I’ve also experienced a higher failure rate on the IN16 tubes. Definitely a leakage issue on all of the failures. I haven’t seen the bright pink phenomena but partial digits from the bottom up is what I have experienced.
I have a PV clock that uses them and after multiple replacements of tubes, the PCB is in tough shape to the point, I may not be able to make any more successful replacements if another goes out. Unfortunately, PV does not offer the kit anymore. My notes are that it has had 7 new tubes since it was put into operation in May 2016. In the future, if I ever built another IN-16 clock, I would not use the spacer/lead separator that comes with the tube. They make tube replacement very difficult. I prefer to chop the leads from the tube and then de-solder one at a time, which can’t really be done with the spacers in place. On my particular clock, there is also a baselight LED to remove and the PCB did not play well with the heat gun for doing a removal all at once. Jeff From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Nicholas Stock Sent: Friday, June 6, 2025 2:15 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [neonixie-l] Fading out IN-16 My experience was a high rate of failure through leaks... the digits would start to glow with a brighter pink intensity and then die.... Even though they're 'cold cathode' tubes, they do generate some heat.... maybe after 40 seconds or so, thermal expansion of one of the anodes shorts something out? Grasping at straws here... On Fri, Jun 6, 2025 at 12:10 PM <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > wrote: Huh… I’m surprised to hear that Nick! I have another clock I made using used IN-16s and it’s been going strong for about 8 months now. Granted that’s not a long time in the big scheme of things, but I figured since they appear to have that same mercury amulet as the IN-14s they would last. I did have one of the used IN-16s go dead suddenly a while back, so to your point, maybe I just haven’t had as much experience with them as you have to better see their failure rate. That one went dead shortly after I built the clock and it had relatively short leads — maybe 4mm or so — so I thought perhaps I may have stressed one of them when installing it in the clock and caused the gas leak out (although I could see no signs of distress where any of the leads entered the tube). But this current tube was NOS. It’s just strange how it lights up on power cycle and then fades out. But I don’t see how it could be a thermal issue. On Jun 6, 2025, at 2:20 PM, Nicholas Stock <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > wrote: IN-16 tubes are the worst... I gave up making clocks with them as the failure rate was so high (maybe I had a bad batch?). Tis odd that it keeps coming back to life on a power cycle though.... sounds like it could be thermally related? On Fri, Jun 6, 2025 at 11:18 AM <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > wrote: Hi all, I just built a 6-digit nixie clock using NOS IN-16 tubes. The clock was working fine for about a day but then suddenly one of tubes went dark, except for the right hand decimal which is used as a status indicator. When the clock is power cycled, the errant tube comes back to life for maybe 30-40 seconds and then fades out again. It’s in the seconds position so I can see it sequence through each digit before it fades out. When I swap it into another position on the clock, the problem follows the tube. I’ve replaced it with another NOS tube and the clock is working fine again. Does anyone have any thoughts on why tube would come to life for a short period of time when power cycled and then fade out? Thanks, Randy -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. 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