On 9 gru 2011, at 04:53, threeneurons wrote: >>> "If I'm not mistaken the tube sets its voltage. " >>> If I say 'zener diode', does that help a bit ? Or forward bias voltage >>> of an 'ordinary' diode. >>> "the lamp will "see" the full 200V (or more). Doesn't that damage the >>> lamps?" > No damage. Don't worry. Its current, not voltage that can kill a > nixie. And then you need a lot of it. See my nixie page, here: > > http://threeneurons.wordpress.com/nixie-power-supply/ > > It has a drawing showing what has been already discussed.
Thanks to everyone! What I was missing is that Nixies are actually "active" devices: they set their own voltage, so the sustain voltage is a *given*. A Nixie is not a resistor. Now that that is clear I was able to calculate my anode resistors and light up my nixies properly. My IN-12As have a sustain voltage of 136V (which surprised me), so I get a 54V drop across the anode resistor. And they glow even at 1.5mA (which also surprised me). Special thanks to threeneurons for his excellent pages and making the whole circuit collection public. It's a great learning resource! Also, a related question: if I want bo build a mixed Nixie/Dekatron circuit that needs 180V and 400V, do you think it's better to: a) build a PSU that produces 200V with a voltage doubler to 400V, b) build a PSU that produces 400V right away and then put a voltage divider after it? I looked at component availability and both approaches seem feasible. --J. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To post to this group, send an email to neonixie-l@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to neonixie-l+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/neonixie-l?hl=en-GB.
