Z550M/ZM1050 clock project ?

[dwaksu]

Because i am became a happy owner of four valvo Z550M/ZM1050, i wish
to ask if anyone went thru building a clock based on this nixies. I am
very beginner at this area, to this moment i finish 4 clock kits ;).
But i am not feeling convinient to project something on my own. So if
enyone have some kind of diagram for this nixies, and feeling to
share it i will be more than happy. Is there posibility to use them
with smart nixie. BR

[Adam Jacobs]

I've never played with pixies before, but at first glance, they look like 10 individual neons wired with a common cathode. This arrangement is reverse to how a Nixie is wired (10 cathodes, common anode) so you will need a little bit of inventiveness to convert existing Nixie solutions to a Pixie solution. What is your level of electronics & programming background? You say you have completed 4 clock kits, then you must have learned something from that experience.. Can you program? I think that this is an excellent opportunity for you to design your first clock. There are lots of people here who will help with every part of the project.

-Adam

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[Ronald]

The Z550M/ZM1050 tubes cannot be driven as ten individual
neon tubes. The tube was especially designed to be driven from
a 5V low voltage logic output. If you want to learn more about these
tubes read my page on how they were invented and developed:
http://dos4ever.com/Z550M/Z550M.html#ZM550

On Nov 6, 3:17 am, Adam Jacobs <a...@jacobs.us> wrote:
> I've never played with pixies before, but at first glance, they look like 10
> individual neons wired with a common cathode. This arrangement is reverse to
> how a Nixie is wired (10 cathodes, common anode) so you will need a little
> bit of inventiveness to convert existing Nixie solutions to a Pixie
> solution. What is your level of electronics & programming background? You
> say you have completed 4 clock kits, then you must have learned something
> from that experience.. Can you program? I think that this is an excellent
> opportunity for you to design your first clock. There are lots of people
> here who will help with every part of the project.
>

> -AdamOn Fri, Nov 5, 2010 at 3:38 PM, dwaksu <2...@data.pl> wrote:
> > Because i am became a happy owner of four valvo Z550M/ZM1050, i wish
> > to ask if anyone went thru building a clock based on this nixies. I am
> > very beginner at this area, to this moment i finish 4 clock kits ;).
> > But i am not feeling convinient to project something on my own. So if
> > enyone have some kind of diagram for this  nixies, and feeling to
> > share it i will be more than happy. Is there posibility to use them
> > with smart nixie. BR
>
> > --
> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> > "neonixie-l" group.
> > To post to this group, send an email to neoni...@googlegroups.com.
> > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to

> > neonixie-l+...@googlegroups.com<neonixie-l%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com>
> > .

[A.J. Franzman]

On Nov 6, 12:36 am, Ronald <ronald.dek...@philips.com> wrote:
> The Z550M/ZM1050 tubes cannot be driven as ten individual
> neon tubes. The tube was especially designed to be driven from
> a 5V low voltage logic output. If you want to learn more about these
> tubes read my page on how they were invented and developed:http://dos4ever.com/Z550M/Z550M.html#ZM550
>

True, they were made to be controlled by 5V logic just as decribed
there. However, they in fact can be operated as a "common-cathode
nixie" instead, by using the starter anodes as individual display
anodes. I don't know why anone would want to, but it can be done.

A.J.

[Ronald]

That will however strongly reduce the life of these tubes since the
starters
were not designed to carry the operating current

Ronald

[Adam Jacobs]

This is all very interesting to me, I'll have to add "Device with Pixie Display" to the bottom of my list of things to do. :D
Does anyone have a back of the napkin schematic for lighting one of these tubes?