davesters wish list

[westdave]

Dear Mr. Santa ,this year i would like some light pipe displays ,

they are old and hard to get,but ,if i spread some nixie dust, who knows!

KGM multi indicator M25,

IND-1803 Numerik, by general radio,

NLS edge lit display

burroughs SD-11 Sphericular display

any other brand of edge light  display 

if any one in the nixus would like to sell theres,

 pull them from there dusty drawers and lets attempt a deal 

west...@aol.com

[Luke]

I saw one on ebay a couple of weeks ago, but he only had the one numerical one and these  item  371193570319 .I thought about making my own after seeing this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvkW5NWx8eM

[threeneurons]

Boy, that's quite a pretty one !

Dave, and I had actually been discussing making our own, recently, in person. That it one technology that actually can be made in your garage. Don't have to tool up and develop the skill set required (vast understatement) to make a nixie. Though that one in the video, is a lot fancier, than what I had in mind !

[Morris Odell]

They do look nice but there are gotchas. I have made a clock with them and here's some comments based on my experience:

If you multiplex them and retain incandescent lamps rather than converting them to LEDs then be prepared to replace the lamps quite often. That can be an expensive business if the displays use those little flange based lamps as mine do. In a multiplexed incandescent display to get the specified brightness you need to have a supply voltage of Vs * sqrt (N)  where Vs is the lamp rating and N is the number of digits. For 12V lamps and 6 digits that works out at about 30V which doesn't help the lifetime at all. You  also need a fail safe circuit in case the multiplexing stops.  I haven't any experience with direct drive and that may not be so hard on them.

It's hard to replace the lamps with LEDs and get equivalent brightness and colour. I've tried lots of different LEDs and have quite a collection of unsuitable ones to show for it. Part of the problem is the geometry of the LED light source compared to incandescents. Incandescents radiate in a spherical pattern from the filament and the displays fit them into little spherical wells designed to integrate the luminous flux into the plastic sheet. LEDs radiate in one direction and even the brightest ones don't manage to get the maximum light into the plastic so they look dimmer. The best LEDs for the purpose are the 5 mm diameter half height ones that allow a maximum amount of light to fill the spherical well. I save the blown incandescents and the LEDs fit into the bases quite nicely. I use the warm white ones to get a similar color to the originals but they are not as bright. 

They do turn up for sale from time to time but you will need to be patient. 

Good Luck,

Morris

[gregebert]

It's hard to replace the lamps with LEDs and get equivalent brightness and colour. 

Morris - Have you considered multiple surface-mount LEDs ? I envision a PCB with a line of several SMT LED's along the base of the numeral/symbol. You could even go so far to use red, green, and blue which would provide multicolor operation. I'd probably go for a nice neon-orange, rather than multicolor.

I had thought about using NE2 bulbs so I dont get guilty feelings about working on something not-so-nixie, but their diameter is probably too large. Either the display would be too thick, or there would be 'bleeding' from one panel to an adjacent one.

[Morris Odell]

On Monday, 8 December 2014 04:13:29 UTC+11, gregebert wrote:

It's hard to replace the lamps with LEDs and get equivalent brightness and colour. 

Morris - Have you considered multiple surface-mount LEDs ? I envision a PCB with a line of several SMT LED's along the base of the numeral/symbol. You could even go so far to use red, green, and blue which would provide multicolor operation. I'd probably go for a nice neon-orange, rather than multicolor.

That would be a good idea if making one's own displays. In a vintage display there's just no room. I like the idea of a multicoloured set of digits :-)

M