3½ Glorious Nixie Tube Digits!

[For The Popcorn]

I got this Heathkit IM-102 3½ digit Nixie tube voltmeter in an auction for about 20 bucks, along with a Heathkit "Laboratory Generator" vacuum tube RF signal generator and two RCA VTVMs.

The DVM is the only thing I have any use for, and I know a five buck DVM from Harbor Freight is probably just as or more accurate but Nixie tubes are just neat.

I powered it up with clip leads – it needs an old-school 3 pin oval cord like used on old HP and GenRad instruments – and did a quick test. 5.00 volts from my Chinese buck/boost power supply module read 4.99. Close enough for government work. It powered up and it works!

 

[granddad]

Heathkit back in the 1960 was one of my first ventures into the 'art' of electronics, ( Tuner , Amp ) It was really expensive , but i saved a little each week from my £5 wages .Was still living at home so parents were impressed with our first stereo radiogram ... It had a Garrard deck, with tweeters and 8 inch speakers. Everyone commented on the great quality of the sound .

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Heathkit was great stuff, but unfortunately VERY expensive - but you could see why, if you built one.

I couldn't afford one, but when I first started work as an apprentice TV/Audio Engineer a guy came in the shop, and asked if we had anyone who could built a Heathkit VHF Tuner for him. So I was nominated, he paid me for building it, and I had a great time doing it

Where I worked we actually had a couple of Heathkit items, a small oscilloscope, and an RF generator - but both were there before me.

 

[For The Popcorn]

This meter was introduced in 1972 (NOT long ago at all), at a cost of USD 250. The equivalent cost today would be nearly USD 2000.

Guess that's why the closest I got to Heathkit was drooling over all the things in their catalogs.

 

[schmitt trigger]

Can you take a guesstimate of the unit’s manufacture date?
Any date codes on components?

 

[For The Popcorn]

It was introduced in 1972. I haven't opened this one up yet.

 

[schmitt trigger]

That was about the time I was guessing.
In the mid-1970s I saw a brand new Keithley DMM which it still had Nixies.

 

[crutschow]

I always though Nixie tubes were short of a first or second generation electronic numerical display waiting for an improvement.
I didn't care for the way the digits were displayed at different depths in the display with the wires from the unlit digits faintly visible in front of the lit digit.
It seemed like a big improvement when they developed the 7-segment LED planar displays.
(An interesting design developed about the same time, was the 7-segment electroluminescent display).
Then they developed the LCD display which allowed for long life operation of electronic equipment from a battery.

But that's just my preference.
Certainly Nixie tubes are are a neat reminder of the early days of electronic instruments.
Going back even further I remember some HP equipment that used a vertical column of 10 neon bulbs to represent the digits 0 through 9.
(Below. Not sure why more than one number is lit in a column(?)).

 

[crutschow]

Heathkit was great stuff, but unfortunately VERY expensive

But not more than a similar piece of electronics already built, was it?

 

[For The Popcorn]

When you're a kid in junior high, pretty much out of reach.

 

[ZipZapOuch]

The first Nixie tubes I ever saw was in a cash register at a newly built Dairy Queen. I noticed them when the customer ahead of me ordered. I watched the digits and shadows as the values changed so I figured out how they worked by the time I paid. While we waited for our ice cream, I tried to explain the displays to my date. Let's say, the delicious Dairy Queen wasn't enough mass to overcome my nerdy conversation/mansplaining. That was our first and last date.

 

[crutschow]

That was our first and last date.

And not your last "Ouch" I expect.

 

[ZipZapOuch]

And not your last "Ouch" I expect.

One or two more before I married the last ouch - we've been together since the '80s.

 

[granddad]

I worked on retail VAT equipment with 6 digit , the short front display Nixie tubes, must have been 1973 ish, the 'machine' took the VATable total from some wafer switches on the cash register ( NCR class 5 ) and worked out the tax ( was 17.5 % at the start ) the 'calculator' box about a foot square ! was some negative logic RTL hybrid stuff, cannot remember if it also entered the vat onto the register with solenoids, maybe.... It ( CLASS 747 ) never when wrong ! I kept a box of 20 ish tubes in my van because the wire digits sometimes fell apart after a few months of being on 24/7 ( the user didnt turn them off ? ) I should have kept a couple of hundred Nixies...

 

[For The Popcorn]

I should have kept a couple of hundred Nixies...

Could have made $$$ from those today!

 

[granddad]

Could have made $$$ from those today!

Has anyone got a time machine circuit ..

 

[For The Popcorn]

My flux capacitors have all bulged out No telling where you might end up.

 

[granddad]

I have a couple of RIFA make 1000vac 0.47uf they are old 40y but look ok.

My flux capacitors have all bulged out No telling where you might end up.