In the second article about his Nixie tube clock Luca shows how to drive Nixie tubes with a microcontroller. The first article covered the power supply, we covered it here.
Nixie tubes are started with a high initial voltage Vigh, around 150-180volts. Once ignited they work at a maintaining voltage Vm, and consume a average current Ik. To drive them you need a current limiting resistor and a high voltage power source that is equal to their Vigh.
The resistor is calculated by the formula R = (Vign -Vm) / Ik, and the power dissipated by the resistor is calculated by P = (Vign – Vm) * Ik.
Once a resistor is selected the rest of the circuit surmises down to controlling the ground of the tube with a NPN transistor, or a open collector output IC. You can check out his circuit in action in the video below.
After some weeks, a new update:
http://www.lucadentella.it/2012/03/16/orologio-nixie-3-rtc-ed-expander/
Do you have a schematic about this arduino-sketch-board?
Currently i wand to build this variant, i found on the web:
http://www.halfluck.com/source/nixie/nixiewiring.jpg
But i dont know about the wirings of the 74141 to the nixies. Or are the nixies completely driven by the 74141?
Regards,
Rene