Neon lights - Not just for night lights

It's easy to see why LEDs have won out over neon bulbs for night light applications. But for all the practical usefulness of LEDs, they vastly lack in at least one aspect compared to their older indicator cousins: charm. Where LEDs are cold and flat, the soft orange glow of a neon light brings a lot to the aesthetic party, especially in retro builds.

But looks aren't the only thing these little incandescent lights have going for them, and [David Lovett] shows off some of the surprising alternative uses for neon lights in his new video. It begins with an exploration of the venerable NE-2 bulb, which has been around forever, detailing some of its interesting electrical properties, such as the difference between the voltage needed to start the neon discharge and the voltage needed to sustain it. It also shows some cool tricks with neon lights, like using them for all sorts of multi-vibrator circuits with nothing but a few resistors and capacitors added. The real fun starts when he pulls out the MTX90 tube, which is basically a cold cathode. thyratron. Adding a simple control grid makes some circuits interesting, like single-tube multi-vibrators.

The result of all these experiments is pretty clear to anyone following [David's] channel, which is full of unconventional uses of vacuum tubes. His efforts to build a "hollow state" computer would be greatly aided by neon light circuits like these - not to mention how cool they would make everything look.