Despite the Zen Nixie Clock runs the Cathode cleaning regularly, there is a small chance the nixie tube will develop cathode poisoning over the years of use. Small cathode poisoning is easy to heal using a built-in healing feature, this page explains how to set the healing.
Light cathode poisoning
This is an example of a healed tube, before and after application of healing for 30 days. This is the ideal scenario, light cathode poisoning – the poisoned segments are still partially glowing. Such a defect will most likely heal in 30 days.
Heavy cathode poisoning
If the light poisoning is not healed, the tubes will most likely eventually develop a more serious form of cathode poisoning. Such poisoning still can be healed, but it might take several months.
Other glow issues
Other issues with the glow that are not caused by cathode poisoning can appear – especially leakage of air into the tube. The symptoms are similar – a partially missing glow. The healing might help to recover the glow, but the chance is much lower than in case of standard cathode poisoning. If the problematic parts are located on the bottom of the digits, it is usually a leakage.
Healing activation
The healing principle is to display the affected digits for prolonged periods of time so they can clean themselves by glowing.
Log in to the configuration website and hit the settings button of your clock first. Then open the Healing tab.
As a first step, test all the digits by clicking the buttons with numbers – hitting the button “1” will display “11:11:11” on the clock. This way you can see all digits clearly and search for poisoning patterns.
In case you find any digits with poisoning patterns, select these in the table below. The clock in the following picture has the leftmost tube set for healing on 6 and 8 and the third tube set for healing on 5,8,9. Click Save digit selection.
Now you can start the healing – first decided whether you want to run the healing all day or just during night mode. When healing is activated, the digits being healed are visible most of the time, so it can be confusing when reading time from the clock. Once you decide, hit Start healing button, the period of healing is set to 30 days – after 30 days, the healing will stop. You can stop the healing anytime by hitting the Stop healing button.
