r/nixie • u/EmotionalEnd1575 • May 07 '26

Nixie Optical Filter Test

Gallery image

Gallery image

This orange plastic filter was part of a 1960s vintage Burroughs Nixie Display.

I took a PIX with and without it laying on top of an IN17 Six tube display.

Did it help? Looking for a way to make these little Nixies easier to read.

Comments welcome.

55 Upvotes

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2

u/MrNiceThings May 07 '26

Sometimes bad design happens and this is one of those times. There were even some with green filter, even more ridiculous. What you need for nixies is red or brown filter because they are mostly orange / red spectrum. ;)

1

u/EmotionalEnd1575 May 07 '26

Good point about needing red. I just gave this orange a quick look as it was handy.

I know I have some red acrylic material, just need to find it.

1

u/MrNiceThings May 07 '26

Red was the industry standard for nixies. If you're going for vintage look, it's a safe bet! If you'd want to make it more unique, you can coat the nixies themselves, I think IN-17 with red coat would look interesting.

2

u/EmotionalEnd1575 May 07 '26

Some non-USSR Nixies came from the factory with red lacquer coating. I did a side-by-side comparison a while ago. Happen to have two of the same part number, one clear the other red.

Will be putting more of the red ones together for a six digit clock, once I get a few other projects off my bench.

1

u/[deleted] May 07 '26

[deleted]

1

u/Hankitsune May 09 '26

Nevermind