I think you might be thinking of Beckman. I still have a panel meter using these plasma displays- the meter vendor stopped making units back in '93- probably ran out of the displays. I also have a 4.5 digit meter using these 7 segment filament. RF ----- Original Message ----- From: Spehro Pefhany To: Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2001 5:34 PM Subject: Re: [EE]: nixie tubes > 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, > =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- = > 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 > =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- = > > -- > http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different > ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details. > > -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details.