Total Fail!!! The Green Neon Is A LIE!!!

How about these? https://tubes-store.com/product_info.php?products_id=891 TLZ-3-2 neon luminophore (green glow) tube I'm not affiliated in any way with the co.

Ymir the Frost Giant

Might there be a VFD equivalent of the IV-22 nixie dot bulb? Had a quick look on tubes-store.com without luck, but a proper search or an enquiry might do better. Failing that, rejig yr clock to use IV-22s and have a warm orangey-red glow.

Ymir the Frost Giant

they used neons on for the audio track area on old movie projectors, it was found that the bulbs go unstable without some photons striking the plates and glass. because the bulb sat in darkness when not in use they would install two neon bulbs, one whose job was to be on, and shining on the other one, when it was off.

Adric Menning

Have you tried farnell or Conrad in Europe? I’ll look. Maybe someplace in Germany has some old stock. Again, I’ll look

Rocco Rizzo

I have some NOS green neons, got them local. Dont know how to get them to you as im sure you dont want to give a random your address but will give you a couple if you know a way to receive them.

Zach Allin

In the words of “AvE”, “Finest Chinesium.” One would think someone at DoD or NASA or ONR would have some irreplaceable boat-anchor that used green bulbs and some gnome living near Ft. Monmouth delivers matched sets of a dozen.

Mike O'Dell

sadly i dont know who made them but i got my dad some on surplus 10+ years ago. he did a Green neon ring oscillator he found he could run them way lower voltage than a standard NE2, could get them to strike at under 70v where you need to go close to 80v, Anyway ill look at the bulbs next time to see if there is any maker mark, don't recall any.. but they have been blinking away for a long time and are still mostly green. and lighting. similar ne2 bulbs. i suspect he used that knowledge to either transform the power down, or used a voltage divider.

Adric Menning

No surprise that China has zero quality. I avoid components from China!

Steve Whitacre

Shine a laser pointer at a blinking led in an old power strip, it might stop blinking as long as it is pointed at.

Nerdful Things

I used some phosphor leds long ago. I remember the blue glow of mercury or argon from the tip. I believe they were used for Thermotron environmental chambers, although they used mostly neons in status indicators. When old, a lot of the neon indicator panel lights would blink or go out when lab lights were turned off.

Nerdful Things

Interesting find. Could these really still be made in Massachusetts? Or are they new old stock? Hm. Too bad they aren't sold in small quantities. Some companies (like Bulgin) still make green neon panel mount indicators, but the only other bare green neon lamps I'm aware of are Lumex p/n GT-NG6H1825T, sold by Mouser, Future Electronics, and Digi-Key.

While you don't want to install LED's it may just be the only way, but rather than the harsh colours, consider a warm white LED with "gels" I have got good (traditional looking) results that way. Another is to use UV LED's and flourescent surfaces, can be useful for "filling" a void with a particular colours. I tried glow in the dark pads too, but I personally wasn't a fan of the "afterglow" if the power was removed. Some newerr Christmas lights have gree/red/orange blue-excited phosphor leds in them as well (blue being the direct pure chip), but longevity might be marginal.

Anton

Are any of these from this list interesting? Specifically the green on, white off ones, they look fairly cheap per unit kinda but a bit pricey for a bag, looks like a bunch are still in production - https://www.intl-lighttech.com/applications/neon-lamps I've asked them if the reel of clear/green ones they have on the site are still for sale, I'm gonna guess no :)

Adam Robinson

The whole lighting industry has pretty much eliminated neon, or green, high voltage lamps in favor of LEDs from what I can see. Even neon signs are also increasingly being "simulated" with high intensity LEDs. I've never seen neon lamps, let alone green ones, used in long-life aerospace equipment, but Dialight, and a few other vendors, had cartridge neon lamps that could be replaced when they finally did get dim. But that was in the 70s and not used in aerospace due to their inability to be seen in sunlight conditions. With most of the annunciator lighting world ignoring that old tech, I don't think there are any serious vendors that go out of their way to really perfect the green lamps. With their seemingly minimal life, and even basic orange neon lights eventually fail, I don't see a business case to produce them. With no rigid requirements, or quality control, expected from the Chinese vendors, I think they just make these as a novelty as opposed to a serious product line item. Did they provide any data on lamp life? Tips for extending their life? Recommended resistors to put in series with the bulbs? I just never researched neon lamps even though I acquired a lot of them by accident over the years. I have quite a few that actually are the same form-factor as the bulbs you use in your NASA twist-lights. They need a resistor, obviously, but they fit the twist-lights perfectly. They are not as tall as the normal neon bulbs are, but were still more than visible for indoor applications. They had very distinctive copper bases as opposed to what looks like stainless steel for the incandescent versions. That form factor fits thousands of military and aerospace button caps, annunciators and panel lamps. I don't recall seeing a green version, but I'm going to look through what I have and see if they ever did produce a quality green gaseous bulb as they did the neon.

Matt Wietlispach

These kind of products are made at the lowest cost possible... not surprised.

I hope someone can find you some good ones out there somewhere

Dr Andy Hill

Chinesium products fail? How surprising....

Bruce Rose