Finding NIMO - Rare display technology (nothing to do with fish)

[Brumby]

[cdev]

This is quite amazing.

A study in manufacturer and investor self-delusion.

[Cyberdragon]

Rediculous but beautiful. Very retro sci-fi looking. I bet when they went to the product application department (or whatever it is) they were like .

[coppice]

In the early 70s there were a lot of display devices which only seemed to exist in the surplus market for hobbyists. Even among display technologies which were widely deployed, like nixie, there were numerous devices in the surplus market which never seemed to get into any products - unless they were such niche products that few people ever came across them.

[Red Squirrel]

These are really cool, but I can see how they would have been impractical even at the time.  Probably expensive too compared to the other options that were starting to become available.

[WaveyDipole]

I have never heard of these before and found this an interesting video. Its certainly curious as to what their intended application might have been.

[IanMacdonald]

In principle not so daft an idea as they only required a logic level digit drive. Most other displays of that era required banks of power transistors or relays to drive them. 

The 2.5kV anode and 1v filament supplies were common to up to 10 tubes. EEV supplied a readymade module.

Not economic for one tube, but for 10 that makes for a drastically smaller component count.

[Richard Crowley]

There would have been a reason for developing them. It just remains to find out what it was. I seriously doubt they were developed just as an exercise in wasting money.

It would seem so. But they appeared to be under development by the same company and in parallel with the much more practical projection display.

If I were to hazard a guess i'm going to start with a fat military contract. It just screams an application with money to burn.

That would seem like the only sensible motivation.  And I am taking extreme liberties with the definition of "sensible".

Perhaps I have become velocitized by Dave.  I have to view Fran's videos at 1.5x speed to keep my attention.

[calexanian]

They are similar to the Charachtertron. My friends dad designed and built the first ones for Convair cooperation. The very first one sits on a display table at her company.

[glarsson]

Its certainly curious as to what their intended application might have been.

The marketing material is clear about replacing Nixie tubes with advantages in viewing angles and all figures in the same plane.

[Cyberdragon]

Perhaps I have become velocitized by Dave.  I have to view Fran's videos at 1.5x speed to keep my attention.

I like Fran's serene pace. Nice and relaxing. Speeding her up seems like speeding up a sunset.

[helius]

If you liked the CRT-based digit display, you'll love the CRT-based light bulb:
http://www.vu1corporation.com/esl-technology/

Unfortunately it isn't quite as exciting as the NIMO's exposed anode button; all the EHT leads are fully potted and inaccessible to the user.

[stj]

interesting,
but i would like to see one checked for x-ray emissions,
and until i see a teardown i wont expect it to last 10years - maybe 1-2 years.
simply because i expect it to cook it's driver circuits like led or clf's do.

[Cyberdragon]

We have another live one!


Also, we have...THIS...IT'S AN IMPOSTER! Apparently it's a "Telefunken XM1000 numerical indicator"


And apparently they were used in a few machines, such as telescopes.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/spacelama/2351317227