How does a Nixie tube work?

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How does a Nixie tube work?
In this video we take a look at the IN12 Nixie tube and what it takes to make one work.
NCH6100HV High Voltage DC Power Supply :amzn.to/2oJRhEp
6 PCS/LOT NOS Vintage NEON NIXIE TUBE IN-12: amzn.to/2F5WtgZ
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FAQ:
Me: Paul, 49 from USA
Education: United States Navy, University of California at San Diego B.S. E.E., University of Pittsburgh M.S. E.E.
Experience: United States Navy STS, Bayer Intnl Process Engineer
Current: Teaching college freshmen electrical engineering at a small community college in the Pittsburgh Area.
Health: BAD (Congestive Heart Failure)
Hobbies: Electronics, flying, amateur radio, music (classic rock)

[@cynthiacavanaugh6458]

Yes, I have been sitting around in the middle of the night and had the urge to work with high voltage. Such is the life of an electronics enthusiast!

[@teh60]

Nixie tubes are very cool. I like how the #5 is actually an upside down #2.

[@ArseniiB]

Пятёрка перевёрнутая это двойка

[@DouglasKryder]

nothing like a dose of high voltage in the morning.

[@learnelectronics]

Get's the blood flowing!

[@knitelite4894]

You just made me LOVE electricity haha. Badass!

[@kontramot]

That tube ИН-12Б is from Soviet electronic scales. The pentagon with СССР inside means that this particular tube had passed all quality tests and is of high quality.

[@dragondx2]

finally a crystal clear nixie tube explanation!! thanks man!

[@thomasklima215]

A series resistor (~10k) would be a good idea to limit the current, the small sparks dont look good...

[@usethefooorce]

The spark happened when he shorted the negative and positive wires accidentally, on the last pin. The actual current flowing between the cathode and the anode will be very small under normal operation. The cathode just emits some electrodes into the low pressure neon/argon mix, causing ionization, but this should be orders of magnitude less current flow than when you short the wires.

[@waldolemmer]

@@usethefooorce Then the resistor would be good for safety

[@GadgetReboot]

Thanks for giving some practical details on nixie tubes along with the demo.

[@michaelpadovani9566]

Never seen or heard of this device, pretty neat considering there are no solid state components inside. The small flash and train going by are reminders that this is "live" and anything goes...like that about your vids. Have a great day!

[@learnelectronics]

Thanks my friend! Live indeed, and totally unscripted.

[@opalprestonshirley1700]

I've never used Nixie tubes, looking forward to more. Thanks Paul.

[@markgreco1962]

Thanks Paul! I didn’t hook up both grounds. Now it’s working 😀

[@thenutter2003]

have used these before great video

[@jamesallen6007]

I had never heard of a nixie tube, until I came across your video. I am now going to have a look at your nixie clock, and see if I cannot make one for myself.👍

[@potatopotato-lf1ns]

Found them by watching stiens gate, very cool

[@stuarthossack7906]

Nice demo, thanks.

[@gflinch]

Thumbs up for the spark :) cool video, something I wanted to know about.

[@raf.nogueira]

Amazing video, this Nixies are so bright and beautiful

[@arzamas1988]

Thanks for this video. It is wery interesting for me

[@Rickr522]

Shocking demo! Thanks for showing how they work, how to hook them up, and how not to touch them..... :-)

[@exoplanet11]

Thanks. I though these were vacuum tubes at first....but didn't know about the high voltage. I'd be interested in how your clock project is going.

[@andytimmons1950]

Great video mate

[@davidprice2861]

Good little selection on your amazon, will get a couple of nixies and the sonoff switch for sure, cheers on the 11K ..

[@learnelectronics]

Awesome!

[@AdamAmbarus]

Great video!

[@kevin7rxxx346]

ElectroBoom!!! Dads working in the living room again !!!

[@captainchrono6448]

Nice educational video on a Nixie-T

[@derekschwontz9072]

Great tutorial

[@learnelectronics]

Thank you

[@iann466]

Here after the latest Dr Stone chapter. That manga is such a gem, wow.

[@JG-nx6xl]

Congratulations, it is a very interesting video. Would you know how many tubes you could feed with that power supply?

[@Melody_Raventress]

It's 0030 hours, and I'm thinking "I want to hear about nixie tubes". And here we are.

[@confusedwolf7157]

He's (still) alive!

[@PinataOblongata]

Watching at 3:41am, hilariously. Pretty close!

[@UQRXD]

I had an old adding machine with the tubes.

[@robtom4367]

thk you for video

[@zenzen9131]

The first DVM I used in the airforce back in the early 70s used these as the display :)

[@learnelectronics]

Now that is cool! I would have thought you'd have have used a Simpson back then.

[@zenzen9131]

The only name I can recall is Solartron. May have been something similar to this: www.radiomuseum.org/r/solartron_digital_voltmeter_lm_1490.html

[@ferashamdan4252]

Thanks man

[@marselluswiedia2887]

For the people who watch this video: USE AN ANODE RESISTOR IN SERIES!!! Our guy here has probably forgotten, but using the supply voltage connected to the tube directly will shorten the tube's lifespan.

[@learnelectronics]

Using a specifically designed nixie tube supply, no resistor necessary but thanks for playing.

[@marselluswiedia2887]

@@learnelectronics well, if that's so... that's not something I ever heard of. ...I don't know what you mean by "playing" though. I checked the amazon page of this power supply, even there on their demo picture assembled has anode resistors built in the circuit. Also I don't see anywhere mentioned that you don't need to use them. And I wasn't being an asshole. Just pointed out something.

[@ICStation2013]

Cool video, thumbs up!!! :P

[@baselstein]

Wow that's ancient it's was made in soviet union before 1990

[@thebeststooge]

Nixie tubes are so retro and I love them.

[@learnelectronics]

And they are fun to play with too.

[@thebeststooge]

Do they still make the tube sockets for those Soviet Union era tubes?

[@BarefootBeekeeper]

There's a neat little mini Tesla coil speaker kit on eBay if you like high voltages!

[@xConundrumx]

Dalibor Family has started making them too. Small scale family outfit.

[@SpeedDeamon95]

Currently trying to build my own dc-dc boost converter. Running the formulas from Texas instruments helped things make more sense but the calculations came out weird. I might end up just using a boost converter calculator. It will get the job done but I feel like I'm missing something important.

[@pikminman13]

You were very close with that intro, it’s 3 AM and I wanted to learn about Nixie tubes. No, really, I just started thinking about calculators and displays and such and wondered how Nixie tubes work.

[@gabrielfine6296]

So a control unit is programmed to send voltage to each pin to light a digit accordingly?

[@davidbierbaum4881]

The only thing worse than "hairy tongue" is "solder finger". I still remember those awful crusty burns from a soldering iron.

[@OIE82]

Well its 3 in the afternoon and I was thinking about nixie tubes. Its been a long time since I have. They were used in electronic scales up till the 80s. And Paul, did you say the pins are numbered counter-clockwise? 😉 Well; it was 3 in the morning I guess.

[@Drifter69]

Hi from Kingston .... do you miss active surplus too ?

[@anonops1980]

4h24min right now and here I am thinking about Nixie tubes...

[@PaddiiLicious]

omg :D this viedeo was so perfekt:D i wanted to buy my fince a real one and ended with a screen one.... but your video is so f.... impresive:)

[@learnelectronics]

Thank you!

[@davidmcguire6043]

I don't know if it's some how different in Toronto but I've been hit with 120, 277,& 480 and no hair ever grew on my tongue.

[@Moonbrony]

Building a nixie tube clock? Sounds like fun. Are you going to be using a dedicated clock generator or building it from the ground up using logic ICs? I hope it's the latter!

[@learnelectronics]

Im going to use an Arduino and a GPS module.

[@Moonbrony]

Sounds interesting. Never thought of using a GPS module, I suppose there will be no need to set the time using that.

[@learnelectronics]

Well, that's my hope. In practice, who knows lol

[@epicledgerllc2026]

counterclockwise??? 3:46. Am I hearing this right?

[@oxfd611]

Dose your wife know what your playing with at 03:00 in the morning?

[@ambassador8524]

Michael Poulin this dude ain’t married

[@georgechambers3197]

These things are cool. Can't wait to see how you make a clock made out of Nixie tubes. I've had the hairy tongue before, no fun! Be careful my friend, a video is not worth a life. Good video!

[@learnelectronics]

Thanks. Luckily I had my tin-foil underpants on, so reference to ground.

[@hakumaou5929]

electroboom is famous XD

[@TwistyP_EVO]

Wow its 3:37 and i just started watching this video

[@usethefooorce]

Says "Try not to touch any live connections" seconds after *holding the boost board while connecting it to the power supply*

[@elusive.firstname.lastname]

Are these tubes dangerous to humans if they break? Also do they respond negatively to magnetism?

[@michaelturner4457]

I believe they contain some mercury. So probably best not to touch if you do break one.

[@bblod4896]

Will one power supply drive 6 tubes?

[@learnelectronics]

Yes, the current is quite low.

[@rolfvanderbijl]

Towards the urge of playing around with increasingly dangerous voltages, if you can't resist the urge do to so safely, at least try to decrease the risk by wearing some kind of (comfortable) gloves, latex, vinyl, don't care. There's a tradeoff between safetry and comfort which also brings safety. Rubber doesn't conduct, but you loose part of your fine motorskills (increases risk of screwing up), thinner gloves let you keep your fine motorskills but don't guarantee non conduction. Anyway, I believe something is better than nothing.

[@torinstorkey]

How dangerous is this? Is the power rating of the boost converter low enough to not kill you?

[@Ni5ei]

Dude, the Russians stopped making Nixies around 25 years ago! Yes, they produced a lot hence you can still find new old stock on eBay but that doesn't mean they still make them.

[@MorphBaller388]

Oh no his audio

[@colekimball4945]

I know, I really want to know about nixie tubes but I can't get through all the gross breathing and smacking noises.

[@Not-C-418]

1:32 Its not cccp its more like sssr Cuz in russian language c like s or s sound and р is r :)

[@royrice8021]

Numbers before the LED. 😳

[@shaun1293]

Very cool, but 180V is nowhere near high voltage 😂

[@Immortalrounin]

its creepy its 3:45 am as I write this

[@keithking1985]

Tha seem like they can put up with a bit of punishment 💥💣😉

[@MaskinJunior]

Russia doesn't make Nixie tubes, they only has huge stock-piles of them. The only place making new nixie-tubes in any industrial scale is a place in Zaphrohizia in Ukraine.

[@kirill9064]

Not cccp but sssr in russia с is read as s

[@Lotus49b]

Anyone else think this guy sounds like AvE?

[@otis1716]

That is not high voltage btw you are very very far away from being high voltage

[@littlelarry2912]

I'd be careful when using the term white and black guys. Especially when the ratios are way off like around 4:25. I know you don't mean harm, but the wrong person could hold this against you and wreck your career/life.

[@the_perigoso]

You serious? For the love of God...

[@UncleBalthasarGelt]

Unhinged comment