Don't think this is a bug per se, but wondering if there is anything I can do or check to improve performance.

Periodically, and I haven't isolated the exact cause(s) yet, my displays will go blank. Save game loads are typical though not necessarily repeatable time, but I'm pretty sure it's happened in normal play too. My displays using the actual Tubes seem ok, it is mostly happening in the reinforced version, specifically the 2 character displays. (Come to think of it, I'm not sure I've actually used a single character reinforced version yet.) Eventually, with no interaction, they do come back so it isn't a major issue for me. More of a curiosity question around is it something I'm doing/hitting a performance limit or if it IS some kind of bug.

Thanks

I never encountered this (and I use them quite a bit)... Can you upload a save game? Maybe I can find something unusual... You can upload it to the github page or to wetransfer.com if it's too big to fit on github.

I'll try and get a save a little later if/when it happens next, but if I don't see it soonish, I'll just send you a copy of my base file. Would you like it with or without Transport Drones? I'm working on a split with it disabled right now since I can't get into my main save with the 0.18.37 update as it crashes during the file load. I'm pretty sure the first time I saw it was before I installed it so fairly certain it isn't a conflict there, but the last time I saw it, it was installed...get you the full picture and all that.

PS. I haven't seen it happen in 0.18.37 yet. Don't know if that is coincidence or the intermittent nature of it (haven't played long enough) or something they actually changed.

Just posted to the Github page.

As said on github, feel free to make a new post when you can reproduce it.

Still haven't "reproduced it" but it happened again...it was working fine, I walked over to my copper processing area and setup some LTN stations for a new configuration I'm trying, walked back and the displays were blank. I also noticed that my power usage had spiked due to some other changes and I was massively under producing. I'm leaning to a simple power supply problem since one of my 2 "garages" seems to have come back after I setup a small solar array to power it separate from the main grid. I'm not sure though as the changes causing the spike had been done for some time (I just hadn't noticed yet), I'm 99% positive that the grid was fine the first time I saw it (but I have missed fast spikes in the past), and the the regular Nixie Tube displays are (were...2 of them have dropped while writing this) working fine. I made a copy of the save file as soon as it happened, though I haven't tried reloading it yet to see it it will persist in a "diagnosable" fashion. I'm also still playing with some things to see if I can better determine more specifically what may have caused it if it wasn't the power as I was working on several things.

What do you think, probably the power? Worth exploring a possible issue with LTN?

The power issue could explain it. When power is too low for combinators to operate properly, that's when the nixies will also stop working (source):

      if nixie.energy >= 50 then
        -- new_state is a string of the new state (see stateDisplay)
        parameters.parameters.operation = stateDisplay[new_state]

      else
        if parameters.parameters.operation ~= stateDisplay["off"] then
          parameters.parameters.operation = stateDisplay["off"]
        end
      end

Since the power draw of the nixies is limited, it might take a second before they turn back on, and they will only turn on when the signal codition is changes, so when it changes the value to be displayed. That's why they might appear as if they stopped working completely.

I could set it to a condition such that it will update and starts working again once it has enough power again, but then it will look like it's flickering on and off when you are having power issues. I'm not sure..

That's a tough one. I see the value in both ways. The way it works now, you don't get the flickering which has definite value. On the other hand, I've used the flickering (of lamps) as a sort of unintended indicator of my power production levels...things start flickering, I know there's a problem. And I'll usually notice the flickering before I notice say an inserter slowing down...of course that is with lamps and I have a lot more of them around the base. Not sure that would be as useful a "feature" for the Nixie Tubes. In either case, now that I know that is what is happening (or seems to be) when I see it I know what to look for. Thanks!