My obscure interest: Vacuum Fluorescent Displays
 

Besides the basic electronics, tubes, and transistors. I have a severe fetish or passion if you will, for VFD displays.

some of my friends always called me the "VFD Master"

Because its a tube, and ive always been attracted to its high contrast, blue-green light emissions that LCDs, LEDs cannot reproduce. i prefer a VFD over anything.

Any and all my hobby electronics projects that require a display, use a VFD.

ive made VFD display drivers, VU meters, spectrum analyzers, clocks, etc...

Think im crazy? I do... lol. :banana:

I have a youtube channel THEtechknight, that i shown some of this nutty stuff on.

If i could make a 1024x768 RGB VFD display that was compatible with computer TFT LVDS data signaling, i would do it in a heartbeat.

Neat. I have a Casio adding machine (121-L?) that uses blue VFD. Recently went on the blink, but worked great for the first 39 years :)

Yea, it sucks VFDs are a dying breed. just like the rest of the tube stuff, but hey, thats why im stocking up on the cheap surplus i can get my hands on.

have to have parts for future project somehow.

Nixie tube displays are really cool too!

I always liked them too. Some years back I was making side money fixing the ones that were in the Chrysler K karz. The power diodes and solders would fail. The tubes them self have a fairly good lifespan. Longer that the usable hour life of the average car.
Usually when they fail its something to do with the high voltage supply just like a tv.

I also liked those old LED displays that had the little bubble magnifier over each character.

yes, the vintage LED displays were cool too. And so were the nixies. But i just cant get the passion "warm fuzzy feeling" with those as i can with VFDs.

and for the digital cluster VFDs, I pulled them from an old GM console, and rebuilt it into my own circuitry for use on a golf cart ;-)

I never did iron out all the bugs and eventually lost interest.

I have several VFD displays in clock radios where they are very dim...I wonder if they are losing their emission like a CRT?
I always thought it was neat how you could see the very fine filament wire glowing in front of the display if you look closely.

yes they do. it works EXACTLY like a CRT. if you look on the filaments of a nice fresh VFD, it has a "white" coating, thats the cathode coating that emits the electrons. the barium or whatever it is.

as the VFD wears, it turns darker and darker. When the VFD goes completely dim or dead, youll see the barium coated filament cathodes have almost no white left.

Cash display
 

lucky me, got a job to fix a VFD in a Cybex recombrent bike that must be 20 years old. I fixed this stuff in vcrs repairing power supplies and replacing weak
capacitors causing dim displays. Quick money for a recycled tv repairman.:yes:

What's amazing is I have pioneer DT-400 digital timer with a VFD, been plugged in continuously for 32 years, that's over 280,300 hours! Still as bright as it was new best as I can tell. Lights up the kitchen at night, where it's served as a coffee pot timer since new in 1979.

depends on how hard it drives the filaments.

So this explains why the VFD clock display on my Amana electric range is slowly dimming after 12 years of 24/7 use. :scratch2: It's also brighter at the ends of each segment, darker in the middles. Normal, yes?

One question: what are the incredibly thin glowing red lines that you see going across the face of the VFD? My range clock, my Casio calculator, my old Technics SA-222, my Marantz CD player, my Sony cassette deck, and my Panasonic VCR has them...

Has VFD,nixie tubes and a beam deflection decade counter clock

http://www.tube-tester.com/sites/nixie/nixie-tubes.htm

HI ,mbates I KNOW YOU AND have some vcr displays,but is so difficult to command dis ting ...

here more vfd`s http://www.vfdsamsung.com/pics-vfdmo...ngAudioVFD.jpghttp://www.vfdsamsung.com/vfddisplaypanel1.htmlhttp://www.hqelektronik.hu/pic/27/2731HQ.JPGhttp://www.hqelektronik.hu/catlist/en/va_sams/7.htmlhttp://img.nobodybuy.com/2010/05/10/...nt-display.jpghttp://www.futaba.com/products/displ...lanerlarge.jpgBi-Planar VFD3-D :yes:Image capability where more information can be displayed by using overlapping anodes and grids. Typical applications are portable entertainment systems.http://www.futaba.com/products/displ...e/coglarge.jpgChip in Glass (CIG) VFD and Chip on GLASS (COG)VFDBy mounting the driver IC on the VFD base plate design flexibility is improved. Picture shows a COG VFD.http://www.futaba.com/products/displ...e/goslarge.jpgGrid on Separator (GOS) VFDBy moving the function of the grid to a separator pillar, freedom of design can be increased.http://www.mikrocontroller.net/topic/189973

Ya, that would be me. Theres a guy in singapore I have been ordering my VFDs from for projects, but some of the VFDs you have posted are cool.

Its not hard to drive them, just kind of have to understand the technology.

FOR MI is nightmare and wiring is all so tough ...AND I HAVE A DREAM- TO FIND UNIVERSAL EVALUATING BOARD FOR ALL TYPES VFD`Shttp://wegavision.pytalhost.com/JVC90/08.jpghttp://kenwood.pytalhost.eu/1991/kenwood08.jpghttp://img.ahtr.net/DSC_0992%20%5B%5D.JPG

you got all kinds of neat VFD pics there.

i have a dream-to complete similar mod,but with ftd-original from vcr :yes::scratch2:

That is so cool!! :thmbsp:

Well if you live in a bad neighborhood at least you can sleep at nght knowing that what ever happens they won't steal your computer, though if their dumb enough to steal your VCR your kinda screwed......

Tom C.

Ha-one of the neatest things I've seen in a while!

Ya, I seen that display on ebay. I didnt buy one yet. I like VFD displays that have VU or spec analyzer bars on it. or bars in general. I am a audio-visual type of guy that likes VU meters, spec ans, winamp visual plugins, etc...

I do however, REALLY like that VFD you have in your sig. My next project if i ever get around to finishing it is building a small scale MP3 player with an application specific VFD display, kinda like the one in your sig. Except the one I am going to use is the NEC FIP11AMW8 for this project, which can be had cheap at a few places.

So with the NEC FIP11AMW8, I have already mapped out the pins, segment tables, etc... just have to finish up the code to drive it, and its going to interface to another CPU that does the MP3 Decoding and SD card access. the CPU that will run the VFD display will also fetch IR codes from my apple remote, along with doing VU meter calculations off of the analog return from the MP3 decoder IC. Might be alot of overhead for a single CPU, but its just for I/O. the MP3 decoder is a separate CPU because of timing critical operations, dont want a buffer underrun = choppy playback, so the less things it has to do outside of playing the mp3, the better. Outside of buffering MP3 data, it also has a command interpreter to be able to talk to the I/O CPU. going to use RS232, or maybe SPI between the two CPUs, and of course the DOS/SD file system handler.

the I/O CPU's display scan routine will run off an internal timer which will output a square wave from the PWM pin to drive a power amplifier circuit that will not only supply the anode voltage/current, but also the filament supply. Basically a discrete replacement for the LM9022 which no longer exists. Why do i wanna use scan derived PWM signal? so you dont get beat artifacts on the display :-)

and the most fun of it all, itll be written in BASIC. because I cant code in C, and besides my BASIC skills are a close match to what C can do. Hell, I wrote BASIC code for a small crypto unit that would cypher a digital bitstream going in, in 512-byte block cyphers. Mainly used for secure RF.

What its intended purpose for the time was sending secure transmissions over CB. (dont ask me why, just something to do, and it worked). an MP3 decoder/encoder IC VS1053 would be used as an encoder as a 64kbps mono MP3 which gives you ALOT of time before you have to rebuffer, plus it was convenient for the 115.2kbps RS232 port on the AVR. So i would buffer 512bytes, scramble it, and re-transmit it as pilot toned ASK over CB (which worked horribly, required a strong signal but at least it worked).

the receiver would detect the pilot tone to signal the decoder to kick in. Once it kicked in, it would decode the ASK into a bit stream which the AVR would decode back into 512byte blocks, decrypt them, and send them to the MP3 decoder IC at the other end. it worked as a test of concept but it was REALLY buggy, mainly do to the method i sent the signal over the RF line, ASK. I coulda used like manchester or some other means of modulating the digital signal, but i didnt know how, and i still dont to an extent.

V.F.D. is something sacred for me! I have such display at my 1986-1987 V.C.R. and at my 1978-1980 radio (both machines are made by "Panasonic")

:thmbsp::scratch2: Give me picture on FIP11AMW8 please or pdf
I HAVE NEC FIP 11GM6 NO 421-421
i search MOST SOPHISTICATED VFD display on vcr;hi-fi;air-cond,etc..still tune for it

Code:

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http://radiokot.ru/forum/viewtopic.p...=8441&start=40

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http://www1.synapse.ne.jp/takata/av/...a_a-e50_09.jpghttp://www1.synapse.ne.jp/takata/av/...a_a-e50_11.jpghttp://7113.fc2web.com/rc-x90.htmlhttp://ist1-1.filesor.com/pimpandhos...re%20147_m.jpg http://7113.fc2web.com/rc-x90-010.jpg

Somewhere in my parts pile, I have a rather large VFD from an old satellite receiver (I think), it's about 8" long and has roughly 10 or 12 grids of pixels (10 x 15 each or something like that) that can be used to spell out letters, numbers etc. Sort of like a small marquee sign, but it's VFD instead of LED / LCD. I bet you'd have fun with it! Make me a good offer and it's yours......

I have a bookshelf stereo system (1999 model Aiwa CX-NA888) with what I believe is a VFD display for functions, AM-FM digital tuner, etc. The characters, however, seem to be formed by individual dot-matrix display units; they also can display the on-off states of certain functions by scrolling across the width of the display until manually turned off. The display resembles the "Futaba" VFD (which appears to be scrolling as the one on my stereo does) mentioned in another post; the Futaba display also looks like mine when all functions are displayed at once, e. g. after a power outage. Mine will also show a built-in game which Aiwa calls "Demo" when power is restored after an outage, and the clock will flash 12:00 until reset -- not unlike most VCRs with VFD clock displays.

I don't work on VFDs that often, because Gottleib was the only pinball company that used them. Their system1 and system80 games used a seven-segment VFD with 6 digits (possibly seven). These things often start going dim, and we found if left on for a few hours...it brightens up. One tech suggested applying a tiny bit of voltage higher than the normal filament voltage...just enough the glow redish-orange. A few seconds of this usually livens these VFDs up if they haven't gassed. I don't know why exactly this works when so many other VFDs start going dead and never work again.

However, I love a good VFD to a point. My EQ has a nice bluish spectrum analyzer bar display on it. After 30 years it still looks outstanding. No dimming...no issues. I get what looks like ghosting...like if one bar is maxed out...ill see a faint glow from another bar...its either some kind of weird reflection or something because I've done everything but look at the voltages driving the VFD with a scope. My Onkyo cassette deck has a VFD on it that was causing a harmonicy buzzing when it was turned on..when I changed the belt and took the cassette transport out it stopped doing that.

But, yeah, I've always liked the physical look of a good vfd meter...seems faster and sharper than most LED implmentations.

Sent from my SPH-M910 using Tapatalk

I dont have a datasheet on the NEC FIP11AMW8, I just hand figured all the pins and configurations.

Also it seems the only site that carried them are now gone. :-(

Usehttp://wayback.archive.org/web/

Oh. I meant gone from "stock" Meaning you cant purchase them anymore.

I guess i got mine while i could. shoulda got more.

Here is a youtube video of mine when I built a breadboard based VFD controller that ran off the PC parallel port back in 2006 i think it was.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_U-Fb5F-Ww

Here is the FIP display I was referring to.

Here is pretty much my entire collection of VFDs. There are a few I missed which I will post later, mainly the 50 or so Soviet-era Russian VU meters.

http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/4...00015pm.th.jpg
http://img826.imageshack.us/img826/6...00016dj.th.jpg
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/5...00017jv.th.jpg
http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/4613/dsc00018lv.th.jpg
http://img545.imageshack.us/img545/1...0019mjl.th.jpg

some more of them

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/6...00020as.th.jpg
http://img826.imageshack.us/img826/7...00021pp.th.jpg
http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/7080/dsc00023ll.th.jpg
http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/5...c00024f.th.jpg
http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/5...00025sg.th.jpg
http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/5...00026li.th.jpg
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/4...00027tn.th.jpg
http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/5...00028xy.th.jpg
http://img828.imageshack.us/img828/5...00029eb.th.jpg
http://img828.imageshack.us/img828/5...00030no.th.jpg

And the last of them. This is a large collection. lol. :banana:

http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/4442/dsc00031mf.th.jpg
http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/8...00032ls.th.jpg
http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/8...0033dkg.th.jpg
http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/7...c00034r.th.jpg
http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/9...00035fl.th.jpg
http://img830.imageshack.us/img830/1...00036ew.th.jpg
http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/4400/dsc00037gl.th.jpg
http://img864.imageshack.us/img864/1...00038vk.th.jpg

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/sho...d.php?t=420169
philips-dcc900http://www.dutchaudioclassics.nl/img...ips-dcc900.jpghttp://www.dutchaudioclassics.nl/phi..._dcc_recorder/http://img826.imageshack.us/img826/6884/dsc00016dj.jpg:banana:

AND i haw dream to mod my VCR grundig vs220
http://ist1-1.filesor.com/pimpandhos...re%20024_m.jpg with
http://www.vintagecassette.com/srv/images/46910http://www.hifi-wiki.de/images/1/11/..._RS-BX_707.jpg=http://videokarma.org/attachment.php...7&d=1329650152

Here are the few that I forgot:

the graphics VFD was a chip-on-glass one that I had gotten, no datasheet or pinout available, so i had to reverse engineer it myself. Although with the ghosting, I never did get too much further with it. My guess was it was a 3.3V VFD that I was driving with 5V.

Here is the 50+ russian VFDs that I had gotten.

Shown is the new control board I had developed for them, So i can control the tubes digitally. Unfortunately the project was sidelined becuase I used 2 ICs that are no longer available. the LM9022 and A6810.

Oh, and I cannot forget this gem:

Here is a set of GM VFDs that I re-purposed for use in a golf cart, digital cluster. It worked until the rain finally got it. lol.

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/sho...d.php?t=420169
1987-8
GOLDEN AGES OF VFD HI-FI UNITS:thmbsp::thmbsp::drool::tresbon:

i`m fanatically impression-ed of TV icons on VCR displays this is my tread-
http://vintageelectronics.betamaxcol...cr-scans/page8

FOR COLOR SYSTEM MAC;NTSC 3.58;4.46;ME SECAM NM PAL
TV-I,BG;BS\BROADCAST SATELLITE\
SOUND-NICAM;SAP;STEREO;DUAL
TV FREQUENCY
S-VPS;PDC;VDS;TXT

ON THE SAME TIME ON VFD+LEVEL METER+S.A./SPECTRUM ANALIZER\+WEEKLY DAYS+DEWhttp://nationalmaclord.web.fc2.com/vcr/nv900hd_7.jpghttp://ist1-2.filesor.com/pimpandhos...re%20010_m.jpg