
The Nixie Tube Story: The Neon Display Tech That Engineers Can’t Quit - sohkamyung
https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-history/dawn-of-electronics/the-nixie-tube-story-the-neon-display-tech-that-engineers-cant-quit
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raphlinus
I used a Nixie tube as an example in my presentation on the evolution of
digital typography [0]. I actually brought a nixie clock with me, which was a
nice visual aid.

[0]
[https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/14o7vtyxz79Xto4JeDFcr...](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/14o7vtyxz79Xto4JeDFcrDfM_N4kZ1OxoqhjVseDicbA/edit#slide=id.g9c78baf83_0_6)

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svat
This presentation was wonderful, thank you! Is there a video by any chance?

Offtopic: I notice it doesn't mention (my favourite) Knuth's Metafont, an
unfortunate dead-end in the history of digital typography. And I used some
scans of yours in answering (and understanding) a question on TeX.SE a while
ago
([https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/361722/48);](https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/361722/48\);)
thanks for that as well.

~~~
raphlinus
Glad you liked it! Unfortunately there was going to be a video but it didn't
happen for technical reasons. I'd love to have the opportunity to do another
spin of that talk.

Of course I had to pick and choose, and Metafont is near and dear to my heart,
but since the audience for this was mostly humanities rather than a more
technical crowd, it didn't make the final cut.

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rogerbinns
I highly recommend Techmoan -
[http://www.techmoan.com/](http://www.techmoan.com/) \- which has an
enthusiastic presenter doing Youtube videos covering various retro and new
items. There are several about Nixie tubes including solared powered watches!
[http://www.techmoan.com/display/Search?moduleId=19697008&sea...](http://www.techmoan.com/display/Search?moduleId=19697008&searchQuery=nixie)

~~~
Yhippa
Thanks for that link! I watched the whole video on APS cameras:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTV99DzuJp0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTV99DzuJp0).
What a trip down memory lane. The presenter did a great job of capturing what
I remembered about APS. I really liked that format even though it sacrificed
quality for convenience. I have a bunch of old reels of APS film I'll have to
go see if I can get transferred to digital now.

~~~
rogerbinns
My gateway video was the one on the Tefifon -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBNTAmLRmUg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBNTAmLRmUg)
\- a consumer music playback format. Production ended the same decade we stood
on the moon.

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jazzychad
I've been a Nixie fan for a long time and finally started working with them ~2
years ago. Here is a custom timeline of tweets from my various projects -
[https://twitter.com/jazzychad/timelines/773442085278085121](https://twitter.com/jazzychad/timelines/773442085278085121)

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yborg
What kind of power draw would a full Nixie implementation of a hours and
minutes clock? And what is the typical lifetime of a tube?

~~~
jacquesm
Power draw will be a bit higher than what you're used to for LED displays but
not excessive, < 10 mA, they start to light up around 90V iirc, lifespan in
the 100's of thousands of hours for the newest ones.

~~~
King-Aaron
Can you recommend a good cost-effective kit/clock for someone to dip their
toes into the field with? I've often looked at them, but when forking over a
couple of hundred US dollars, a bit of insight into what's what would be ideal
:P

~~~
jacquesm
Velleman used to sell one, I see it is gone from their line up.

[https://www.velleman.eu/products/view/?id=380384](https://www.velleman.eu/products/view/?id=380384)

I have nothing but good stuff to say about Elektor so if you can get this
shipped you'd be in business.

[https://www.elektor.com/six-digit-nixie-
clock-150189-71](https://www.elektor.com/six-digit-nixie-clock-150189-71)

~~~
King-Aaron
Thanks for that! I think I might check out the Elektor kit :)

~~~
jacquesm
You're welcome. If you buy it and start building it and you get stuck on
something let me know and I'll help you out. Remote debugging is fun :)

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Terretta
Dalibor Farny’s clocks are stunning.

Mine, circa 2016 if I recall, was well worth the wait, impeccably packaged and
shipped from Czech Republic in a plywood box.

[https://www.daliborfarny.com](https://www.daliborfarny.com)

I chose the dark model: [https://www.daliborfarny.com/zen-nixie-
clock/](https://www.daliborfarny.com/zen-nixie-clock/)

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
I came here to mention him. The guy's a true artist.

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dustinmoorenet
The video in the article is just amazing. You don't normally get to see the
exact details of how things get made.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxL4ElboiuA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxL4ElboiuA)

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tecleandor
Great!

Appart from nixies, I also love VFDs (
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_fluorescent_display](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_fluorescent_display))
, but, as of today, the only options seem to be Noritake (pretty nice quality
in my little experience), and Matrix Orbital (can't talk about them).

There are some Noritakes which are pin-compatible with hd44780 controllers, so
I've used them to substitute older LCD displays, and they look great!

~~~
vidanay
VFD reminds me of growing up in the 80's when the only use for LCD was cheap
solar calculators and Casio wrist watches.

Nixie tubes just make me feel warm and tingly.

~~~
frandroid
And amateur fishing sonar screens...

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mmagin
I think something which hugely benefited the appearance of Nixie tubes in
hobbyist use was the incredible supply of surplus electronic components
(frequently industrial / military grade parts) from the former Soviet Union
that have become available through eBay over the past two decades.

Furthermore, whether due to reasons of preparation nuclear war (EMP) or due to
relatively poorer expertise at manufacturing semiconductors as compared to the
west, there's a huge amount of rather recent (1970s-1980s) tube-era parts.
(The avionics of the MiG-25 are mostly tube-based, as I understand it.)

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ta3344455ff
Until recently when I wanted to display some values from my factories in
Factorio, I would've had no idea what these things are, thought they might be
monster transporters or something.

[https://mods.factorio.com/mods/justarandomgeek/nixie-
tubes](https://mods.factorio.com/mods/justarandomgeek/nixie-tubes).

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bitwize
Part of the reason why nixie tubes enjoyed a resurgence around 2000 was _Final
Fantasy VII_ , which was set in a dieselpunk-ish world with nixie tubes
visible on some of the equipment in cutscenes, and even in parts of the UI. I
don't remember much awareness of nixies among folks my age until that game
revitalized their image as "retro tech".

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joezydeco
Let's not forget the Nixies that were scattered all around the world of
Pixar's _Monsters, Inc._ (2001)

[http://disney-hiddensecrets.tumblr.com/image/1352338597](http://disney-
hiddensecrets.tumblr.com/image/1352338597)

[https://i.ytimg.com/vi/GhFS3H2ejNA/maxresdefault.jpg](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/GhFS3H2ejNA/maxresdefault.jpg)

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watmough
Man, just another reason to be grateful to the Burroughs Corporation.

Here's one of the main ones:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burroughs_large_systems](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burroughs_large_systems)

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kolpa
Has anything displaced Nixie tubes as a Pareto improvement? Nixie tubes offer
an implementation of custom single-size "vector" fonts. 7-segment displays
offer badly limited fonts. Raster displays are only partly competitive with
vector displays in the recent "Retina" era.

