Know Your Displays - Nixie vs. VFD Tubes
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- Опубликовано: 27 дек 2013
- Help Support Fran's RUclips Channel on Patreon: / frantone
In this short vlog I go over the differences between Nixie tubes and Vacuum Florescent Displays. These displays often get lumped together but they are very different, and not to be confused with each other. I also give a nod to Dave Jones who is the current caretaker of the LVDC board. You can watch the Mailbag episode where Dave unboxes the board here - • EEVblog #561 - Mailbag
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One thing to note about Nixie tubes: a failure cannot manifest as an otherwise-valid output, e.g. the failure of the top segment of a 7-segment display turning 7 into 1. Very important for things where it's imperative that no mistakes happen.
There were 7-segment Nixie tubes, although rare.
Thumbs up for the messy desk.
indeed! it means work is getting done ;)
You managed to purchase a WHOLE BUNCH of nixie's at one time?
*YOU RULE!!!*
I have a Nixie tube clock I watch all night long, now I’m watching it so differently, pretty fascinating
Love nixie and vfd. Have built several clocks using them.
Crates of them...wow! Thanks for sharing this Fran.
Why couldn't you have been a mentor/ teacher in my life.
Thank you for the explanation of these. I just picked up a dozen ив-6 (AKA IV-6). Some of them will be used in a frequency counter for my vacuum tube ham radio receiver.
Hey, I have that radio shack meter! found it at an antique store for $5 and its been my favorite meter ever since!
Nice old Tektronix room heater you've got there! I used to have a 585a with an 82 plug-in. Happy days...
I've got my dad's old 564 scope, still works!
If they ever make a Fallout 3 movie, they should cast this lady as Moira Brown from Megaton!
Hi Fran really cool clip! Fantastic work! wished I could see them glow.
Awesome explanation and thank you for posting!
Your a bright technical woman. A rare gem based on this video. Thanks!
Wow, just...wow. Didn't know any of that. My first time watching your channel. Now, to check out the LVDC....
I use an old Racal Universal Counter at work that used Nixie tubes, very cool!
I love the Nixie tubes... I wish I could find find a working display to photograph. Thanks for the video, and thanks for all your extremely interesting Apollo V stuff.
Could you do more of these short videos ? I love watching your output, but I frequently don't have the time to commit to a longer feature
Hah, how funny that I came across this video after Dave Jones from EEV made a video about Nixie tubes, probably the very tubes you sent him!!!!!!!!! I've been thinking about building a retro clock for my niece with some of these babies, so awesome...
Heeyy. It's Fran.
Really cool videos. Keep 'em coming please!
Thank you, explanation about such displays. When I searched about accoustic musical instrument and electronics, I found your channel. I am baroque style flute and oboe maker and play them. I want to find something new with them and modern technology.
That was very informational and useful. Low voltage vacuum tubes? Wow. Nixis are not vacuum? Wow. Apollo program is uber cool part of engineering history, which still marvels me in many ways.
Subscribed. :)
Also hoping Dave will do something interesting with LVDC module.
NIXIE is a neon gas discharge display. Some of the old US Navy test gear I have use Neon lamps as voltage limiters/regulators. I have some old Bruel & Kjaer test gear from Mc Intosh that use neon lamps as Zener diodes, or voltage/current limiters, and these little lamps are even shown as a zener diode on the schematics. Merle Travis, & Chet Atkins used Standard Electronic's amplifiers which some, not all used a string of neon lamps to regulate the voltage to the preamp. They get muddy when you play a chord, which kind of sucks, but these were very early guitar amps, and totally unlike Fender, Gibson, Magnatone, Valco/National/Dobro amps of the 1940s, or 50s for that matter.
very nice, please more about these displays
Jesus von Nazaret please discover Google.
Very interesting Fran
I have the same radio shack digital volt meter. Nice feature of this is that it connects to your computers serial port creating a bigger display unit on your monitor, problem is the display on the meter damage so easily when dropped. I got mines from all the way back in 1997 during my electrical class days.
Vfd technology was used in cars and radio for a while. At night in the dark, I could see the 3 filaments glow a bit orange for a second as they dimmed back down. There was even a Pac Man game with the tube and several colors! It was battery powered too.
I love this kind of stuff!!!
Interesting, I had not thought about how NIXIE tubes actually worked. I just assumed they were exactly like NEON lights. It never occurred to me that there was bias voltage on the non desired segments. I had however always wondered how as each segment was further away from the grid screen that they remained as bright at the closest. It also explains a problem I came across many years ago as kid fascinated with them that I would occasionally run across a NIXIE where some segments were glowing slightly. Thanks Fran!
Is that a Harbor Freight meter? My favorite store.. next to Weird Stuff in Calif.
So cool thanks for sharing
You are making awesome videos! I really like the explanation you gave so if you had as much fun doing it as i had watching it, please do them more often. I found you through daves channel and im really happy about it!
Just found your channel. Awesome.
Dave is putting those Nixie's to good use! :)
One thing I read some time back (years?) is the big advantage that you have when you're dealing with an instrument that has some "bobble" in the last digit, like a digital voltmeter or similar: In the case of an LED 7-segment display, for example, if it's mostly a 4 but bobbling between 3 and 5 what you'll end up seeing is an 8! In the case of the Nixie, that won't happen, and it's quite obvious what the measurement is doing. I've never actually seen this addressed in terms of the prevalence of 7-segment displays.
I've also not personally encountered that style of VFD. The ones that I have encountered are the ones that you typically saw in VCRs over the years. Unfortunately, those were usually pretty tightly coupled, design-wise, to the microcontroller chip that usually sat right under the display. I've been told that they were usually custom-made, for that particular model or series of models of equipment, and have not been able to find any data whatsoever on those silly things. Which is a shame, because it might be fun to re-purpose one for something. If you know of any info out there on these things, I'd sure like to hear about it!
Somewhere around here I have a bag of what I've been told are "Nixie sockets". If I come across them maybe they'll be of some use?
Any thoughts about the relative lifetime of these parts? I remember a store on Canal Street in NYC that had a bunch of Nixies on display, constantly powered up, and they weren't doing too well...
Love your channel Fran
Nice! Only thing missing, was to fire them suckers up! I haven't seen a Nixie tube actually on, for decades!
ffggddss your on RUclips..... maybe search nixie clocks and you can see them all day.
6:30 The Nixie tube uses a prebias of -50 volts dc. To switch on a numerical figure, the grid is grounded.
The cathode to anode difference is +170 VDC, depending on the tube specs?
nice video, very informative!!!
Do you know of a nixie watch kit that comes already assembled I want to case 1 in a pocket watch. I know of David Forbes kit but I was hoping to find a 4 Tube kit
BTW I like your pseudo beatnik sounding music at the close.
thanks fran
Ooooo, see, I always thought nixies where complex and convoluted vacum tubes, now I know they where just as complex and convoluted but neons in essence. Every day does one learn something. I am glad I caught your channel before the pink pill, your a fantastic and fascinating uploader.
Dave's got a lot of retro on his plate, he has the LVDC , the nixie and the delorean time circuits to make sence off. I'm sure it will be a bobby dazler ;P
I just remembered Fran doesn't use G- and I don't/won't use tweet, could somebody cut and past it to her on my behalf. Many thanks if so :D
Sirus ..
Jeffrey Bright
Jeff...
There is not many woman in youtube for electronics. Thanks for being here.
Hi Fran Again!
Love the look of the old VFD's. Very 70s/80s.
that's so neat! i thought nixie tubes were tungsten because of the orange.
i would love some of those nixies
Roush Hawley then buy some on Ebay.
what are the types of nixie tubes, say IN-4 and IN-12, what do the numbers mean?
I am not sure I would confuse a NIXIE tube for anything else. So distinctive
Glad you made this video to clarify the issue for people... sad that such a video is even necessary though. I mean, of course Nixie != VFD. But the confusion is perpetuated, even encouraged, by all the eBay sellers of VFDs who snare in people searching for Nixies by putting rubbish like "Nixie Era..." in the titles of their VFD listings.
Do you have any idea what the reaction time is for a nixie display? I mean, how fast can they light and extinguish a digit? If you wanted to use one to count 10ths or 100ths of a second could they do so effectively?
Jeff Flowers yes
Jeff Flowers Yep. Check out Techmoan, he has a stop clock that uses nixie tubes, if I remember right it's a German stop clock and was used in science labs
I was expecting a nixie tubes show off, but the vid was really informative, thanks.
I have a box of OTKS Russia Cold War Nixie’s. I built a cool clock from them. Mine are 11pin oval shaped. Btw my clock runs off 12vdc and it is entirely logic driven. No aurquino.
I'd love to get some nixies but they're kinda hard to come by in europe
If you have cases of American made Nixie tubes I think you are sitting on a gold mine and ought to sell some on eBay or something... Many people have to buy Russian tubes for projects like Nixie clocks and so-on.
Burroughs made quite a few, I believe.
The problem you will run into is availability of them as well as price. Cold War nixie tubes are much cheaper and easier to come by and easily will last 5+ years in most cases.
scusa se sono un po' fuori tema, sono in possesso di 8 valvole IV-17 a 18 segmenti, è possibile pilotarle con arduino per fare apparire scritte a piacere? mi puoi aiutare ?Grazie
First time watching your work pretty good. On a side note not as a positive or negative just observation at end you seemed a little sad but a lot of us nerds really enjoy these presentations and the work and knowledge which is shared. Thank You and keep on trucking knowledge is power and must be used for good of mankind.
Recently did an animation of Vacuum Florescent Displays as an example for a web page dedicated to musicians. RIfftime. They used other more conservative ideas instead. But I thought as a gif Facebook banner these tubes in deep blue with hot red letters slowly heating up saying Rifftime in eight tubes was a cool idea. I still have my father's very early Radio Engineering manual. He taught at M.I.T. around 1937-1040. Funny that it never occurred to him to share any of that with his only son.
Would you be interested in selling some of your Nixie tubes? They are really hard to find in Australia.
nagchampa try using Ebay dude lol.
man I would love to get hold of some Nixie tubes at a decent price. I want to build a Nixie display for a weather station. would you consider selling a few.
You've got the "prebias" issue wrong. Prebias is used to reduce the necessary voltage swing on the drivers so lower-voltage-tolerant drivers can be used. Some nixies have some radioactive material in them to pre-ionize the gas and reduce the voltage needed for illumination. The pre-bias has nothing to do with this.
Robert Haas You're absolutely correct, Robert. No pre-bias with Nixie tubes,. The digits are either on or off once ground potential is supplied to any of the cathodes. And so goes the never ending saga of mis-information rampant on the internet.
ive got somw nixies as well. Inverted numbers too. Amprex zm1000 and zm1000r tubes, b5991 8422. I can get the other numbers lol. wish to make a clock. Building em is not easy
Hi Fran, I like your vids but it would be nice if you included a bit more practical in them. I would love to have seen physical comparisons on the tudes and showing number switch rates.
Fran, could they have developed Efd into a light source for general purpose lighting just like they did with LEDs? I guess they could. Of course LEDs are more efficient but EFD are easier to make in a low-tech environment.
I know this video is rather old but I'd love to get my hands on 6 nixie tubes to make a clock. I have an old desk calculator that has nixie tubes.
You make nerdery fun☺️
My kinda fun anyway 💞
Nixie works identical as neon glow lamp but has Has required number of cathodes shaped into digits or other characters (+, -, ~).
Hi Fran. Was wondering if you had any nixies for sale. I need six. Please let me know and what you will charge. Thank, Sam
Sam Sheleby literally tons on Ebay.
I am looking for nixie tubes for a personal project, where can I find cheap ones?
Behnam saeidi - The best place to find them is eBay. They are usually only available in small quantities and most are Russian. The supply is running out quickly and prices are rising just as fast.
i found a set from a supplier costing about 8 bucks for 6 of them and 10 bucks for shipping (turns at around $3 for each)
I new the name of someone that made them by hand, dammit!
handmade, www.daliborfarny.com.
Behnam saeidi eBay. Lots of used and NOS (New Old Stock) available for fairly cheap. That's where I buy mine.
this channel is way overdue to blow up.
Nixie tubes & vacuum displays are much more interesting than LED displays, but LED's are interesting, too. Is it true that LED's, neon lamps & florescent lamps have in common the need for a current-limiting resistor of some sort, or a "starter"?
instant ..sub.. thanks
Fran, you are awesome. Love the information you share and you are very engaging.
come on Fran, how can you show us these awesome displays... even have them wired in the background... and then not even turn them on!! Some people like me have never seen nor heard about Nixie tubes and I'm finding it difficult to locate video of the legit old versions lit up. There are plenty of people making new versions of the old design but very few of the actual old ones. What a missed opportunity!
Do you have any more? I'm am artist/electromechanical tech and I want to build a nixie/Steampunk clock art piece...I could use some for sure! :-):-)
Jon Ivan just order off Ebay. I'm building one right now that is steampunk.
Oh FFS Fran, how did I miss this vid? So, I was at a ham swap meet and ended up with some IV-22 tubes. VFD, not nixie. They will still make a cool clock. plus it was 4 for $1. :)
You got a load of NIXIES ! COOL !
8:48 - When you realise that the little tube between the 4 big tubes looks like a person in a hat that needs to pee badly.
Then at 8:53, it's just a witch standing in line.
Hey Fran ~ Do you happen to still have those crates of surplus JAN Nixie Tubes hanging around??? I desperately need to talk to you about them. Get back to me PLEASE. Thanks!!!
Interesting video.
However, I kept hearing a pitch noise in the whole video that kept going stronger. :)
You can use terms like cathode rays and "Edison Effect". We are not that clueless.
So aren't VFD tubes similar to Cathode ray tube TVs? electrons travelling and hitting a phosphorous "screen"
Sorta, Same concept, but VFDs are more triodes than they are CRTs.
So a Nixie tube is a type of vacuum tube?
+Edward Spencer No, it's filled with an inert gas.
i got some nixie tubes!
*****
62 in 4's and 6 in 14's
***** i bought the in4 for $13 from ukraine.
Roush Hawley do you want a hero cookie? Lol
i love vfd tubes
Do you know about Asperger syndrome ?
fran have you seen glassslingers vidios you will love it fond yours today grate job i will be following your vids from know on thank you
Would point out where I could get a number of those Nixie tubes by "G" or you would sells me some?..Nic
Your a very smart woman! Would be interested to know what is the logic behind the order of numbers. I think I seen them in non numerical order. Could be certain number would be harder to read behind others? Anyway thank you for taking the time to show us how this fascinating technology works.
EU QUERIA FASER UM RELÓGIO DE PULSO. COM ESSE TUBO NIXIE , MAS NÃO TEM AQUI NO BRASIL. ABRAÇOS .
Dekatron, for the win...
i think im in love =3-
Pls send me one Nixie tube
I need one for my clock.
But my budget is oit and i can only find offers for mor then 2 .
Darckmaster save your money instead of mooching off people. Tubes are dirt fucking cheap on Ebay.
По ходу шибко умная тётка!
You are doing are great job,love your work.
Hows Missy?
Please add multi language subtitles
Found this channel yesterday...so awesome.
You didn't talk about numitrons.
Thanks. Great essay.