Nixie Tubes Overview

Nixie Tube is a cold cathode lamp filled with gas (typically neon with some argon at a low pressure, mercury is sometimes added for longer life). They are used to be used for displaying numbers or other symbols. The Tube has one common anode and multiple cathodes, whose shape forms individual characters. Applying voltage between the anode and one of the cathodes, the respective cathode lights up (becomes surrounded by glow-discharge) and thus displaying the character (digit or symbol). The principle is similar to that of neon lamps. Similarity is also in color, which is orange. Ignition of the Nixie requires 150 to 200V, most commonly 170V.

Nixies were used primarily before the advent of other displays, such as VFD, LCD, and LED displays. Now they are no longer manufactured or fitted into factory-manufactured equipment. However, they are experiencing a renaissance and people like to return to them, particularly for the construction of a retro design digital Clocks. Some constructers mimic design of the time when Nixies were actually used, but there are also crazy anachronisms like Clocks with blue or RGB LEDs used to backlight the Nixies, Clocks controlled by human voice, Clocks full of SMD components and so on. A typical retro design includes traditional iron transformers, primitive logic circuitry like 7490, 7400 and 74141 Nixie driver. Anachronistic design usually involves switching Power Supply, switching inverter of anode voltage, LED backlight, multilayer boards with SMD components, microprocessors (MCU) like AVR or PIC, DCF-77 or even GPS sync, remote contro, etc. :).

Here are some examples of Gra&Afch Nixie Clocks:

Although no longer in production, there’s still huge stock of Nixies. They can be found in different old devices, but also new, unused. Small types were produced in very large quantities. Nixies with digit height up to about 2 cm are quite common and can be found in huge heaps in old stocks, old measuring instruments and so on, or bought for few dollars. In post-Soviet countries especially there are vast new old stocks (NOS) of Nixies with no use. Larger types (about 2.5 – 4 cm) are relatively rare and the largest (5cm or more) is rarity. Such large types were not produced in large amount, as their use was not very wide. Now Nixies are popular to construct Nixie Clocks as I already mentioned. At the time of their production, however, Nixies were rather used in measuring and computing equipment, as votmeters, multimeters, frequency counters, pulse counters, calculators and so on. Their use for digital Clocks was very rare and limited to special Clocks and timers for lab, industrial and automation purposes.

Below there I present a collection of some Nixie Tubes, that are most popular for making Nixie Clocks. Also there are a few tables that shows an overview of the most common Soviet Nixies. Note that the older types such as IN-1, IN-2, and IN-4 have a lifetime of just around 1000 h. Newer Nixies such as IN-8, IN-12, IN-14, IN-16, IN-17 and IN-18 have a specified lifetimes of about from 2000 to 12 500 h. This is probably caused by the addition of mercury, which limits evaporation of the cathode material and prevents cathode poisoning. The lifetime is still several times underestimated, it is a minimum guaranteed lifetime. With proper handling, mercury-enriched Nixies can serve without any problem more than 5 or even 10 years of continuous operation. Especially if all of the cathodes are used evenly and sufficiently often alternated. When used in Clocks it is therefore possible to achieve greater durability particularly in frequently changing digits (seconds), than in the Nixie measurement equipment, where most of the time they’re not active, showing all zeros. The old equipment, on the other hand, was used mostly in style of “switch on – use – switch off” and so equipment manufacturers did not think too much about how to prolong the Nixies life. They sometimes used unnecessarily high currents. The datasheets sometimes even did not mention lifetime, because for a device you turn on, use and turn off (eg. Multimeter) it is not important. The first types of Nixies had short life of around 1000 hours, the last ones 50 000 h and if cathodes were used evenly and sufficiently frequently switched, it could be even 500 000 hours. However, this is 57 years and it has never really been tested :).

It is necessary to note that the life expectancy especially of Soviet Nixies is very conservative and in fact can reach more than ten times the datasheet value. This is the “minimum operating life”, which differs considerably from that of “average life” or “mean life”. The minimum lifetime is the time during which a negligible percentage of units fails. In contrast, the average or mean life, which is today used for measuring for example the life of incandescent bulbs, flurescent lamps or displays is the time after which half of the units fails.

Nixie Tubes examples overview

Nixie Tubes types overview

Overview of Soviet (russian) Nixie Tubes types: height, what they display and their life expectancy

Type	Height of digit	Displays	Life time	Note
IN-1 (ИН-1)	18 mm	0…9	min. 1000 h
IN-2 (ИН-2)	9 mm	0…9	min. 1000 / 5000 h	*
IN-4 (ИН-4)	17 mm	0…9	min. 1000 h
IN-5A, IN-5A-1, IN-5B, IN-5B-1 (ИН-5А, ИН-5А-1, ИН-5Б, ИН-5Б-1)	9 mm	Symbols	min. 1000 h
IN-7, IN-7A, IN-7B (ИН-7, ИН-7А, ИН-7Б)	16 mm	Symbols	min. 1000 h / 800 h (A) / 400 h (B)
IN-8, IN-8-2 (ИН-8, ИН-8-2)	18 mm	0…9 (“,”)	min. 5000 / 10 000 h	*
IN-12A, IN-12B (ИН-12А, ИН-12Б)	18 mm	0…9 (“,”)	min. 5000 / 7500 h	*
IN-14 (ИН-14)	18 mm	0…9 “, ,”	min. 5000 / 12 500 h	*
IN-15A, IN-15B (ИН-15А, ИН-15Б)	18 mm	Symbols	min. 1000 h (A) / 800 h (B)
IN-16 (ИН-16)	13 mm	0…9 “, ,”	min. 5000 h
IN-17 (ИН-17)	9 mm	0…9	min. 7500 / 9000 h	*
IN-18 (ИН-18)	40 mm	0…9	min. 2000 / 5000 h	*
IN-19A, IN-19B, IN-19V (ИН-19А, ИН-19Б, ИН-19В)	18 mm	Symbols	min. 3000 / 5000 h	*

*different datasheets states different life expectancy.

Overview of Z***M series Nixies (RFT)

Type	Manufacturer	Base	View	Color	Digit height	Displays	Decimal point	Life expectancy	Note
Z522M	RFT ?, Valvo	socket	side	red	30 mm	0…9	none	?	old, similar to ZM1040, Z566M
Z5220M	RFT ?, Valvo	socket	side	clear	30 mm	0…9	none	?	clear version of Z522M, old, similar to ZM1042, Z5660M
Z560M	RFT	socket	top	red	15,5 mm	0…9	none	?	similar to ZM1020
Z5600M	RFT	socket	top	clear	15,5 mm	0…9	none	?	clear version of Z560M, similar to ZM1022
Z561M	RFT	socket	top	red	.	W – A ~ + V % ?	none	?	.
Z5610M	RFT	socket	top	clear	.	W – A ~ + V % ?	none	?	clear version of Z561M
Z566M	RFT	socket	side	red	30 mm	0…9	none	?	similar to ZM1040
Z5660M	RFT	socket	side	clear	30 mm	0…9	none	?	clear version of Z566M, similar to ZM1042
Z567M	RFT	socket	side	red	.	+ – ~	none	?	Symbol Tube for Z566M
Z5670M	RFT	socket	side	clear	.	+ – ~	none	?	clear version of Z567M, Symbol Tube for Z5660M
Z568M	RFT	socket	side	red	50 mm	0…9	none	?	.
Z5680M	RFT	socket	side	clear	50 mm	0…9	none	?	clear version of Z568M
Z570M	RFT	wires	side	red	13 mm	0…9	none	?	similar to ZM1080
Z5700M	RFT	wires	side	clear	13 mm	0…9	none	?	clear version of Z570M, similar to ZM1082
Z571M	RFT	wires	side	red	.	+ – ~	none	?	Symbol Tube for Z570M, Z573M, Z574M
Z5710M	RFT	wires	side	clear	.	+ – ~	none	?	clear version of Z571M, Symbol Tube for Z5700M, Z5730M, Z5740M
Z573M	RFT	wires	side	red	13 mm	0…9	right	?	.
Z5730M	RFT	wires	side	clear	13 mm	0…9	right	?	clear version of Z573M
Z574M	RFT	wires	side	red	13 mm	0…9	left	?	.
Z5740M	RFT	wires	side	clear	13 mm	0…9	left	?	clear version of Z574M
Z580M	RFT	wires	side	red	.	K M G T m ? n p	none	?	Symbol Tube for Z570M, Z573M, Z574M
Z5800M	RFT	wires	side	clear	.	K M G T m ? n p	none	?	clear version of Z580M, Symbol Tube for Z5700M, Z5730M, Z5740M
Z581M	RFT	wires	side	red	.	A Hz F H s S ? V	none	?	Symbol Tube for Z570M, Z573M, Z574M
Z5810M	RFT	wires	side	clear	.	A Hz F H s S ? V	none	?	clear version of Z581M, Symbol Tube for Z5700M, Z5730M, Z5740M
Z590M	RFT	wires	side	red	10 mm	0…9	left and right	?	.
Z5900M	RFT	wires	side	clear	10 mm	0…9	left and right	?	clear version of Z590M
Z870M	RFT	socket	side	red	15.5 mm	0…9	none	?	Bi-quinary, similar to ZM1030
Z8700M	RFT	socket	side	clear	15.5 mm	0…9	none	?	clear version of Z870M, Bi-quinary, similar to ZM1032

Overview of common ZM**** series Nixies

Type	Manufacturer	Base	View	Color	Digit height	Displays	Decimal point	Life expectancy	Note
ZM1000R	Valvo, Philips, Amperex …	socket	side	red	14 mm	0…9	left	100 000 h	Red version of ZM1000
ZM1000	Valvo, Philips, Amperex …	socket	side	clear	14 mm	0…9	left	100 000 h	Clear version of ZM1000R
ZM1020	Tesla and others	socket	top	red	15,5 mm	0…9	none	100 000 h	similar to Z560M
ZM1022	Mullard, Valvo, Telefunken …	socket	top	clear	15,5 mm	0…9	none	100 000 h	clear version of ZM1020, similar to Z5600M
ZM1030	Tesla and others	socket	side	red	15,5 mm	0…9	none	50 000 h	Bi-quinary, similar to Z870M
ZM1032	Valvo, Amperex …	socket	side	clear	15,5 mm	0…9	none	50 000 h	clear version of ZM1030, bi-quinary, similar to Z8700M
ZM1040	Tesla and others	socket	side	red	31 mm	0…9	none	20 000 h / 100 000 h	*similar to Z566M
ZM1042	Tesla and others	socket	side	clear	31 mm	0…9	none	20 000 h / 100 000 h	*similar to Z5660M, clear version of ZM1040
ZM1080	Telefunken, Mullard, Philips, Valvo …	wires	side	red	13 mm	0…9	none	30 000 h	similar to Z570M
ZM1082	Telefunken, Mullard, Philips, Valvo …	wires	side	clear	13 mm	0…9	none	30 000 h	clear version of ZM1080, similar to Z5700M
ZM1080T	Tesla	wires	side	red	13 mm	0…9	left and right	?	can replace Z570M, Z573M and Z574M
ZM1082T	Tesla	wires	side	clear	13 mm	0…9	left and right	?	clear version of ZM1080T

*different datasheets state different life expectancy.

Some Nixies made in Poland (LC-*** series)

Type	Manufacturer	Base	View	Color	Digit height	Displays	Decimal point	Life expectancy	Note
LC-513	Dolam	socket	top	clear	15,5 mm	0…9	left	unknown	similar to ZM1022, Z5600M
LC-516	Dolam	socket	top	clear	15,5 mm	0…9	none	unknown	similar to IN-1
LC-531	Dolam	wires	side	clear	13 mm	0…9	left and right	unknown	similar to ZM1082T
LC-631	Dolam	socket	side	clear	30 mm	0…9	none	unknown	similar to Z5660M, Z5220M, ZM1042

Gra & Afch Nixie Clocks

We here at Gra & Afch offer Nixie Tubes of various types and sizes.

As well as Ready-to-Use assembled Clocks, Cases and DIY KITs that are presented in a separate sections in our shop.

And you can come visit it and look for yourself anytime: Nixie Tubes, Nixie Clocks without Cases, Nixie Clocks in Cases, DIY KITs for Nixie Clocks, Cases for Nixie Clocks.

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How to choose the right Nixie Tube