Searching for a specific Itron VFD (Vintage)

Joe Hutch

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Jan 4, 2016, 12:24:08 PM1/4/16

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Hi everyone,

A friend referred me to this group, suggesting that someone here might be able to help me locate a vintage (30+ years) VFD. I don't have a ton of information on it, except that it was made by Itron back in the 80's. I *think* the part number is AH1018B, as I found a datasheet (attached) that I believe to be the correct one. It's a 14 segment (plus decimal point and comma tail). The attached picture shows the exact VFD I am looking for, EXCEPT I need 10 characters, not 16 as the attachment shows. Any help/leads would be appreciated!

Thanks

Joe

27.jpg

AH1018B.pdf

David Forbes

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Jan 4, 2016, 12:51:57 PM1/4/16

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Joe,

What device was this display originally used in? That information can be
very helpful in tracking it down.

--
David Forbes, Tucson AZ

Joe Hutch

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Jan 4, 2016, 12:56:45 PM1/4/16

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Hi David,

I believe they were primarily used in old slot machines, but I don't know for sure which ones.

Nick Sargeant

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Jan 4, 2016, 4:46:26 PM1/4/16

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Have you tried searching Noritake rather than Itron? DIgikey has a reference to the part number with Noritake as the manufacturer.

Quixotic Nixotic

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Jan 4, 2016, 4:50:36 PM1/4/16

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I have only ever come across the 16 digit ones and I think I have seen 20s. Indeed I have a small box of 16s. I know the 16 digits come in both 12 volt and 5 volt versions, so be careful there. Many modules of mine are actually marked Samsung. Noritake is also used for Itron.

I agree with David, if you can tell us what the display came out of then it would help track one down.

You will have to be careful that you don't buy an old one that is faded and uneven. I have a fair amount of them that are essentially unusable.

It is possible with VFDs to rejuvenate them by cranking a higher voltage through the filament wires for a brief time, during which process the filament will glow red. Get the timing right and the display will then shone bright again. But it is only a matter of time before it dulls again and you can only use this trick a few times. If doing it on one of these I'd isolate the filament first from its driving circuit.

I know that Barcrest used union jack VFDs. Others too probably.

John S

gregebert

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Jan 4, 2016, 5:52:34 PM1/4/16

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Is this a module, with drive electronics, or a "bare" display unit ? It might actually be easier to build something with just the bare display because you have the tube info.

I would recommend obtaining a few spare units before investing a lot of time on a project, otherwise most/all your effort will get lost if the display is bad, or dies afterwards.

I have a similar dilemma with a 9-segment neon display; I have only 1 unit, and it appears to work, but I'm reluctant to make a project out of it for now. Then again, what good does it do sitting in my junkbox ??

If you end up making you own driver, I strongly suggest you have some sort of current-limiting on the filament to reduce power-on stress (similar to incandescent bulb burnout almost always happening during power-on). One way is to use a larger drive-voltage, say 24VAC, and use a series resistor around 510 ohms (assuming I did my ohms-law math correctly...). That will ensure your filament never gets more than 47mA even under the absurd case where the filament's cold-resistance is zero ohms.

I did a similar thing with my current clock project (no pun intended...) that has some #47 incandescent bulbs; they definitely turn-on slower with current-limiting but they should last much longer. I drive them from +12V, and have a NPN current-limiter set to 100mA. Without the current-limiter, I would have to run them from the +5V supply, and that would inject a lot of noise into the wiring, as well as the 5V circuitry.

Joe Hutch

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Jan 4, 2016, 8:22:38 PM1/4/16

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I am just looking for the bare display unit. I believe they were used in old slot machines, one person here mentioned Barcrest as using these type of VFDs. I will look further into that. I've seen the 10 character ones in person before, and the datasheet I've attached shows one, so I know they are out there....somewhere!