Would it be possible to use an A-108 Dekatron as an analog display meter?

[Thomas Kummer]

      I know that the A-108 is for the most part a unidirectional Dekatron, but I'd really like to if possible add one to my IN-17 Nixie boost gauge I'm designing. I wouldn't think that it would be possible due to its unidirectional counting, but I've definitely been wrong before. I'm probably getting a bit ahead of myself, and should probably just focus on getting the digital IN-17 gauges up and running. Speaking of my Nixie car gauge project, what company would you all recommend to make a PCB, and maybe smooth over the design? While, my design should work, its a bit sketchy, and certainly couldn't be assembled by an amateur.   

[gregebert]

Would you consider an A-101 ? It runs bidirectionally.

I use oshpark for small PCB's (under 4 square inches), and pcbway for larger boards. I believe pcbway can do some cleanup, etc of your PCB layout per their website. I cant comment on their abilities here; I do the full PCB design myself.

If you think your design is flaky, try altering one parameter to find the strongest dependency. For example, it could be voltage, operating speed, current, temperature, etc.

[Thomas Kummer]

I probably wouldn’t consider an A-101, as it and the three IN-17’s would be too big. I’m trying to make the gauge fit into a standard 2 inch(52mm) diameter gauge housing. I’d like it to have an analog and a digital Nixie/neon display and fit into a 2in gauge housing, but if it’s not possible then just a digital display would be preferred. Although, I could later make an analog only A-101 display. It seems as though Oshpark might be better than PCBway for my project. I mean I tested my schematic and it worked, it’s just designing a PCB that small is where my troubles are coming from. Right now I have the IN-17’s on one board and a second board behind it with the Arduino Nano, and the K155ID1’s, then a third board with both 5V, and HV, power supplies. 

Sent from my iPhone

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[Jon]

A108 is only a unidirectional tube - the glow transfer mechanism is dictated by the asymmetric shape of the cathode. While I canimagine ways to get around this by essentially just using it as a display tube driven by a microcontroller and not using the counting mechanism at all, I'm not sure how visually satisfying that would be. To my eyes the glow in the A107/A108/A109 tubes sits as a rather indistinct blob in the angle of the active shaped cathode rather than a nice sharp point.

I'd recommend you look at GC10/2P, 6879 or 7155 for small bidirectional tubes - really cute pieces of engineering. If your application can accommodate something a little bigger, but still smaller than A101 etc, then perhaps the Z504S, GS10H or Z562S.

Jon.