Mood Cube For The Desk- Suggestions?

[Dman777]

I want to get a frosted cube that changes colors for my desk. There are so many out there I was wondering if anyone had suggestions on a really cool one? 

[gregebert]

Since this is a nixie group, you have several choices of colors. Obviously you can use orange. But you can also use orange. And if that doesn't work, you can always go with orange.

That said, I've seen neon lamps that have an internal phosphor coating. I have some green ones; blue, white, yellow, and I think red are also available.  Unfortunately the supplier I found in China requires a minimum purchase of 1000 bulbs, and the shipping isn't cheap. Expect to spend almost $200 US.

It's been many years since I've seen small Argon lamps. I also recall some fluorescent lamp-starters had a purplish glow, but I never tried running one continuously.

[Nick]

Actually, it isn't just a nixie group - any display technology is allowed - in the cold-cathode line alone you can get the whole visible spectrum of colours - see the site's banner as an example.

By switching the main gas to argon, krypton xenon etc, you can change the base colour. By adding a bit of mercury to an argon filled tube you can get a lot of UV generated (mostly absorbed by the glass), but if you use a glass envelope that is powder-coated internally with different types of phosphor, loads of colours are possible.

Have a look at the enclosed EGL colourchart (EGL are one of the main neon equipment manufacturers and suppliers).

Nick

[threeneurons]

Years ago, I built a small cube, for a friend, as a gift. It was 2.5" or 3" to a side, and made from 1/8" white translucent acrylic. Common stuff. The light came from 4 superbright LEDs (red, yellow/amber, green, and blue). The super brite blues, and greens, just came out, so it had to be ~1995. Each LED was tied to a 4017 CMOS counter output. I looped around Q5 to the reset, so it would only sequence 4 steps before resetting. It was clocked off a microphone amp, but not straight from the audio, but from the envelope of its amplitude (diode and cap / demodulated).

They also make special RGB LEDs, now, that slowly sweep thru the rainbow, over a period, maybe as long as a minute. Check eBay.

[gregebert]

....or you could try red, green, and blue neon bulbs. It's unfortunate the minimum order is so high.

So, if anyone has extra red or blue neon bulbs, I'd be happy to trade some of my extra green bulbs.