Recent content on Display Tubes
The DG12B is a VFD tube manufactured in Japan by the Itron Corporation, the company that originally invented VFD technology in 1966. What makes this tube stand out in particular is the distinctive appearance of its digits. Rather than using the seven-segment design still commonly found in digital readouts today, it employs a more intricate nine-segment arrangement that gives the digits an almost…
The GR10K is an early Nixie tube manufactured by ETL in Great Britain sold under the brand name ‘Digitron’. It is identical to the GR10H except for the omission of an anode grid. While this gives the tube a highly unique and appealing appearance with great visibility of the digits, it also means that there is nothing preventing sputter from the cathodes accumulating on the inside of…
The 6G-E12A is peculiar magic eye tube manufactured by the Japanese company TOYO. Unlike most top-viewing magic eyes tubes, such as the common 6E5 , which feature circular screens, the 6G-E12A’s screen is rectangular. It is the successor to the 6G-E12 tube, which features a similar rectangular screen design but has a different display characteristic. The 6G-E12A is a so-called double…
The HB-105 is a so-called Pixie tube manufactured by Burroughs. Unlike a Nixie tube, which forms numerals from a stack of digit-shaped cathodes, the Pixie tube uses a single anode plate perforated with digit-shaped holes, through which a neon discharge can be seen. The tube’s datasheet lists its various supposed advantages over Nixie tubes which included the ability to display multiple…
The 8894 is an early vacuum fluorescent display (VFD) tube manufactured in the united States by Sylvania and sold under the brand name “Flurotron”. Its most distinctive feature is the use of “floating” segments; unlike most other VFDs, where the segments are held on a continuous backplane. Another notable difference from later VFD designs is the absence of a control grid.…
The LD-836 is a medium-sized Nixie tube manufacured by NEC in Japan, notable for its highly unusual, nearly rectangular glass envelope. This distinctive shape makes the tube’s front face significantly narrower than that of comparable Nixies and allows multiple tubes to be placed closer together in display assemblies. In addition to displaying the digits 0 through 9, the LD-836 also includes…
The ZIN-70 is a modern Nixie tube and, with its 70mm digits, ranks among the largest ever produced. Handmade in limited quantities by the Ukrainian company Millclock, it is available both as part of their Nixie clock range and as a standalone component. Its construction bears a strong resemblance to another contemporary Nixie tube: the R|Z568M , manufactured by Dalibor Farný and his company. A…
The B-5441A is a medium-sized Nixie tube manufactured by Burroughs. What sets this tube apart is the fact that it was evacuated from the bottom, a feature usually only found in larger side-viewing Nixie tubes. This design results in a perfectly dome-shaped top. In addition to displaying digits zero through nine, the B-5441A also includes both left and right decimal points. These distinctive…
The GA12 is a large Nixie tube distributed by Swiss manufacturer Cerberus, though it was not originally produced by them. Instead, it is a rebranded version of the GR10J tube manufactured by ETL in Great Britain as part of their DIGITRON line of display tubes. This tube stands out for several reasons. Firstly, it features a copper-colored anode, an unusual characteristic shared by only a handful…
The Burroughs B-5092 is a medium-sized Nixie tube that shares pin compatibility with other common top-view types such as the ZM1020, Z560M, and GN-4. Unlike these, however, it features a taller, more slender glass envelope. Its most distinctive element is the unusual anode cage, which leaves the cathode stack clearly visible from the side. Another detail that can be seen from the side is the…
The B6037 is an unusual Nixie tube manufactured by Burroughs, making it an “official” Nixie tube as indicated by the labeling on its glass envelope. Unlike most Nixie tubes, which display only the digits 0–9, the B6037 includes an extra cathode shaped as a “1” placed next to the standard stack of digits. This allows the tube to display numbers from 0 to 19. Its glass envelope is relatively large…
The ZM1070 is a neon-filled, double-pulse decadic counting tube manufactured by Valvo in Germany. It supports bi-directional counting and operates at speeds of up to 5,000 counts per second. Each of its ten stable cathodes is connected to a separate pin, allowing external actions (such as advancing a second stage Dekatron) to be triggered when a specific cathode is active. This design also enables…
This document presents a price list of various common types of Nixie tubes and their corresponding sockets offered by Baird Atomic, effective July 7, 1966. The Nixie tubes were manufactured by National Electronics and distributed by Baird Atomic. Equivalent tubes were sold by National Electronics with the prefix ‘NL’ instead of ‘BA’. As of July 25, 2025, the cumulative…
The XN10A is a medium-sized symbolic Nixie tube manufactured by Hivac in Great Britain as part of their ‘Numicator’ line of display tubes. It displays a plus sign, minus sign, and sine wave symbol. Its size made it compatible with other numeric tubes in the XN series, such as the XN1 , XN3 , and XN12. The tube also has the same restrictive anode cage found in the aforementioned tubes,…
The Z565M is a neon-filled decadic display tube manufactured by RFT in East Germany. Although it resembles a Dekatron, it lacks any kind of counting capability. Unlike the ZM1050/Z550M , it also cannot be controlled using logic-level signals. Instead, it operates more like a regular Nixie tube and is soemtimes referred to as a “Register tube”. It features ten wire-formed cathodes…
The GN-5A (military code CV5351) is a large top-viewing Nixie tube produced by the British manufacturer STC and marketed under the “Nodistron” brand. It succeeds the GN-1 and GN-2 models, maintaining the same pinout and compatible electrical specifications. A distinguishing feature of the GN-5A is the faint bluish glow emitted by its illuminated digits, indicating the presence of…
The GI-21 is the larger counterpart to the GI-10 , both manufactured by National Union as part of their “Inditron” line of display tubes. This places it among the earliest Nixie-style tubes ever produced, even predating the term “Nixie” itself that was coined by Haydu Brothers (later Burroughs) in the late 1950s. Like the GI-10, the GI-21 does not feature a dedicated anode…
The SZ-8 is a medium-sized Nixie tube manufactured by the Chinese company Zhishiguan (somtimes called Universe). Among the few Nixie tube models produced in China, the SZ-8 is by far the most common. Alongside the Soviet Union, China was one of the last countries to continue manufacturing Nixie tubes in significant quantities into the early 1980s. Visually and electrically, the SZ-8 resembles…
The CK8650 is a Nixie tube manufactured by Raytheon in the USA and sold under their “datavue” line as a Numerical Indicator Tube. Compared to other Nixie tubes with similarly sized digits, the CK8650 has a notably short and stubby appearance. Its diamond-shaped anode grid extends significantly beyond the frontmost digit, giving the tube a distinctive look. Not visible to the camera,…
The XN3 is a medium-sized Nixie tube manufactured by Hivac in Great Britain and Lorenz in Germany and part of their ‘Numicator’ line of display tubes. According to its datasheet, it is the direct successor to the XN1 , featuring pin compatibility and primarily differing in its increased lifespan. Unlike many later long-life tubes, however, the XN3’s discharge does not exhibit the…
The 6ME5 (also known as 6M-E5) is a miniature magic eye tube manufactured by TOYO in Japan. It closely resembles the common 6E5 tube , but in a smaller form factor. It features the same basic display characteristic of a single shadow that opens or closes according to the supplied input voltage. The tube requires a relatively low target voltage of only 180V (opposed to the 250V typical for most…
Below you can find a list of websites containing information on display tubes I found useful. tube-tester.com : Possibly the most comprehensive online resource for display tubes, offering datasheets for nearly every display tube ever manufactured on their archive . jb-electronics.de : Large collection of Nixie tubes and Nixie-related projects of which many are documented with detailed pictures.…
The CD11 is a medium-sized, top-viewing Nixie tube produced by the Japanese manufacturer Rodan Okaya. It serves as the direct successor to the GR-201 and maintains identical pinouts and electrical specifications. Like other Rodan tubes, the CD11 features a sleek, chrome-plated base with a gold-colored sticker displaying the manufacturer’s logo and the tube’s model number. In keeping…
The GR10G (also known as CV8090) is a large Nixie tube produced by the British manufacturer ETL. It stands out due to its unconventional design: notably, it lacks a solid back plate on the anode cage, allowing the digits to be viewed clearly even from behind the tube. Its unusual characteristics extend to its electrical specifications. According to the datasheet, the recommended supply voltage is…
The ZM1040 is a large Nixie tube produced by various European manufacturers, with this particular unit made by Valvo. Tesla, a Czechoslovakian manufacturer, produced a version of the ZM1040 that featured a square anode grid, setting it apart from the one shown here. To enhance contrast and filter out blue light emitted by the included mercury vapor, the tube is covered with a red filter. A variant…
The DGM01 is a modern Nixie tube produced by Sadudu and his company iNixie LAB in China, comparable in size to the Soviet IN-18 . Like the R|Z568M by Dalibor Farný, the DGM01 is assembled by hand in small quantities. Each digit in the tube has a distinctive design, with the numbers one and five standing out in particular. Notably, the DGM01 features a right decimal point which is unusual for tubes…
The CD66A, produced by NEC in Japan, is a medium-sized Nixie tube capable of displaying all ten digits along with a right decimal point. It features a distinctive anode design made up of multiple horizontal wires, differing from the typical hexagonal or square grids stamped from sheet metal in most Nixie tubes. A variant of the CD66 with a left decimal point was also available. In Europe, the CD66…
The B-7971 is a very large neon-filled alphanumeric display tube manufactured by Burroughs. Unlike ordinary Nixie tubes, which contain cathodes in the shape of symbols arranged on a stack, the B-7971 features 14 individual wire segments that can be combined to display every letter of the English alphabet in addition to digits 0 through 9. An additional segment in the bottom can be used to display…
The N4 is a neon-filled decadic counting tube manufactured by the German company DGL Pressler (Deutsche Glimmlampen GmbH), which is mostly known for making discharge tubes and phototubes. The tube operates in a unidirectional, single-pulse mode and each of its ten stable cathodes is accessible externally via a separate pin. According to its datasheet, the N4 is capable of up to 25,000 counts per…
The GC12/4B is a neon-filled counting tube manufactured by ETL in Great Britain. It is capable of bi-directional operation at up to 4,000 counts per second. It features twelve stable cathodes, unlike the usual ten found in most Dekatrons, which allowed it to be used for base-12 counting. Four of these cathodes are accessible via output pins, enabling them to trigger actions such as advancing…
This document released by Mullard explains the operating principles of glow discharge tubes and their internal construction. Additionally, it includes schematics for various applications, beginning with a simple static display and progressing to two different approaches for implementing a multiplexed display. In addition to describing the anode-scanning method, which is the most widely used…
The XN1 is an early Nixie tube produced by Hivac in Great Britain and Lorenz in Germany. The earliest documentation referencing this tube I could find is dated September 9, 1961, shortly after the invention of Nixie tubes. This particular unit features an evaporative getter at the top, giving it a distinctive appearance typically associated with vacuum tubes (often seen in VFDs). However, versions…
The E1T is a decadic counting tube developed by Philips which predates the invention of gas-filled Dekatrons. Each pulse advances the tube’s internal count by one and generates a voltage spike, which can be used to trigger external actions such as advancing the next stage of a multi-tube counter. Internally, the E1T operates as a small cathode ray tube with a ribbon-shaped electron beam that…
The DR2010 is a Numitron display tube developed by RCA. It is identical to the DR2000 except for the latter lacking a decimal point. As shown below, some units feature a flat top, while others have a convex top. This seems to be a manufacturing variation and does not necessarily correspond with different model numbers. This series of Numitrons is renowned for its exceptional reliability and has a…
With its 40mm digits, the IN-18 (“NH-18”) is the largest Nixie tube mass-manufactured in the Soviet Union. It shares the same envelope diameter with smaller Nixie tubes, such as the ZM1040 and Z566M , which gives the IN-18’s digits a slightly elongated appearance. Today, the IN-18 is among the most popular Nixie tubes, often used in large Nixie clocks. Although vast quantities…
The IN-1 (“NH-1”) is the first generation of Nixie tube mass-produced in the Soviet Union. Like some other Soviet Nixie tubes, the IN-1 utilizes an inverted two to represent the number five, although at least some earlier models featured a proper five. This tube is notable for its large phenolic base, with each pin conveniently numbered. As is typical of early Nixie tube designs, the…
The GN-2 is a large Nixie tube produced by STC as part of their ‘Nodistron’ line of display tubes. It is pin-compatible with and the direct successor to the GN-1 and already shows notable advancements in Nixie tube manufacturing. Unlike its predecessor, the GN-2 features digits stamped from sheet metal instead of ones made from bent wire. These digits are arranged in a more compact…
The IV-17 (“NB-17”) is a medium-sized sixteen-plus-two segment VFD tube manufactured in the Soviet Union by Reflector, known today as Sovtek. Unlike the IV-12 seven-segment tube, the IV-17 can display all letters of the English alphabet in addition to the numbers zero through nine. Sixteen segments are dedicated to displaying characters, while the remaining two are used for the left…
The IV-12 (“NB-12”) is a large seven segment VFD tube produced in Soviet Union by Reflector (known today as Sovtek). It closely resembles the IV-11 but lacks a decimal point and has solid pins instead of flying leads. This allows the tube to be installed in a common 10-pin socket still being produced in China. Like most VFD tubes, the IV-12 includes a grid that can be negatively…
The 6E5 is one of the earliest examples of a magic eye tube, which were invented in 1932 by American electrical engineer Alan DuMont. They were designed as a cost-effective alternative to expensive needle indicators and were intended mostly for use in consumer devices such as radios that required user tuning without high precision. The first commercially available 6E5 tubes were made by RCA…
The GR-211 is a large Nixie tube produced by Rodan-Okaya in Japan. It ranks as the third-largest Nixie tube made by Rodan and succeeded the short-lived GR-11. Later models were rebranded as CD94. Notably, the GR-211 includes a left decimal point, which is uncommon for tubes of its size. In devices using larger Nixie tubes, a separate neon bulb typically represented the comma instead.…
The Tesla 11TU7 is a neon-filled Nomotron counting tube capable of up to 20,000 counts/second. It operates in a unidirectional, single-pulse mode, advancing the discharge by one position with each pulse and featuring ten stable positions. Unlike conventional decadic counting tubes (Dekatrons), its guiding electrodes are concealed behind a metal shell. Only the ten stable cathodes are visible…
The R|Z568M is a massive modern Nixie tube produced by Dalibor Farný and his company. Each tube is manufactured by hand in the Czech Republic. As the name suggests, its design is meant to be reminiscent of the Z568M, the largest Nixie tube produced in the GDR. A picture below shows a comparison between the R|Z568M, an original Z568M, and a Z566M . Despite being the smallest of the three, the…
The DTF104B is a Numitron display tube developed by RCA. Internally, it is nearly identical to the more common DR2000 and similar to the DR2010 , but it is designed to be read from the top rather than the side. A spot exists on the backplate where a left decimal point could have been included, but it lacks filaments and is therefore non-functional on this model. Its flat top gives the DTF104B a…
This document provides information on STC’s GN-1 Nixie tube. It includes a datasheet outlining the electrical specifications for both DC and rectified AC operation, as well as mechanical details such as tube dimensions and digit height. Additionally, it features circuit diagrams illustrating how the tube can be used in conjunction with the G10/241E counting tube . This document describes a…
When the Nixie tube was introduced in the 1950s, it faced a significant drawback: its driving circuitry required transistors with relatively high breakdown voltages capable of handling the elevated operating voltages necessary to drive them. At the time, such transistors were not readily available. This limitation created a demand for an alternative display technology that could be operated with…
The Z566M is a large Nixie tube manufactured by RFT. It is pin compatible with the ZM1040 but differs in design, featuring a flatter top and a top-evacuation design, though some earlier units were evacuated from the bottom. In some instances, Z566Ms have even been rebranded and sold as ZM1040s (see picture at the end of this page). A variant without the pre-applied red filter was marketed as the…
The MG-19B is a tiny, segmented neon-filled display tube produced by Rodan and marketed under the Elfin brand, designed for use in small electronic instruments. It features two additional diagonal segments, enabling it to display the digits ‘1’ and ‘7’ more naturally, as well as certain other alphanumeric characters. The tube also includes a right decimal point. Unlike…
This document details the design, functionality, and application of the STC G10-241E Nomotron, a unidirectional single pulse counting and display tube. It describes its operation and highlights its applications in areas such as tachometry, counting and batching, and frequency and time measurement. Besides a general overview over its mechanism of operation, it also contains detailed diagrams of the…
The LC-516, produced by Polish tube manufacturer Dolam (later known as Unitra Dolam), is pin-compatible with and visually similar to the Soviet IN-1 Nixie tube. However, unlike the IN-1, an early model with a relatively short lifespan, the LC-516 contains small amounts of mercury, which significantly improves its longevity and gives its discharge a subtle bluish tint. The LC-516 features a…