Nixie tube lifetime

[Boris Gjenero]

I'm thinking of building a nixie clock. I'm a bit concerned about the
lifetime of the nixie tubes. A lot of old Soviet tubes are for sale
on eBay. I've seen several datasheets it seems like the guaranteed
lifetime is generally 5000 hours. That's less than a year and it
seems too short. I don't want a clock that is a curiosity, to be
turned on once in a while to show off to people. I want to use it all
the time.

So what tubes should I use and where can I get them?

 

[Art]

Lifetime would depend on the brightness that you have them operate at,
regulated by the current available when the elements are lit, not just when
igniting them. If my memory serves: the nixie tubes are neon discharge lamps
with the elements selected to fire specific elements that make up the
characters. FYI: I have a frequency counter tha I built in the mid '60s and
it is still functional using the 7 segment nixie display tubes. Personally
for your application there should not be any concern regarding them burning
out but just in case you can always get a few extra tubes as a backup.
"Boris Gjenero"

 

[[email protected]]

I have built three clocks using B-7971 displays. All of them have been
working continuously for more than 100,000 hours. YMMV.

Have you checked out the NEONIXIIE group on Yahoo! Groups?

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEONIXIE-L

 

[Boris Gjenero]

I have built three clocks using B-7971 displays. All of them have been
working continuously for more than 100,000 hours. YMMV.

Have you checked out the NEONIXIIE group on Yahoo! Groups?

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEONIXIE-L

Thanks for pointing me to that group. There's a lot of useful
information there.

 

[[email protected]]

I'm thinking of building a nixie clock. I'm a bit concerned about the
lifetime of the nixie tubes. A lot of old Soviet tubes are for sale
on eBay. I've seen several datasheets it seems like the guaranteed
lifetime is generally 5000 hours. That's less than a year and it
seems too short. I don't want a clock that is a curiosity, to be
turned on once in a while to show off to people. I want to use it all
the time.

So what tubes should I use and where can I get them?

Nixie tubes last forever (for all practical purposes) if you dont
missuse them

 

[[email protected]]

One can probably double the lifetime by clocking the segments at a 50%
duty cycle at about 30 times per second.

 

[Boris Gjenero]

One can probably double the lifetime by clocking the segments at a 50%
duty cycle at about 30 times per second.

Once when reading about someone's nixie clock I read that multiplexing
wears out nixie tubes faster. I thought that the higher currents
necessary to get the desired brightness were probably the cause.
Because of this I was planning an unmultiplexed design.

So is multiplexing good or bad? Can someone confirm this?

 

[Hal Murray]

One can probably double the lifetime by clocking the segments at a 50%

Once when reading about someone's nixie clock I read that multiplexing
wears out nixie tubes faster. I thought that the higher currents
necessary to get the desired brightness were probably the cause.
Because of this I was planning an unmultiplexed design.

So is multiplexing good or bad? Can someone confirm this?

I'd expect that brightness and inverse-lifetime would both
follow the average current through a neon bulb. Anybody
got data?

If inverse-lifetime is linear with brightness, then multiplexing
doesn't make any difference as long as you keep the brightness
the same. That assumes that brightness is linear with current.

Is there a word/term for inverse-lifetime? I'm looking for something
like resistance vs conductance.