Yes, as everyone else has already said, it's absolutely
required that a nixie tube has a series resistor!
This is usually put in series with the anode (positive)
lead.
They will be wrecked in very short (pardon the pun) order
without such a resistor.
On one of my 175 volt DC power supplies, I have a 20 position
barrier strip to which are screwed several resistors ranging
from around 10k up to 47k or so.
The tiny little tubes such as NL5853 will glow fairly well
using the 47k or maybe 33k.
More standard sized tubes such as NL941 glow nicely with
around 20k to 15k.
Some of the larger tubes need down around 10k or so.
But, do go by what David Forbes says about current.
You will find that my ballpark resistance values do tend
to agree with David's specified currents.
Chuck
[Shine quite bright...the understatement of the year 2009...]
:P
nixies shine quite bright, so I wonder if I should be using some
resistor (and, if so, what value) in series with the anode to avoid
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