Example: A CD47 nixie tube with cathode poisoning on the "6".
The picture shows the illumination at rated current:
How to reverse cathode poisoning
Dieter's
Nixie- Tube Pages
Tutorial: Cathode Poisoning Reversal
This Page
describes my experiences with cathode poisoning,
using a Rodan CD47 tube as an example.
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Most nixie tubes have
more than one cathode. If a cathode is illuminated, material is
sputtered from this active cathode onto the glass envelope and
the inactive cathodes. You've probably seen darkened nixie tubes
with a gray or silvery coating on the inside of the glass. This
is the extreme case of sputtered material on the glass at or near
the end of tube life. If a cathode is not used for a long time
while others are lit, the coating on the inactive electrode(s)
gets thicker and thicker. This coating is highly resistive, so if
it gets thick enough, it prevents the inactive cathode from
glowing. Then if the inactive cathode gets switched on, parts of
it will be dimmer or totally dark. Different tube types have
different vulnerability to cathode poisoning, but normally it
takes thousands of hours until it becomes a problem.
Example: A CD47 nixie tube with cathode poisoning on the "6".
The picture shows the illumination at rated current:
How to reverse cathode poisoning
Drive the poisoned
cathode with the rated current.
Then turn up the current (for example, using a variac as your
power source) while watching the regions where the cathodes are
darkened.
If a formerly-dark region is completely illuminated (even if
still dimmer than the rest of the cathode), the current is enough.
If the lead-in wire glows, go back to a lower current until it
stops glowing, or it will also glow later at normal current. Even
if part of the cathode remains dark at this current level,
healing can take place - the dark region(s) will gradually shrink.
Here we see Dieter's tube at the start of the regeneration
process:
Use values for the cathode current
from about 2 to 10 times higher than the maximum rated current
for that tube type.
The larger the tube, the lower that factor.
For the CD47 shown, Dieter used approx. factor 2 (rated: 32.5 mA
max., he used 50 to 60 mA)
The darkened region(s) will become smaller and/or brighter, the
longer you let the tube bake in this condition.
This is because now the coating is being sputtered away.
It can take minutes to hours, depending on the thickness of the
coating. For example the "6" of the CD47 shown took 4
hours until it was completely regenerated.
Here are incremental
images of the healing process:
20 mA after 1 hour:
going back to "bake" at 55mA:
20 mA after 3 hours:
going back to 50mA:
after 4 hours, the "6" is fully illuminated at low
current (20mA):
at high current also (35mA):
BEFORE & AFTER
Now you can go to the next digit.
How can you prevent
cathode poisoning?
Exercise inactive
cathodes (occasionally cycle the tubes through all cathodes).
This will keep cleaning the coating off
before it becomes too thick.
Example- Nixie Clocks: Rotate the numbers like in a slot machine
(a.k.a. one-armed bandit or fruit machine).
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