3 Mar
2008
3 Mar
'08
12:15 p.m.
M H Stein wrote:
--------Original Messages:
Date: Fri, 29 Feb 2008 23:22:16 -0800
From: Brent Hilpert <hilpert at cs.ubc.ca>
Subject: Re: seven segment display history
To: General at priv-edmwaa04.telusplanet.net,
"Discussion at priv-edmwaa04.telusplanet.net":On-Topic and Off-Topic
Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Message-ID: <47C90428.4A52403B at cs.ubc.ca>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Ethan Dicks wrote:
anodes, >
etc.
I have something like that with me here in my
bag-o-parts... approx 20mm
by 30mm, with a 2mm-thick body made of a rough, dark ceramic, with a 1mm
thick glass top. It's a 2.5 digit display with + and -. All the leads
come through the back of the package in what appears to be a straight-
through fashion (making it easy to figure out how to hook it up).
Your description sounds like the Sperry/Beckman gas-discharge displays, e.g.:
http://www.tube-tester.com/sites/nixie/trade08-panaplex.htm
I think your part number is in there.
----------------Reply:
A little tricky to interface because of the high voltage, keep-alive I may have some of the driver chips though if
you're serious.
I actually have a bunch of those too, culled from the guts of an old gas pump.
I remember rigging up something with a bunch of transistors a couple of years
ago just to interface them to some LS-TTL and try them. Nice glow to them.
In the context of Apollo displays, I'd figured them to be a lot later - mid
'70s or so. (the biggest ones I have are about 3/4" for the actual digits too,
a lot smaller than the mocked-up ones on the Apollo computer I saw)
cheers
Jules