[sdiy] Will Reverse Voltage Harm a Nixie Tube?

[Scott Gravenhorst]

Glen <mclilith at charter.net> wrote:
>At 01:31 PM 4/30/2005 , Scott Gravenhorst wrote:
>>
>>It's just a neon bulb with more than 2 electrodes, there is no polarity,
>>you could test them with AC as long as you have a proper current limiting
>>series resistor.
>
>That's what I was thinking, but all the applications I've ever seen used
>DC, and they seemed to care about the polarity.

DC is easier to switch on and off.  But really, the system could run with
reverse DC polarity as long as all of the switching components are of
reversed polarity (i.e. NPN vs. PNP).  It's probably most common to see a
system like this with a low voltage positive DC supply for the logic and a
higher voltage positive supply for the lamps.  Not a design constraint in
place because of the nature of the lamp, really just convention.

>
>Oh well, on with the testing then.  :)
>
>
>thanks,
>Glen
>

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