Nixie Tube Autopsy (What's a Nixie and What's Inside)

In this video I decided to explain what a nixie tube is, how does it work and to make its autopsy.
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[@astrogarage2116]

Almost choked when he cracked the tube with the hammer !

[@markiangooley]

I bought a lot of cheap ex-Soviet ones on eBay about 10 years ago -- I think they were stolen when my house was broken into. I was fascinated by the shapes and order of the digit wires: someone tried very hard to keep them from blocking the view of a glowing digit placed behind them, and with some success.

[@DiodeGoneWild]

There's a lot of magic in the digit order :). They are in such an order that they don't block each other, but also that the wires from the digits to the pins do not cross. But also the fact that the glow is thicker than the electrode helps a lot. Also the shapes are chosen so that for example the circles in 8 don't block the circle of 6 and 9. Usually "1" is at the very back, because it is narrow and so it doesn't disappear behind the sides of the anode when looking from side.

[@douro20]

The radiation source is most likely nickel-63, which is a beta emitter with a half-life of 100 years. It decays to stable copper-63.

[@donmoore7785]

"This is a very quick, cheap Chinese nixie tube production..." "Number 3 will be missing, but it doesn't matter - it will be cheap..." Funny stuff!

[@KeritechElectronics]

Great teardown :) It's good that someone strips a non-working nixie to show the internals, so others don't have to do that with working tubes.

[@nixietubes]

Helo keri

[@startend7196]

Very impressive demonstration. Well done!

[@migette1]

Hi excellent video explaining the workings of these tubes, really just a neon glow lamp with numbers and grid DC operation, who remembers Proops in Tottingham court rd London used to sell these plus other interesting bits, this was in the 60s 70s long since gone...they were the days!

[@raykdreisatzgehtanders7239]

Not used in consumer products? I've seen several TVs using them as channel indicators.

[@rogerd4559]

Ive seen them on old radios to indicate when you were tuned dead on also on my antique capacitor meater to tell me when I was near the capacitance

[@michaelturner4457]

I've seen nixies in Radio Rentals TVs in the mid-70s, a single tube as channel indicator.

[@RedmilesShark]

​@@michaelturner4457 I doubt it would be used by the time then, at least, for western consumer electronics. Probably was an LED display or VFD display. Otherwise a Numinitron, which is not a Nixie.

[@michaelturner4457]

@@RedmilesShark This was in about 77-78. and it was definitely a nixie channel display, using a single tube. The UK at that time only had 3 broadcast channels, and I think the TV itself had 8 presets. Also many TVs around that time actually used neon lamps for their channel number indicators. Of course the required high voltages are readily available in CRT TVs. The nixie display TVs were Baird, which was a Radio Rentals own brand. You'd be very lucky to find one now, because rental companies tended to crush and destroy their TVs at the end of their useful rental periods. I remember it been a bit distinctive, and also I was interested in nixies at the time, having just bought a couple of them at the local Tandy shop for experiments. I often saw numitron incandescent displays in petrol pumps in 70s and 80s.

[@goodun2974]

Rayk, I know of three FM tuners that used Nixie displays for the station frequency: the SAE MkVI, the Scott T33S, and the Revox A720. The Scott used computer punch cards to change the station!

[@hyperion8008]

I remember Nixie tube petrol pumps back in the early 80's - very cool.

[@DiodeGoneWild]

I have never seen nixies in petrol pumps, they were probably never used for this in my country. There were mechanical rotating wheels with numbers (like in electricity meter or water meter). Then vane displays (with 7 electromagneticaly flipping segments) and finally LCD displays.

[@teslakovalaborator]

Kde ty digitrony bereš....Já mám tak cca 10x Z574M :3

[@zaprodk]

Never seen Nixie's in gas pumps, but Numitrons were quite common.

[@MrOpenGL]

AGIP in Italy used also VFD petrol pumps.

[@douro20]

I remember the ones with Numitrons; they can still be found in service occasionally. Where I live they are typically planar Numitrons known as Panaplex displays.

[@golfman9290]

You got to say, this man is clever!

[@ZENERVOLTAGE]

4:57 Is that dangerous so close to 140V DC? Still confuses me.

[@andymouse]

Both the dead tubes had significant coating on the ceramics, were they failing due to shorts or excessive current draw ? caused by being driven to hard perhaps ? it was hard to see if the Getter was ok, love these tubes, great vid...cheers.

[@brucel.6078]

Great video!!!!

[@martinda7446]

Anyone know how the mercury giver works to extend cathode life? Without the mercury vapor the cathodes would have a short life of around 1 - 10,000 hrs which could be extended tenfold with the addition of the 'getter? giver'.

[@javilarg]

I love nixies. Years ago I made a nixie clock with russian IN-12 tubes, it’s really beautiful.

[@MIW_Renegade]

Wow very intresting

[@zanimljivastruja7511]

Was Yugoslavia manufacturing nixie tubes ?

[@zorik79]

Thank You !!!❤️

[@au7weeng534]

yay new vid!

[@MrOpenGL]

If you reverse the polarity, will the mesh glow? (I assume they work similarly to a small neon lamp on DC?) What if you put AC on it? Will both the mesh and the number glow?

[@DiodeGoneWild]

Yes, exactly as you say. With reversed DC the mesh glows, and with AC both the number and the mesh will glow.

[@MrOpenGL]

Thanks! I have never tried using nixies myself, only VFDs. But I find both nice because of their undescribable colours, the deep and warm orange of nixies and the green-light blue of VFDs :-)

[@lez7875]

saudações do Brasil + like. sempre quis saber como era por dentro dessas válvulas eletrônicas. muito bom. parabéns pelos 100.000 inscritos. tudo de bom a todos e sucesso.

[@markonikolovsk22]

the ones with the prongs you can also put them i a socket ive done that with a clock i made with nixie tubes

[@fungusenthusiast8249]

where did you get all those nixies? Also, wouldn't it make more sense to order the numbers in such a way that the ones in front would block the least amount and go in order of least amount blocked to most amount blocked?

[@electronicguy4550]

He lives in chezslovakia when the soviet times fell, many people stole from factories soo thats were most of them came. And in soviet times they built nixie tubes very long some even in 1992!

[@fungusenthusiast8249]

@@electronicguy4550 Yeah I know that now, whish I could get some of that stuff. So cool!

[@watermelon9588]

1:14 is that an IN-4 ?

[@hernancoronel]

At 19:17 blood noooooo! ;-) Awesome video, thank you!

[@scottkennedy7741]

I like that largest tube at the beginning what is the part number?

[@TerryMcKean]

02:12 Cool!... that reminded me of a crystal I got years ago... it looked kind of like a 7-pin miniature vacuum tube about the size and shape of a 6AL5, maybe a tiny bit taller . but the only thing inside it was a slice of quartz crystal held up by the two support wires and contact-plates... ... maybe from an ancient color TV's color-burst circuit or something like that. at 3.579545 mHz.... that's what it was... now I remember I was going to use it in a homebrewed 80 meter ham radio transmitter circuit using my favorite electronics building-blocks: vacuum tubes (valves) 'one of these days'. :-)

[@DiodeGoneWild]

This one is a 100 kHz crystal. Maybe I will use it in some nixie clock....

[@goodun2974]

Hmm, I have a GEC crystal with gold plated internals,, in a 12AX7 size bottle with 9 gold plated pins.

[@TerryMcKean]

@@goodun2974 Right on, good'n... it's been about 45 years since I had mine... it might've been a 9 pinner like yours. I think mine was originally pulled from the colorburst circuit of an ancient color TV set... it's freq was 3.579MC, and it definitely made a cool-looking crystal to build into a homebrew 80 meter ham radio CW transmitter circuit. :-)

[@TerryMcKean]

@@DiodeGoneWild I just noticed that I'm replying to your comments from 4 years ago... wow, notifications sure have slow lately... lol :- D Anyway, right on DiodeGoneWild... how'd that nixi-tube clock project turn out?

[@goodun2974]

@@TerryMcKean , my GEC crystal is in a box of weird electronics parts that I am compiling to send to FranLab. All kinds of strange stuff that she'll likely have fun examining, testing or building with, including some Nixies! By the way, I mentioned elsewhere in the comment field here that I know of 3 FM tuners that used nixie tubes for the display. The SAE MkVI, the Scott T33S, and also a Revox tuner. The Scott tuner actually used computer punch cards to change the stations!.

[@anindyamitra5091]

What are meant by gtter or getter?

[@ganopterygon]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getter

[@rogerd4559]

A getter "gets" the few remaining air molecules by trapping them in the substance coated on the glass wall what is didnt know is how they activated it. He said they activated the getter by inductive heat, I was always misled by being told it was a special set of pins on the bottom of the tube that sent current into that part to fire the getter. this man has taught me much!

[@antennafarmer7380]

Quite a nice crystal

[@samuelebaiano6505]

A paaaart to remoooove heeeeeeare

[@samuelebaiano6505]

Some nuuumber on iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitt

[@sjusup]

Does he not have some real friends to warn him about it I wonder?

[@rogerd4559]

I dont get it. Ive worked with czecs before and they never had that accent. I guess it must be a special dialect from the region he is in?

[@rogerd4559]

@@sjusup looks like his only friend is that cute kitty

[@draamirsaud]

😃😃😃😃, Very nice and funny english, take too long vocal speed

[@3ccdmike]

You are a funny guy.

[@huyvuquang9533]

Omg your accent :))) its like singing

[@skyem5250]

We're you disappointed that it was radioactive or disappointed that it wasn't as radioactive as you wanted?

[@felixcat4346]

Very nice teardown, but of course it begs the question why did they fail?

[@DiodeGoneWild]

The big one was faulty because of a crack near a pin. Maybe too much force was applied to the pin. The small one was probably poorly sealed in manufacture. It has no vacuum despite it has no cracks.

[@hassanburrows8535]

A bit off topic, but we can hear a clock pulsing in the background, so I was wondering if you have any experience of Soviet era electric master clock systems. Typically found at railway stations, institutions and factories.Love these videos - Big Clive has a competitor! Saludos.

[@DiodeGoneWild]

Thanks :). Unfortunately I don't have any experience with those...

[@hassanburrows8535]

A pity, but thanks for your very prompt reply.

[@Mark1024MAK]

The UK railways used to use impulse clocks. As far as I can tell, they were connected in series. The Master used to send out an impulse once per half minute.

[@ViliamJakubek]

When the tube is from your home country...😢 Those are expensive though...

[@TerryMcKean]

12:59 Again, cool... I wonder what kind and the CPM levels...

[@TerryMcKean]

13:58... now I see.... a tiny bit of beta and gamma, etc.... an alpha particle detector would most likely show more counts off of that source

[@DiodeGoneWild]

Not a horrific level. Just few times above background.

[@TerryMcKean]

@@DiodeGoneWild Right on, DiodeGoneWild.

[@miszka6227]

its a polish mera-tronik multimeter

[@aangsurpiatna2211]

at 22:13 if you get buble when you drop tiny water on it, that possibility barium (radio active material).

[@rogerd4559]

yes and he is handling that barium with no protection

[@I_like_some_BG]

And lift indicati on for floor inicador like a old Otis clasic

[@zx8401ztv]

I can see why they are expensive displays, a lot of delicate parts to assemble. I did see an old counter that had an odd display, it had 10 etched clear plastic plates stacked, a bulb lit the edge of each plate to light up the etched number. Very odd design, i havnt a clue what they called them.

[@DiodeGoneWild]

Yes, nixies definitely are a lot of manual work. Those displays are simply called edge-lit or lightguide displays. They look a bit similar to nixies and some people even confuse them with nixies, because they have numbers in different depths just like nixies. But anyway, nothing beats nixies :). Have you seen the video of Dalibor Farny, how he manufactures nixies? :).

[@zx8401ztv]

No i havnt seen that video, is it on youtube or a company site?

[@DiodeGoneWild]

You definitely have to see it :) it's on youtube: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ramvZXiil9Scq6M

[@nastukani_pl4465]

The speaker in the counter looks like old portable speaker from Sony Ericsson W200

[@edgeeffect]

It's interesting seeing this after watching Dalibor Farny doing the exact opposite. ;)

[@robertdouville74]

Before 1980, was obsolete then, I am old enough to tell you. middle 1970 electronic watches and calculators with LED readings appear on the market.

[@saitama4219]

bro my heart broke with that glass :((

[@Purple431]

I was thinking about putting a different type of noble gas in it like argon or xenon

[@michaelturner4457]

To me the noble gasses are more interesting when you fill balloons with them. From the lightest neon to the heaviest xenon.

[@Purple431]

@@michaelturner4457 to i like to ionise the gas with high voltage to make a color

[@michaelturner4457]

Hello again, I did find a video of an argon filled nixie tube. kzbin.info/www/bejne/j3iUkGV9dthmeaM Nice to look at, but not so practical for everyday use.

[@Purple431]

Remember when you said that neon was the lightest gas was neon, it is actually heilum ;)

[@user-vc9dz8ve6o]

4:02 ussr nixie tube!

[@anindyamitra5091]

Please try to run it on reverse polarity,😋

[@Purple431]

This hurts my heart to see the neon nixie getting smashed 5:14💔😢

[@michaelturner4457]

He did say, it's not working. So nothing lost, and nothing to get upset about. I suspect the air got in through a crack or something.

[@Purple431]

@@michaelturner4457 not sure but i love nixies My favourite lamp A small a night lamp

[@michaelturner4457]

@@Purple431 I love nixies as well. Having got a nixie watch that I wear daily, and a couple of clocks using the things. So if one doesn't work, I see no problem in taking a hammer to it, and exploring what's inside. :).

[@Purple431]

@@michaelturner4457 ok now i get it 😂

[@dreck66666]

*14:23** - **17:38* 😂

[@meem9328]

The nixie tubed on contain helium gas, nothing more, doesn't contain mercury or else

[@michaelturner4457]

The gas fill is actually neon and helium mix, called a Penning mixture. And apparently some nixies do contain a small amount of mercury. spectrum.ieee.org/tech-history/dawn-of-electronics/the-nixie-tube-story-the-neon-display-tech-that-engineers-cant-quit “We secured a tiny ampule with mercury sealed inside, wrapped a few turns of resistance wire around the ampule, [and] connected the ends of the wire to two of the [tube’s] pins,” That sounds exactly like the ampule that was in the East German tube in the video.

[@kkklogin]

u got me there.... and it doesn't matter since its cheap nixes chines production....

[@ViajesConBrunooo]

Small one like this ooooonneeeeeee

[@ynfe]

Hello guys

[@robertdouville74]

Old stuff!

[@Zeph_]

Check the videos of Dalibor Farny if you are interested in how these marvels are made kzbin.info/www/bejne/ramvZXiil9Scq6M

[@barrettkepler7618]

Accent is terrible, but video is interesting. Thumb up

[@erikburman530]

Really? Was the opening disclaimer necessary?

[@michaelturner4457]

Well yeh...180VDC can be lethal, and mercury is toxic

@@michaelturner4457 My nixie tubes are designed for 12 volts. Also, I could not find anywhere in this video where Mercury would be located.

[@willyou2199]

@ Nixies are basically neon lamps, how does yours work on 12v. must be those new age imitation nixies..

@@willyou2199 There is nothing new-aged or counterfeit about it. I privately hired an extremely experienced engineer in Great Britain to custom-make me a hand-crafted genuine Nixie clock for my automobile. He used the absolute highest quality authentic Nixie tubes combined with the highest quality 12-volt circuit boards. The clock can hold the accurate time without being illuminated {when the engine is off} [and therefore use almost no energy so the car battery will never drain], and then the clock becomes illuminated at full 12-volt power the moment the engine is cranked. Each of the Nixie tubes are rated to last approximately 10-15 years without any defects whatsoever. He also provided me with sets of replacement spare tubes, so I am set for at least half a century.

[@willyou2199]

@ Then what do you mean then that it runs off 12V. Nixie tubes need high voltage, over 100s to strike the gas to emit light. It just can't physically run on 12V, it would not turn on. If its running on 12V, it might be an LED imitation of a nixie, but it just can't be a proper genuine nixie.

[@SLvik78]

Нахрена ты лампы разбил? Их осталось уже мизер. Если ты не умеешь с ними обращаться отдай тому кто может ума им дать и соорудить что - нибудь из них.

[@gabrielvieira6529]

Haha chinis nixie

[@user-wn9mn1be4u]

:)

[@dan2800]

Nyan cat lol

[@james_robertson]

First comment

[@andymouse]

Both the dead tubes had significant coating on the ceramics, were they failing due to shorts or excessive current draw ? caused by being driven to hard perhaps ? it was hard to see if the Getter was ok, love these tubes, great vid...cheers.