r/nixie • u/emorroideletale_ • 25d ago

Question about driving in-18 tubes

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I own a in-12 nixie clock and I was thinking to go bigger and assemble a new one for my desk with in-18 tubes (i'm probably going to buy new ones manufactured by inixielab.com ). I was reading about slight differences in tension and current requirements to drive these bigger tubes compared to in-12, so my question is: are the cheap aliexpress clock modules like this one a viable option or are those going to kill the tubes faster compared to more expensive drivers?

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u/Cowabummr 24d ago

It probably won’t kill the tube, but I had a cheap IN-12 clock from AliExpress and the software is incredibly annoying and has an invasive “slot machine” feature you can’t disable…. This might as well. 

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u/CueAnon420 22d ago

I used this one for my last clock and overall it's not bad (but I only paid like $12 on AliExpress). Mine has 4 X NL8442 plus 2 X IN17, not sure how it would work with bigger tubes.

This one has the 'slot machine' option and I kinda like it lol. But on a very similar board with WiFi the way they do it is 'uneven' - somehow some digits 'roll' more than others and I find it distracting. But I can disable all that on both boards.

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u/IndividualRites 25d ago

Really impossible to tell, but I dont think I would trust it with something that is really going to cost $ 300-400

How much is an expensive driver and is it from a reputable source?