INS-1 neons

[Nicholas Stock]

Anyone had any issues with INS-1 neons showing moving ionization in the bulb (similar to the same problems you can sometimes see with INS-3 neons)? If so, any pointers on how to mitigate this behaviour?

Cheers,

Nick

[David Pye]

Loads of people have reported this and afaik there hasn't been a way to stop it.

Some start swirling after a while, some swirl from new....

David

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[Nicholas Stock]

Ugh. Anyone aged them to see if that helps?

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[Dekatron42]

Usually you can't do anything effective about it, it is due to their design. However running them at higher current for some time or running them on half-wave rectified voltage for a while (lower current according to some datasheets in this setup) will help some but most fall back into the flickering state when you run them under normal conditions. A nice site on the flickering behaviour can be found here: http://g3ynh.info/disch_tube/lamp/flame_neon.html.

Sometimes pulse-drive, either by half-wave rectified voltage or simple on/off square pulsing will help somewhat, instead of relying on a steady DC voltage.

/Martin

[Nicholas Stock]

Was tooling around the interwebs looking for neons...

https://www.intl-lighttech.com/applications/neon-lamps

Looks like they have quite the selection for sale, including colored neons too....anyone purchased from these folks?

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[Dekatron42]

I tried to order from them some years ago but if I remember correctly they weren't that interested if I didn't want 10.000 or more, nor were they interested in helping me with information on other types.

/Martin

[MichaelB]

Nick, I have gotten this process down to a 'science', I think. The best way i have found to vet these things, because they are just plain flaky, is to set up a mass burn in station. By that I mean, set up a station where you can burn in several, I usually do 5 or 6, and let them burn in for at least a 3 -4 days each. I found that after that time period , if they're OK and exhibiting no noticeable 'wobbling', you have a winner. See attached . I also make sure to make the raised dot side hot ( although I'm not sure that makes a whole lot of difference). There is a raised dot in the glass envelope on the base of these things that I think indicates the Cathode side, although there seems to be uncertainty about that too. Anyway, using this method I have ended up with several INS-1's that have lasted over 10 years and no wobbling. As some of you may know, I am sort of obsessed with using these things as center eyes in my clock designs. Can send pics of how I set this up. Right now for some reason I am unable to upload pics to this post

[Robert G. Schaffrath]

I was able to buy a box of 100 for $15.99 back in 2019. I noticed that the glass color tended to vary from almost clear to dark. in the lot I tested a few for a period of time and found, oddly enough, the dark colored glass ones seemed to fare better. I only tested about 10 bulbs in total but that was a casual observation. I find IN-3's to be much flakier. Sometimes they display to the rear. Sometimes the leads below glow.

[Nicholas Stock]

Michael, thanks for that. I will try that in the future as a pre-selection.

Nick

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[Yohan Park]

You can still get INS-1 for that price.
Never had problems with IN-3 though. May I ask how you drive them?

[Mike Mitchell]

We've covered INS-1 polarity and flickering/wobbling several times.  See https://groups.google.com/g/neonixie-l/c/UdCwngFCi-8/m/zPtUE3D4Qt0J

The dot/arrow is the Anode.  Burn in is a good idea.  I went through a bag of 100 INS-1, burning in each for 3-4 hours and found only 12 that didn't wobble.  I'll try 3-4 days and see if any stabilize.