place the order. A few days later I get an email from Andy telling me that the item was

previously sold and inadvertently not removed from the site. Geez what a disappointment! Yes, that display seems to be really rare compared

to other displays that are sought after. I haven’t been able to even find a mention of an SP-737 anywhere online, except for Andy’s. Will keep on

looking but I want to thank you for your effort on my behalf. All the best!

Rich N.

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