VFD Displays

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2 points·frankfrank13··5 comments

Maintaining an AC signal strong enough to drive the filament seems to be a tough goal. Most solutions I've seen hacked together a small audio amplifier to push and pull the electrons; I've resigned to just using a step-down transformer since I'm driving my VFD designs from mains anyway.

Would love to hear alternatives!

I've also seen the listings for cool displays on ebay dry up lately? A few years ago I could find a selection of older/NOS stereo VFDs in a number of arrangements, but lately it's been just generic 20x4 POS displays and the odd nixie...

Why wouldn't you just use one of the many chips designed to run VFDs, like the MAX692x series, or even a couple of SN74141s?

VFDs on eBay seem hit-and-miss. Some days there's a variety; some days it's just basic stuff. If it's something really unusual, grab it because once it's gone there may not be any left.

Those chips are great for switching the segments on and off; my trouble is with the (ideally AC) supply for the filament. Others have had success https://kevinrye.net/index_files/vfd_ac_filament_driver_v11.... but somehow I have trouble replicating their schematics...

Gotcha. My bad...I didn't fully understand the issue you are working.

Idk how I never knew it was phosphorus that made these work, but GOD it makes it so much cooler. Like somehow a fake digital display done chemically is that much cooler than what we have now.

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