How to Drive VFD Tubes With an Arduino

VFD (Vacuum Fluorescent Display) tubes are a good alternative to Nixie tubes in retro clocks. See how they work and how they can be interfaced to a microcontroller like an Arduino or ESP32. I show the legendary russian IV-11 tubes, which look very nice in retro clocks.
Find the circuit diagram and schematic here: www.hackster.io/michalin70/in...
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[@0ldenn]

Very nice video ! I just bought a few of these displays, they look beautiful !

[@DoctorVolt]

Enjoy!

[@thatAlex1337]

Thanks, nice video. First I tried controlling the anodes with only one transistor... Didn't work. Now I know the issue and can proceed with my work. This was really helpful!!

[@nellocapogrossi9789]

I found some IV-3 tubes (7 plus 2 segments) total 14 pins for the tube. I didn't find the pin layout, but with your explanation on VFDs I think I found a solution, I have to find the pins through testing. I wanted to thank you and congratulate you on the excellent exhibition, very well done. I have problems with the language, but with the translation everything is ok. Thank you😀👍

[@lovemadeinjapan]

Just found a few boxes of dot matrix VFD's on the cheap, they are 70x48 pixels, with one of the rows being red instead of cyan. They were 100€ for 30 tubes. Going to make game handhelds with them. They also have the driving logic on board, but the difficulty was how to fill the buffer RAM.

[@PatrickInCayman]

Great video thanks! I bought some of these VFDs, and I would like to use these tubes in an FM tube radio as the frequency display. This is a great way to drive the tubes

[@hellwhichnickisfree]

Very helpful! Seems like the TBD62783 would be a good fit for my problem, too: Driving flip dot modules. Will give them a try, better than building a transistor array myself...

[@xgd36]

Thank you for this video, very helpful :)

[@texasaggiegigsem]

This is pretty neat! Now I want to build a VFD-based github build indicator. (everyone does clocks...yawn)

[@ethanhays6646]

great video, I got some iv-3a's recently and I was wondering what DC/DC converter you used

[@DoctorVolt]

There is one step-up converter for the anode voltage and a step down converter for the filaments. These are not hard to find on Ebay.

[@MemeReviewer]

Nice rare tubes!

[@DoctorVolt]

Indeed! But you can still get them on Ebay. And they are cheaper than Nixies.

[@jonnyphenomenon]

I just got my hands on 8 DG10B VFD tubes which will be perfect for a vfd watch. I am very interested in what you used for a power supply.

[@DoctorVolt]

I used some no-name switching converter modules from Ebay. The step down converter, delivers 1.5V/600mA for the filaments and the step-up converter approx. 30V for the grids and anodes. Input voltage of both is 5V from an USB power supply.

[@Enigma758]

Thank you for the video. I do have a question about 3:00. The first transistor is configured as an inverter which drives the second transistor. The second transistor is an NPN configured as a high side switch (which seems incorrect). I gather you meant the second transistor to be a PNP and not an NPN. Is that correct?

[@DoctorVolt]

No, both transistors are NPN, because both of them have positive voltage at their collectors. But a PNP is also possible as second transistor. In this case the circuit does not act as Inverter. But in this case, a resistor (1-10k) must be inserted between collector of the first and the base of the second transistor, in order to limit the base current.

[@Enigma758]

@@DoctorVolt I'm not used to seeing an NPN being used as a high side switch, so it seems a bit unconventional and I have seen others use NPN/PNP pairs (PNP is commonly used for a high side switch so that is why I asked). Also, I've seen where the display anodes can be driven simply by a single NPN in an inverter configuration (first stage of your circuit). In fact I currently have it working that way on my breadboard. Do you know if there is a reason against doing that? (not much current is required to drive these displays, so that's not a problem). For an example, please see the image for "Simple driver for a gate or anode" in the link below: Thanks! hackingmajenkoblog.wordpress.com/2017/12/23/vacuum-fluorescent-displays-on-arduino/

[@DoctorVolt]

@Enigma758 The output channels of the driver array also use NPN transistors (See schematic in TD62783 datasheet). So this is not unusual. The downside of the single-transistor circuit that you mentioned is, that the value of the collector resistor must be relatively small to allow enough anode current. This means that the circuit will also draw current when the transistor is conductive (the segment is off). In case of the two-transistor circuit, the resistor value of the collector transistor can be by the transistor´s b-factor smaller (10-100), so the thing will draw much less quiescence current. But if you want to build a VFD driver with discrete components, you might rather decide for simplicity than efficiency.

[@johnlinders4218]

Nice video Doctor Volt. I have here the NEC LD8113 Tubes. I cannot light them up. I have the filament om 2 volt. The are visible and i put 12 to 18 volt on the segments. Do i have to feed the segments with - 0r + ?? I dont understand the info so far i found on internet.

[@DoctorVolt]

I cannot tell for sure, because there seems to be no datasheet for this tube, or at least I didn´t find one. But usually, the segments need positive voltage around +20..30V. The grid must also be connected to positive in order to let the electrons pass through.

[@johnlinders4218]

@@DoctorVolt thanks. I did light it up now. 2 volt filament. 9 to 12 volt anodes and grid. Anode and grid on + and the - are hooked up together

[@emrethesea]

Hi friend. Do you have iv-8 datasheet or info about pinout, supply voltage and current?

[@DoctorVolt]

There are several scanned datasheets in russian language that can be found with the Google picture search. Search for "IV-8 VFD tube datasheet". This gives good results.

[@emrethesea]

I meant in English but thanks anyway

[@Deathtoo11-j7e]

@@emrethesea Еще нужны?

[@Deathtoo11-j7e]

@@emrethesea Если необходимо могу дать ссылку, но увы все на русском , думаю переводчик сможет помочь

[@hansflippo4050]

Hi, I built it with an IV18 tube (8 digits). In the main loop of the program I added this: vfd_write("12.34.56.78"); delay(1000); vfd_write("87.65.43.21"); but that does not work. How can I display 2 numbers one after another? Thanks!

[@DoctorVolt]

The problem is the delay(1000). The Loop() function has to exectute the vfd_write() function continuously, so it can multiplex all the tubes. When putting delay(1000) into the loop, it pauses the multiplexing for 1s. So it is better to solve this via the millis() function (Which I also used in vfd_write()).

[@SenkJu]

Do I understand correctly that +5V to the gate pin enables the tube and 0V disables it? I have read that a slightly negative voltage is required to disable the it.

[@DoctorVolt]

+24V enables it, 0V disables it.

[@SenkJu]

@@DoctorVolt So am I reading the schematic at 4:24 wrongly? The right transistor array is connected to +5 volt. Shouldn't it be +24V then?

[@DoctorVolt]

OOps, there is an error in the schematic. Pin 9 of U2 should be connected to +28V, not 5V

[@SenkJu]

@@DoctorVolt I figured. Thank you.

[@aaamarco6726]

scusa se sono un po' fuori tema, sono in possesso di 8 valvole IV-17 a 18 segmenti, è possibile pilotarle con arduino per fare apparire scritte a piacere? mi puoi aiutare ?Grazie

[@DoctorVolt]

Ok, Google translator tells me you want to connect tubes with 18 segments, right? Of course this is possible with Arduino Mega instead of UNO or Nano, and another two driver ICs. And modified Arduino sketch of course

[@aaamarco6726]

@@DoctorVolt ok mi puoi aiutare con i collegamenti e lo sketch per arduino? grazie Marco

[@DoctorVolt]

@aaa marco Here you can download everything: create.arduino.cc/projecthub/michalin70/interface-vfd-tubes-with-an-arduino-3381d5 The link is also in the video description now.

[@aaamarco6726]

@@DoctorVolt si ma usa valvole a 8 segmenti io ho valvole a18 segmenti

[@DoctorVolt]

you can use your tubes with this, if you only connect the 6 outer segments and the horizontal one in the middle. If you want to drive all of the segments, you have to extend circuit and sketch accordingly.

[@aaamarco6726]

drive iv-17 valves with arduino