Michail Papadimitriou over at Electronics Lab designed a simple DC-DC switching regulator capable of powering most of Nixie tubes:
The module is based on the MAX1771 Step-Up DC-DC Controller. This controller works up to 300kHz switching frequency and that allows the usage of miniature surface mount components. It accepts an input voltage from 2 to 16.5V and the output is factory configured to 12V. In this module the output voltage is configured higher at ~180Vdc using external resistors and a potentiometer.
The MAX1771 is driving an external N-channel MOSFET and with the help of the inductor and a fast diode, high voltage is produced.
MOSFET has to be RDSon, Diode has to be fast Mttr, typically < 50nS and capacitors has to be low ESR to have good efficiency.
I would think that the guy who layed this board out might want to take a look at guidelines for proper power supply layout. It’s not rocket science and it’s always good to learn something new!
Alternatively, this board could give some ideas : http://desmith.net/NMdS/Electronics/NixiePSU.html
Looks very similar to the one designed and tested by Nick De Smith here:
Darn, URL didn’t show up – http://www.desmith.net/NMdS/Electronics/NixiePSU.html
Hm, I think both guys should look into isolation distances and guidelines for high and low voltage on the same board.
The ground plane clearance around the high voltage outputs on both boards really bothers me!
Yup – the schematic is lifted and is the same as my design published many years ago at the URLs mentioned above – http://desmith.net/NMdS/Electronics/NixiePSU.html
On my page I’m very explicit about layout requirements – I wish people would just ask first !
Thanks
Nick