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Uses for nixie tubes

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magnet18

Thu Jun 02 2011, 03:38AM

Registered Member #3766 Joined: Sun Mar 20 2011, 05:39AM
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Posts: 624

Alright, I seem to have mastered the nixie clock, or at least become competent enough to build one using 40xx chips that actually works.
So, this raises the question, what's cooler?
Grenadier used some in his x-ray machine, which became something so complex I lost track of what's going on, but it's a good application.
Anyone ever built something using these?
Anyone have any cool ideas?
I'm thinking maybe integrating them into my fusor project or a plasma speaker, but I'm not exactly sure how just yet.

Anyway, this is a general discussion thread for nixies, so have at.

Inducktion

Thu Jun 02 2011, 03:58AM

Registered Member #3637 Joined: Fri Jan 21 2011, 11:07PM
Location: Buffalo, NY
Posts: 1068

You could make a multimeter...you could make anything with numbers, essentially. Retrofit your microwave to look old, your oven, your egg timer, whatever, anything that uses numbers nixies can be used.

Ash Small

Thu Jun 02 2011, 11:18AM

Registered Member #3414 Joined: Sun Nov 14 2010, 05:05PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4245

magnet18 wrote ...

.Anyone have any cool ideas?
I'm thinking maybe integrating them into my fusor project or a plasma speaker, but I'm not exactly sure how just yet.

Anyway, this is a general discussion thread for nixies, so have at.

If you are building a fusor there is no end of possibilities.

Readouts for vacuum guages, readouts for neutron scintillators, readouts for grid voltage and current, readouts for deuterium feed rates.............

magnet18

Thu Jun 02 2011, 11:42AM

Registered Member #3766 Joined: Sun Mar 20 2011, 05:39AM
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Posts: 624

Yea, I was thinking I could cover the fusor in the things, but since I'll probably only ever use it like twice, I was trying to think of something that gets used daily, or at least weekly...

Avalanche

Thu Jun 02 2011, 11:51AM

Registered Member #103 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 08:16PM
Location: Derby, UK
Posts: 845

I have a single nixie tube somewhere, and I always planned to use it to make a rotating nixie clock (a POV display using a single nixie instead of a row of LEDs). I can't remember if I've seen someone else do it online, but I never actually got around to it.

Ash Small

Thu Jun 02 2011, 12:08PM

Registered Member #3414 Joined: Sun Nov 14 2010, 05:05PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4245

magnet18 wrote ...

Yea, I was thinking I could cover the fusor in the things, but since I'll probably only ever use it like twice, I was trying to think of something that gets used daily, or at least weekly...

Vacuum systems have lots of other uses....different grid configurations/voltages/polarities,etc enable all kinds of plasma processing/ion beam stuff to be undertaken.

Once you've achieved fusion I'm sure you'll move onto other things.....vacuum tube manufacture, vacuum induction casting, etc, etc.........

ConKbot of Doom

Thu Jun 02 2011, 12:32PM

Registered Member #509 Joined: Sat Feb 10 2007, 07:02AM
Location:
Posts: 329

A DMM stuffed in an AVO-8 or similar looking case with a nixie display would look slick if you could find a non-functional one for not too expensive on ebay or similar.

Forty

Thu Jun 02 2011, 12:40PM

Registered Member #3888 Joined: Sun May 15 2011, 09:50PM
Location: Erie, PA
Posts: 649

make a giant nixie calculator

radiotech

Thu Jun 02 2011, 06:46PM

Registered Member #2463 Joined: Wed Nov 11 2009, 03:49AM
Location:
Posts: 1546

Single Nixie combination lock.

Mode of operation.

Press the button.

Nixie flashes at a regular cadence random 0-9.

The daycode is a three or four digit sequence, flashed
once per initiation, with initiation sequence locked out for
n seconds if fail to solve,

When you see the daycode, on the fourth numeral flashed
following it. press button to enter.

Nicko

Thu Jun 02 2011, 08:48PM

Registered Member #1334 Joined: Tue Feb 19 2008, 04:37PM
Location: Nr. London, UK
Posts: 615

Join the Google neonixie-l group - in the last 10 years or so pretty much anything that can be done with nixies has been.

Some folk are now making their own, but not on a commercial scale.

Current discussions centre of the astonishingly rare CD47s & F9020AAs - a single CD47 sold on eBay this week for nearly USD 1000. F9020AAs go for north of USD 350 normally.

Things to note - nixies don't like shock/vibration, so bike speedos don't last long. Also, they don't switch very fast as they have significant internal capacitance - a POV display has been done (more than once) as have all the other suggestions above.

Personally, I like novel ways of telling the time - a good friend who is a graphics designer type, does lovely things with nixies in novels way:

- my personal favourite is the "approximate clock". I'm lucky to have several of John's designs in my collection.

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