At 12:57 PM 2/28/01 -0800, you wrote:
>        The radio station I worked in in the early 1970's at a Nixie based
clock
>as part of a program automation system. The Nixie tubes lasted forever,
>but the driver chips would fail constantly. Handling that high voltage
>seemed to be a problem.
>        Speaking of old technology, anyone remember the (RCA, I think)
Numitron
>display? It was a seven segment display using incandescent filaments. You
>could use them just like an LED seven segment, but could not multiplex
>them without adding a bunch of diodes.

Yup. My company was distributor briefly for the Japanese manufacturer of these
(they might have been clones or they may have made them for RCA). The Japanese
company is still around making LCD displays these days.

They had a special TTL chip to drive them (?7447??) something like that.

BTW, the life of the Nixes is dependent on how much current you put through
them. The Burroughs(??) segmented plasma displays were around after the
Nixies,
on gas pumps, but they have finally died out too.

Best regards,
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Spehro Pefhany --"it's the network..."            "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com
Contributions invited->The AVR-gcc FAQ is at: http://www.bluecollarlinux.com
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