Description
As described in the nixie tube power supply blog: We are privileged to offer a 5v to 170v, 20mA Nixie Tube Power supply so you don’t need to build one yourself. Now you can power your Nixie tubes from a simple 5v USB charger and has a power enable pin to allow easy turn off if required. It has a 5v feed through output voltage that can also be used to power external systems like the Raspberry Pi. Check out the connection example in the video and user guide: Nixie Power Supply User Guide Rev 1
Input connector:
1. USB Type B micro connector
Output Connectors
J1 Screw Terminal
Pins:
- 170v
- 170v
J6 Screw Terminal
Pins:
- Gnd
- N_Enable (Pull Low to enable 170v supply)
- 5v supply
Additional information
| Weight | 0.0625 lbs |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 6 × 4 × 4 in |
| Product Dimention | 38.6mm x 29mm footprint |
Hi!
I was wondering whether I can safely pull N_ENABLE low using a 3v3-tolerant pin of an ESP? N_ENABLE seems to be connected to 5V.
Thank you
Seb
Hi Seb,
Thank you for the question. The N_ENABLE pin is safe and can be pulled low by the ESP. The N_ENABLE pin is not connected to 5v, but is connected to the base of an NPN transistor (Q26) through a 1k resistor. The 100k resistor you see attached between the base of the Q26 and 5v will ensure that the nixie supply turns off when N_ENABLE is not connected. Due to the configuration, the highest voltage that will be seen at the N_ENABLE pin when unconnected is 0.7v (the Vbe of Q26). The best way to interface is to configure the ESP GPIO as an open drain output and then pull N_ENABLE low when you want to turn on the supply. You can configure the ESP GPIO as a push pull output, but then when the GPIO is high=3.3v (i.e. the nixie power supply is off), the current output from the ESP will be 3.3v-0.7v/1k = 2.6mA. The ESP will not have any issue driving this, but it won’t be the lowest current configuration. Let me know if you have any other questions.
Thanks,
Mark
Hello.
I’m going to run this circuit with 12V input voltage, which should work OK (even higher efficiency as mentioned in the part 2 of the blog!).
Before testing, I’m wondering what input voltage of N_ENABLE should be. Is it should be 5V or 12V? Should I use 5 to 12 logic level converter when using this board w/ raspberrypi?
Sincerely,
Dan.
Hello!
I’m going to run this board with 12V input, as mentioned in the Part 2 of the blog.
I’m wondering if 5V to 12V logic level converter is needed to N_ENABLE when control it with raspberrypi or arduino while this board is running under 12V input through screw terminal rather then typical 5V USB input.
Sincerely,
Dan
Hi Dan,
Thanks for question. when using 12v to power the converter, You don’t need any conversion circuit on the N_Enable pin when driving from Raspberry pi or arduino. For your information , any voltage higher than approximately 1.5v on N_Enable pin will disable the output.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
Mark