On Sun, 16 Mar 2014 17:25:05 -0400, Joe Gwinn
wrote:

In article , Jim Thompson
wrote:

Anyone have an accurate I-V curve for an NE-2 neon indicator lamp?

(I think it's time I applied TANH to it ;-)

Accurate I-V curve? There is no such thing, actually, except possibly
under lab conditions.

That's what I need right now... get the core model right, then
embellish with ambient light, etc.

(I'm very aware of ambient light issues... once turned off my monster
tube amplifier while I went on vacation. It was located in a dark
attic... and utilized OA2's for regulating various grid potentials.
When I returned and powered it up... KABOOM... electrolytic gunk
everywhere :-D

To design reliable circuits, you need a handful
of parameters, and the curves are useful only for the general pattern
of response. Gaseous conduction devices are not at all like
semiconductors in the details, although thyratrons are similar to
thyristors.

First is breakdown voltage. This is measured in the dark, but is
lowered by UV (sunlight, fluorescent lamps, ...) If I recall, it's
around 70 volts.

Before breakdown, impedance is essentially infinite. After breakdown,
voltage drops to a fraction of the breakdown voltage. The higher the
current the lower the voltage.

There is a current below which the glow will extinguish. One must
remain below this current for a finite time, so all the ions have
decayed or wandered away, before reapplying voltage.

There is a lot of information available:

..http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neon_lamp

The standard text on the physics was "Gaseous Conductors - Theory and
engineering Applications", 1941, by James Dillon Cobine. This book was
available from Dover for many years.

Cobine, James Dillon, Gaseous Conductors: Theory and Engineering
Applications, Dover Publications, New York, 1958. paperback, xx+600 pp,
5 3/8x8.

Joe Gwinn

...Jim Thompson
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