Re: [neonixie-l] Re: Helping Nixie Tubes Fire in a Darkened Room

[liam bartosiewicz]

If I remember correctly, there were some tubes manufactured that had a small external radioactive source to make them more reliable. It wouldn’t be very practical, or safe for that matter, but a radioactive nixie clock does sound pretty cool. On Nov 30, 2023, at 1:43 PM, Nicholas Stock <nickst...@gmail.com> wrote:  May I suggest a small piece of uranium ore placed next to the clock? LOL. Just kidding Jeff! I like Jon's idea, up the voltage/series resistor. On Thu, Nov 30, 2023 at 1:38 PM Jeff Walton <jwalton...@gmail.com> wrote: Not dimmed.  Tried to do a momentary hit on all segments to "wake" up the tube and it helped some but the extra flash is distracting. On Thursday, November 30, 2023 at 9:04:36 AM UTC-6 Paul Andrews wrote: Are they also dimmed using an LDR? If so, turn dimming off - if you have access to the source code, you could turn dimming off briefly when the clock turns on. On Wednesday, November 29, 2023 at 9:43:48 PM UTC-5 Jeff Walton wrote: I've recently come across a situation where I have some tubes in a clock that are being directly driven and are having trouble starting when the room is darkened but light right up when a room light is turned on.  These particular tubes were probably intended for use in a calculator.  They are seven segment neon MG-17G tubes.  Once the tubes have any of the segments lit, there is really no issue with the performance.  It's when the tubes go completely dark if a space is used while scrolling a message or lighting a dash on and off to emulate a colon.  I'm wondering if others have found any particular tricks to help convince tubes to light up.  There is no "baselighting" and the HV is ~172v.  I'm considering increasing the HV by 10-15v but don't want to over drive the tubes.  Short of putting a radioactive source in the vicinity, are there other things that anyone has had any luck with? Jeff -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to neonixie-l+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/69cbf16c-56c2-4785-b4d2-ab0f6bcb76e1n%40googlegroups.com. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to neonixie-l+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/CAOX%2BRHKPrgPAGPbF1%2B2d0hNNp8Vk%3DXGe5OP5V2PropW0Oy7Xnw%40mail.gmail.com. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to neonixie-l+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/233BA8F1-AF6E-4CC8-B499-2A9ED404EC37%40gmail.com.