Lighting OC3 Voltage Regulator Tube

[trustmaker]

Is there a simple circuit I can use to light a OC3 voltage regulator tube by itself for display?

[Tim]

Specs for this tube, including the pinout, voltage, etc. can be found here:
 http://w1.871.telia.com/~u87127077/gastubes/0c3.htm

There should be enough data there to get you going.  Also of interest is this person who builds night lights out of old voltage regulator glow tubes:
 http://home.stny.rr.com/emrl/lightworks

I have one of these and they look quite nice and have good craftsmanship.



------------------
Tim
Kilokat's Antique Light Bulb Site
Mountain Dew Collectibles, Volume I

[dobart]

Hi Folks.
I too am interested in lighting a few different regulator tubes (0A3, 0B3, 0C3, 0D3) to show differences in fill gas colors and whatnot in nixie/dekatron/analog logic lamp applications. I have a few laying around from various projects and would probably just run them all off of ~200V+ with a limiting resistor, but there's got to be a better way. I'm thinking A/C or reverse polarity for more glow, for starters... I'm trying to finger out what kind of limiting I'd need to use with no resistive load.

Any ideas? Cheap and easy regulator tube glow?

PS the links above are DOA. I'd be glad to post anything I find in one place for reference.

[dobart]

This should be interesting: I found a small 12V neon tube inverter for about 6 bucks. I'll see what it does to one of the most worn regulator tubes when it shows up.