Charles Wenzel of techlib.com once sent me a few of these quite some years ago. If i remember correctly he likes to use them as a protection element for shunting high voltage to ground across small antenna installations with sensitive preamps, such as in the VLF/spherics receivers he features on his site.
I've only ever seen these used as protection elements, usually on old LAN interfaces. I have a four lead one somewhere that came off a twisted pair interface from the '90's. Regardless, I'm going to have to dig them out and play around with using them as switching elements.
I've found opaque, sealed versions of these in photoflash guns - basically three-terminal triggered GDTs (gas discharge tubes) like the surge arrestors used in phone lines. But never seen an actual triggered neon before, interesting.
I had 4 of these once but never used them. Got them in a grab-bag deal at a swap meet 20+ years ago. Got rid of them that same day. Now I wished I'd kept them to experiment with.
2D21 tube was used for triggers. Pacific Coast Intertie (DC HV line from Bonneville to Los Angeles) had room size (about squash court size) Mercury Thyratrons for AC to DC and DC to AC conversion.
Cool! This device is completely new to me. Not everyday do you find out about a whole new component type that was there all along (at least not after playing the EE game for a couple decades)
I pulled one of these out of a (burned out) modern toaster oven years ago, was confused as hell by it but chucked it in with the other gas tubes I have - Turns out it might be far more useful than I thought! In the oven it was used both as the indicator lamp and linked to an inductor which had a core bridged by the door - if I remember right, when the door opened the core lost flux, the coil conducted far more and the tube stopped firing. Should have drawn a schematic but it was truly toast when I got to it. I can't find these for sale anywhere online which is a shame because they seem like the type of thing you could run logic/memory with for a fun project
I think it was Volta who tested the strength of his early "piles" with his tongue. Actually, I do the same thing with 9V batteries where you can easilly tell a good battery from a weak battery with your tongue 😜
@@robinbrowne5419 very true hard to believe are you so many batteries including 9 volts batteries in creations of mine when I was a kid! but never actually had a proper battery tester until much later on. Which I still have it was a Eveready photo battery tester that was given to me by one of my uncles that thing's older than I I am now. Open up the old 500 volt batteries that is I hate to see somebody try to test that with test leads and make a oopsie could not man imagine how that would feel. It doesn't seem like the leads were very much designed forthat. At least they were the older style of test probe with the more rigid plastic and fairly chunky flirt outward around the end that could help but not much. kind of built one that was not very reliable based around an old Vu meter out of something or other it gave a rough idea of a condition of various batteries not sure what happened to it either just basically in a little project box with a couple Kathleen is poking out of rubber grommet if I'm not mistaken somebody accidentally tried to use as a multimeter and pretty much smoke tested the meter coil in the extreme. Intermittent use only for sure and that was the key I didn't have proper value resistors it was just a Rough Guide more of an experiment that actually turned into something useful. If I remember correctly that was even before I had a multimeter alone a a whole lot more Electronics experience
Ah yes. The Krytron tube. A trademark of EG&G, the krytron tube (KN-2, KN-6, KN-22, etc...) is a sub-miniature extremely high speed switching trigger tube of the secondary emission gaseous ionic discharge type typically connected as a triggered triode. The device contains four electrodes, the cathode of which is doped with a radioisotope of Nickel (Ni-63) that is an emitter of Alpha Particles. The envelope is filled with a chemically inert noble gas, (usually Krypton or Xenon) that is best suited for ionization potential in the kilovolts range. These tubes and their equivalents were also used in Proton/Anti-proton counters/detectors (You need four KN-6s for that), Implosion detonators, high end ruby based laser flash triggers, Switching in Free-Electron Lasers, and in other niche military and research applications where a normal sub-miniature thyratron would be too slow to be practicable. I personally own about 9 examples of off-brand krytron tubes that I keep in storage for obvious reasons.
I‘m running an old Nd-Yag laser manufactured by by control data corporation and regranded by Siemens I guess in the 80s which uses a Krytron to trigger the arc in the krypton arc lamp. Found one brand new in my spares part box, a genuine eg&g one which seems to have made it to germany :)
I once saw one of these three electrode versions of of what looks like a neon bulb as shown in the video. It was in and some really old photoelectric switch hallway design for lamps or something don't know if this was something that was purpose build or a hobbyist project sometimes back in the day could be kind of hard to tell once in awhile I did not really look hobbyist due to the level of detail in construction so hard to say. However this was used obviously in a trigger application somewhere before we're in the relay driver stage actually did use this this device for quite a while what are the nice things is definitive on off adjustments. Use it in quite a dark area and really hard to get through this but didn't need light at night fit the bill perfectly it was just sitting in the floor out of the way but still photoelectric cell could receive any light in the area. Also I might add I've seen on ovens old ones where there would be a indicator that had three wires two of these were used one for two of the burners each to indicate the either one of or both were active active. Elegant solution for this for sure! Essentially play double indicator one single neon indicator instead of more complicated circuitry
As a student in the early 80s I had to build a Nd-YAG Laser from existent Parts. Unfortunately the EG&G Krytrons to trigger the Laser were damaged. These Krytrons were Part of american nuclear weapons and as a consequence I had to send the damaged ones back to the US and got some new Krytrons in Return.
Pretty sure the Krytrons are used to fire the external neutron source; the bombs trigger. That's the part that requires extremely precice and fast triggering. The implosion itself is slow compared to the timing needed to correctly trigger the bomb and get a full yield.
I am an old guy, but never seen one of these. Cool. Where the hell did you find them? Wonder if another could be used to terminate the current,... then of course you can make a ring oscillator,... cheers
Wow, I've never seen these before. Cool. Can you give it the photoelectric test ? (Like you did with the normal neon.). I think that would be interesting.
There was a ham radio guy seling batches of these on ebay. Bought a batch and was trying to figure them out. These would go great as triggers on my 900v strobes - Novabombs, er, Novatrons.
I've never heard of such a thing. there are still companies building neon bulbs like www.intl-lighttech.com/instrumentation-sensor-light-sources/neon-lamps ask them
Was this a modified quote from the movie Small Soldiers? I remember the line about having a the nuke or something like that in his junk drawer when they were trying to take care of the enemy with the electromagnetic pulse. Good movie by the way!
In regards to the ark discharge color. I've heard that when neons are massively overdriven or in use improperly not enough or no current limiting. That in an arc discharge instead of glow discharge because of improper conditions. There could be a pretty substantial Ark and I've heard this can actually be a different color then what is expected from a neon lamp I've never witnessed this in person but I have heard this. It's possible that that's what's being observed but I'm not sure but it's a possibility!
I'm another old guy. We used a giant version called a Thyratron to fire pulses on a magnatron Radar transmitters back in the 50"s
That's really cool. At one point didn't they use CW or that was way earlier before pulsed
Charles Wenzel of techlib.com once sent me a few of these quite some years ago. If i remember correctly he likes to use them as a protection element for shunting high voltage to ground across small antenna installations with sensitive preamps, such as in the VLF/spherics receivers he features on his site.
You know, your videos are always awesome but I also really appreciate and learn what your other viewers post in their comments. thanks guys.
I've only ever seen these used as protection elements, usually on old LAN interfaces. I have a four lead one somewhere that came off a twisted pair interface from the '90's. Regardless, I'm going to have to dig them out and play around with using them as switching elements.
I've found opaque, sealed versions of these in photoflash guns - basically three-terminal triggered GDTs (gas discharge tubes) like the surge arrestors used in phone lines. But never seen an actual triggered neon before, interesting.
Been into electronics, have been into it for over 50 years, never seen one, cool,stuff thanks for sharing
I had 4 of these once but never used them. Got them in a grab-bag deal at a swap meet 20+ years ago. Got rid of them that same day. Now I wished I'd kept them to experiment with.
Amazing, I’ve never seen these before.
2D21 tube was used for triggers. Pacific Coast Intertie (DC HV line from Bonneville to Los Angeles) had room size (about squash court size) Mercury Thyratrons for AC to DC and DC to AC conversion.
Cool! This device is completely new to me. Not everyday do you find out about a whole new component type that was there all along (at least not after playing the EE game for a couple decades)
I guess electronics engineers in the past often made funny remarks in their datasheet because they figured nobody read them.
Thank you so much for this video.
I pulled one of these out of a (burned out) modern toaster oven years ago, was confused as hell by it but chucked it in with the other gas tubes I have - Turns out it might be far more useful than I thought!
In the oven it was used both as the indicator lamp and linked to an inductor which had a core bridged by the door - if I remember right, when the door opened the core lost flux, the coil conducted far more and the tube stopped firing. Should have drawn a schematic but it was truly toast when I got to it.
I can't find these for sale anywhere online which is a shame because they seem like the type of thing you could run logic/memory with for a fun project
There is a guy who made a clock using these.. the video is on RUclips somewhere try neon triode clock
I think it was Volta who tested the strength of his early "piles" with his tongue. Actually, I do the same thing with 9V batteries where you can easilly tell a good battery from a weak battery with your tongue 😜
@@robinbrowne5419 very true hard to believe are you so many batteries including 9 volts batteries in creations of mine when I was a kid!
but never actually had a proper battery tester until much later on.
Which I still have it was a Eveready photo battery tester that was given to me by one of my uncles that thing's older than I I am now.
Open up the old 500 volt batteries that is I hate to see somebody try to test that with test leads and make a oopsie could not man imagine how that would feel.
It doesn't seem like the leads were very much designed forthat.
At least they were the older style of test probe with the more rigid plastic and fairly chunky flirt outward around the end that could help but not much.
kind of built one that was not very reliable based around an old Vu meter out of something or other it gave a rough idea of a condition of various batteries not sure what happened to it either just basically in a little project box with a couple Kathleen is poking out of rubber grommet if I'm not mistaken somebody accidentally tried to use as a multimeter and pretty much smoke tested the meter coil in the extreme.
Intermittent use only for sure and that was the key I didn't have proper value resistors it was just a Rough Guide more of an experiment that actually turned into something useful.
If I remember correctly that was even before I had a multimeter alone a a whole lot more Electronics experience
The 3 NE2s and the 3pst relay circuit...looks like a 3 path play ground to determine which lead has the shortest path
Ah yes. The Krytron tube. A trademark of EG&G, the krytron tube (KN-2, KN-6, KN-22, etc...) is a sub-miniature extremely high speed switching trigger tube of the secondary emission gaseous ionic discharge type typically connected as a triggered triode. The device contains four electrodes, the cathode of which is doped with a radioisotope of Nickel (Ni-63) that is an emitter of Alpha Particles. The envelope is filled with a chemically inert noble gas, (usually Krypton or Xenon) that is best suited for ionization potential in the kilovolts range. These tubes and their equivalents were also used in Proton/Anti-proton counters/detectors (You need four KN-6s for that), Implosion detonators, high end ruby based laser flash triggers, Switching in Free-Electron Lasers, and in other niche military and research applications where a normal sub-miniature thyratron would be too slow to be practicable. I personally own about 9 examples of off-brand krytron tubes that I keep in storage for obvious reasons.
I‘m running an old Nd-Yag laser manufactured by by control data corporation and regranded by Siemens I guess in the 80s which uses a Krytron to trigger the arc in the krypton arc lamp. Found one brand new in my spares part box, a genuine eg&g one which seems to have made it to germany :)
I once saw one of these three electrode versions of of what looks like a neon bulb as shown in the video.
It was in and some really old photoelectric switch hallway design for lamps or something don't know if this was something that was purpose build or a hobbyist project sometimes back in the day could be kind of hard to tell once in awhile I did not really look hobbyist due to the level of detail in construction so hard to say.
However this was used obviously in a trigger application somewhere before we're in the relay driver stage actually did use this this device for quite a while what are the nice things is definitive on off adjustments.
Use it in quite a dark area and really hard to get through this but didn't need light at night fit the bill perfectly it was just sitting in the floor out of the way but still photoelectric cell could receive any light in the area.
Also I might add I've seen on ovens old ones where there would be a indicator that had three wires two of these were used one for two of the burners each to indicate the either one of or both were active active.
Elegant solution for this for sure!
Essentially play double indicator one single neon indicator instead of more complicated circuitry
As a student in the early 80s I had to build a Nd-YAG Laser from existent Parts. Unfortunately the EG&G Krytrons to trigger the Laser were damaged.
These Krytrons were Part of american nuclear weapons and as a consequence I had to send the damaged ones back to the US and got some new Krytrons in Return.
Basically it operates like a triac. Interesting!
Nice video never got bored 😀
Pretty sure the Krytrons are used to fire the external neutron source; the bombs trigger. That's the part that requires extremely precice and fast triggering. The implosion itself is slow compared to the timing needed to correctly trigger the bomb and get a full yield.
I am an old guy, but never seen one of these. Cool.
Where the hell did you find them?
Wonder if another could be used to terminate the current,... then of course you can make a ring oscillator,... cheers
Wow, I've never seen these before. Cool. Can you give it the photoelectric test ? (Like you did with the normal neon.). I think that would be interesting.
This lamp is to be plugged into 3-phase wall socket.
Never heard of these before either. I am not a super grey beard yet though, just getting there...
Surely, an application note written by the Royal Society :)
I new a guy back in the 60's that tested a 90 volt B battery on his tongue. Now I am curious. Will have to search the obituaries from back home ??
There was a ham radio guy seling batches of these on ebay. Bought a batch and was trying to figure them out. These would go great as triggers on my 900v strobes - Novabombs, er, Novatrons.
Hi, great content ty.
where would i find a list of obtainable small tubes like a ne-2 but with 2-5KV ?
any index ?
I've never heard of such a thing. there are still companies building neon bulbs like www.intl-lighttech.com/instrumentation-sensor-light-sources/neon-lamps
ask them
Is it “photosensitive” like a neon ?
I would suspect as a "NE" 77 the gas would be neon...
Damn cool
I think in my junk box there is a couple Kg of that U235 93% stuff -- if we can find someone with some compound B we can test those triggers for real.
Was this a modified quote from the movie Small Soldiers?
I remember the line about having a the nuke or something like that in his junk drawer when they were trying to take care of the enemy with the electromagnetic pulse.
Good movie by the way!
Wondered if you replace it with Compound W when you get a higher yield Cincinnati wrapped in the alphabet LOL
In regards to the ark discharge color.
I've heard that when neons are massively overdriven or in use improperly not enough or no current limiting.
That in an arc discharge instead of glow discharge because of improper conditions.
There could be a pretty substantial Ark and I've heard this can actually be a different color then what is expected from a neon lamp I've never witnessed this in person but I have heard this.
It's possible that that's what's being observed but I'm not sure but it's a possibility!
Interesting.