Nixie stuff (Was: Re: A Proposal (was...))

< > > Don't they run on 170 volts or somesuch wild figure??? < > < > A nixie tube is basically a neon bulb. It turns out that if you drive < > neon bulb from DC, then the cathode appears to glow, and the anode < > doesn't. A nixie tube has a number of cathodes in the shape of the < > required symbols (often, but not always, 0-9), and a mesh anode. < < Wow. I didn't know that. I thought you had to supply the Nixie with AC 160-250V DC, thought he dc does nto have to be wel filtered or regulate < I'll have to rig up some kind of ladder network, I guess. I have a boar A transformer with a 120v secondary and a voltage doubler will do. The current is very low, nominal series resistor is something like 47k. < out of an ancient calculator with 9 or 10 Nixie tubes (and a neon bulb < for the '-' sign). I've always wanted to fire it up, but never had the < time to build some kind of high-voltage BCD driver. This sounds like a That's where the work is. Back when those were used inexpensive HV transistors with a 100v breakdown were hard to find and ICs good for more tha 30V were scarce. So there were some creative tricks used depending on the specific tube used. < for a PIC, a kind of serial to Nixie driver. I could always drive it wi < an ancient UART (the kind that didn't need a CPU) and a pile ot TTL, bu < I think the PIC could keep the part count low. Uart and a small pile of ttl really. The bulk of the hardware will be the drivers unless you can use the 74141. Allison