[sdiy] Will Reverse Voltage Harm a Nixie Tube?

[Scott Gravenhorst]

Yes, that's true, I'd venture a guess that if wired backwards, the common
electrode will light instead of the numeral.  However, either way will prove
that the gas is still in the bulb.  Can these things fail other than by
overvoltage abuse or gas leak-out?

Speaking of overvoltage abuse, I did a stupid one time as a kid.  Wired an
NE-2 to a line cord and plugged it in.  The buld shot across the room leaving
a cool spark trail behind it for several feet.  Scared the crap out of me. 
AFTER that, I remembered, oh yeah, there's supposed to be a 270K resistor...

"Colin f" <colin at colinfraser.com> 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).
>
>You can probably run a Nixie with reverse polarity, but I wouldn't expect it
>to show you any numbers.
>You want to energise the neon around the digit shaped cathodes.
>If the electrons are coming from the common grid instead, it'll probably
>just look fuzzy.
>
>Cheers,
>Colin f
>
>

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