Itron FG2013A1 VFD Display

[Richard Scales]

Hello,

I am fortunate to have a few of these 20 character multi segment displays and would like to drive them.

These have come from Goetlib games machine displays where where are two of them mounted on a board (for which I also have no data) and I have several of these boards and I hope that the displays are OK.

Can anyone point me towards any data sheets or perhaps suggest what the filament, grid and segment voltages and currents might be?

Should the filament be DC or AC?

All pointers gleefully received - thank you.

- Richard

[Richard Scales]

Further to my post - I did a little research and decided to give it a go.

I connected the filament to a DC supply and increased the volts until a discernable glow was seen on the filaments - this was around 10V.

I took the easy route of using the same voltage to supply a grid and a cathode - and it worked!

For maximum brightness and kindness to the display (those may be contradictory!) I would love to know the 'proper' drive method/voltages and whether or not it is absolutely necessary to use A/C on the filament.

- Richard

[Adrian Godwin]

These are unobtanium in the pinball community. You might want to see whether you can get a good price for them there.

I'd reduce the filament voltage a little. It shouldn't be possible to see the glow easily. Maybe faintly, in a dark room. Actual voltage will depend on filament length. 

Anode/cathode I'd normally use about 15V but less will lead to longer life. The phosphor on the digits tends to burn with exposure and as usual this is particularly noticeable if they're left static.

Schematics are available for pinball machines if you can identify a display of similar size.

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[Adrian Godwin]

Filament should be AC though various schemes exist for DC use. The aim is to have an average voltage between filamant and anodes that';s similar across the width of the display. If DC is used there will be more acceleration and hence brighter digits at one end.

[Richard Scales]

Many thanks Adrian - I actually bought these from a pinball repair place in Australia several years ago - I assumed that they were pulls from repairs - I guess they could have been pulled from machines that were being parted out.

I note that there is a listing on eBay in the US for a new board - looks the same - I don't think he has sold many/any though!

I already have a nice filament drive for another VFD project with is +/- 4.5V so I'll give that a go with these displays. 

The next issue will be multiplexing the displays as I have done very little with multiplexing (OK Nothing!) though late last year I came up with some state machine based code to drive an 8 digit multiplexed panaplex display which seemed to work just fine - these have 20 digits so I'll need to be quite swift to avoid flicker!

Without thinking about it too much I was considering using HV5812 drivers for the cathodes and grids. I have a few on hand and they seem to do what's necessary - I believe that they are actually designed for running vfd displays though I have used them for Nixie tubes  in the past.

Thank you for the advice.

- Richard