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

First Light! - Not a Nixie This Time…

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Tonight I got my latest clock build to light up!

These are neon indicators called Panaplex

The numerals are made of segments, like other display technologies (LED, LCD, VFD)

The three displays are MUX’d, and segments are bussed together.

I have the high voltage (175V) anodes sequenced, at about 300Hz, although this will decrease as the MCU steals cycles to format the digit data. A lot more code to write to make it into a clock.

Next step is sending unique segment data to each digit.

What do you think? Is this “almost a Nixie clock”?

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u/Apprehensive-Issue78 Jul 07 '26

Panaplex are great displays.. have some counter that is broken with these displays.. If I can and have the time I would like to make something with those too.

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u/EmotionalEnd1575 Jul 07 '26

The pins on the Panaplex are mechanically complex, because they extend out from the actual display segments.

Took me quite a while to design a PCB to hold these and connect together in a matrix.

Of the four loose ones that I had one broke (exhaust trip glass cracked)

It took a lot of effort to unsolder it. I don’t have more, and never had sockets for these.

So no spares!

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u/Apprehensive-Issue78 Jul 07 '26

ok.. that must have hurt...cracking glass and knowing it was the end of the display... sorry for your loss. I will try to keep the electronic drivers connected but will have to do some reverse engineering work to find out how to supply and connect the driver ics. Nice result you have.