Even though we have our filament driver, we need a way to drive the grids and segments, too... this is where this page comes in, to help with driving that part of the display.
We will need a higher voltage supply, between 40 and 70 volts, to actually drive the display if it is multiplexed. If it is not, we are fine with 12 to 20 volts. This page will cover multiplexed displays though, so we will use the higher voltage.
We will use a special IC here — the UDN6118A. This is a source driver specifically designed for VFDs. Logic signals go in one side, and high voltage signals come out the other.
The VFD grids and segments both go to their own separate driver. We can use a microcontroller, such as an Arduino, to control the VFD now, and if we want to reduce the number of pins used, we can use a decoder IC to output seven-segment data from binary.
The diagram for the setup is below.
Note this only takes an active-high input. Active-low inputs would need inverted. Also use caution not to short the grid and segment voltage with the filament pins — this will burn out the display!