Nixies, was Re: Octal

[Dave McGuire]

On Sep 1, 2006, at 7:45 PM, Tom Peters wrote:
> I haven't found a way to drive nixies from more modern equipment yet, 
> not one that I understand, anyhow. Especially the Burroughs  7971 
> "British Flag" one. I thought of building a character generator using 
> a PAL, but I really haven't decided what I want to do wit them yet. 
> Maybe create an "On the air" sign with my callsign, alternating with a 
> clock display.

   Nixie tubes are actually really easy to drive...74141 chips (BCD 
input, not for your B7971s without some fancy footwork) are hard to 
find, but Russian clones of them (K155ID1) work fine and are readily 
available.  Lacking that, MPSA42 transistors can drive Nixies.  The 
only real problem is a source of HV, but several people (including 
myself) are working on small "canned" HV generator modules which will 
be available cheaply.

              -Dave

--
Dave McGuire
Cape Coral, FL