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From: brian@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU (Brian Kantor)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics,talk.bizarre
Subject: Re: "Magic Eye" tubes - the Nixie Clock
Message-ID: <3452@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU>
Date: Tue, 14-Jul-87 17:35:44 EDT
Article-I.D.: sdcsvax.3452
Posted: Tue Jul 14 17:35:44 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 16-Jul-87 07:34:31 EDT
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Reply-To: brian@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU (Brian Kantor)
Organization: UCSD wombat breeding society
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Xref: mnetor sci.electronics:970 talk.bizarre:2494


In Electronics World Magazine in the middle 60's there was a circuit for
a quartz crystal clock with Nixie display.  As I recall, you could build
it either with 12AU7 twin triodes, or 6SN7s, depending on whether you
had more octal or 9-pin tube sockets sitting in your junk box.

I got it about half built and couldn't afford the timebase crystal.
Sigh.

There were a number of ICs on the market in the early 70s that were
Nixie tube drivers - you could use ICs to divide down the timebase and
count the minutes, but LED displays were too expensive, so you'd go to
Nixies for output.  Nowadays, if I had to use Nixies, I'd use some cheap
horizontal output transistors and a BCD-to-10-line decoder.  I seem to
remember that you had to switch about 5 ma at 250v or so.

Ah, the old days of firebottle technology.  (Vacuum-packed depletion
mode electron-emission devices with built-in indicator lamp and
environmental heater.)
	- Brian

I am NOT an old fart.