Dieter's
B9A Single Nixie Tube Tester & Regenerator

last update (and finished): April-16-2006

This tube tester has different jobs in my little Nixie World:

a) It can test B9A Nixie tubes.
b) It can regenerate B9A Nixie tubes.
c) It is a part of the Electronic Box of my (All-) Nixie Tube Tester

I also have built a Multi- B9A- Nixie tube tester and regenerator:
You can see it here!

As you know all B9A nixie tubes are biquinary tubes.
After the schematic of the clock was finished I sketched the schematic of the tester, which used the same conditions as they are in the clocks.
This was the final version of the schematic:

First I made a sketch of the front plate:

Then I made the front plate out of aluminium:

I did the wiring:


And mounted it in a simple case:

I like that vintage style 'Chicken Head' knobs! ;-)

The Tester was built to test the following tubes:

B-5025
NL-5025
ZM1030
ZM1032
ZM1032N


You can view the data of these tubes here.

For normal the ZM1030 and ZM1032 tubes only have to be tested, because they contain mercury and do not show any cathode poisoning.
The problematic types are the B-5025 and the NL-5025.
These contain no mercury and get much cathode poisoning if they are operated in one digit state only.
So these types (B-5025 and NL-5025) must be tested and regenerated.

If you want to know more about cathode poisoning and how to remove it, click here.

These pictures show the tester in action:


The meters show all necessary values of the tube.
Supply voltage
Maintaining Voltage
Anode Current
Cathode Current
Cathode- Leakage Current
Screen Current

The over- current is adjusted by the power supply (see schematic)
Thanks for reading!


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