31 Aug
2006
31 Aug
'06
6:57 p.m.
I don't remember counting them, but the only ones
I saw that would display
alphanumerics were also segmented, as you describe here.
A few years back I bought out the basement of an old Burroughs ECD
guy, and I seem to remember seeing something about hex Nixies. In the
zillions of Nixies I got out of there, none were hex, although there
were many real oddballs in the bunch (Pixies, dual numeral, symbols).
Who knows - perhaps hex Nixies never got out of the lab.
But segmented displays aren't always the best
choice. If you have a display
where that last digit is reading "4" and it occasionally bobbles to 3 or 5,
a Nixie will show you this by the relative brightness of those electrodes,
while a 7-segment display will show you "8"...
Seven segment displays are also ergonomic disasters - the military
found it is far easier to read a seven segment display incorrectly
than just about every other method.
--
Will