25 May
2005
25 May
'05
3:51 p.m.
On Wed, 25 May 2005, Eric Smith wrote:
I've just looked at the specifications for Chicago
Miniature Lamp
neon bulbs, and it looks like they don't have anything suitable.
The problem is that the specifications for the "maintain" and
"breakdown" (start) voltage ranges are too wide, and often there
is overlap. So unless you are willing to cherry-pick bulbs that
meet tighter specs, 2-D matrix drive doesn't seem practical.
THat is a problem, huh :-)
What did HP use in their old thermometer-type counters?
THere are still bazillions of the old NE-2 types around, surplus.
I wonder what they are like.
Time to hit old literature.
If there was some way to work addressing schemes where instead of
varying voltages, you vary time-constant, you could pulse the
selected cell with a voltage sufficient to overcome the
too-many-variables problem.