开云体育

All right, all right, NOT the best wording choice for a message title! :) I'm referring to the use of miniature neon bulbs and such for the purpose of creating a colon SIGN (:) to separate the pairs of tubes corresponding to hours, minutes and seconds on our clocks. After a few years (yeah, that bad), I'm finally coming to terms into finishing the case for my first clock, Tubehobby's IN-18 kit. Inasmuch as I like shiny metal cases best, I realized that a clock without a case is a sad clock, and worse than having a clock with a less-than perfect case is not having a clock at all. So, for the time being, I settled for a wooden box. Now, I like every aspect from the Tubehobby kit, except that, in my opinion, they left little phisical space between the pairs of tubes, to the extent that an onlooker may have the impression that it is not a clock but some kind of seconds counter. So... colon signs would alleviate that problem. What are the best bulbs to be squeezed in that position? I've heard of people removing small neon bulbs from old-timey camera flashes, but I'd have to find four identical flashes to draw from. I've also seen pictures of inverted small "laboratory tubes" or other types of assemblies being used to hold the bulbs in place. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this, also from other Tubehobby kit owners. Cheers, Marco

Again a $1 auction: 330466882734 Dieter

Hi Group. I have designed a PCB around Hans' Nixie multimeter design : http://kortlink.dk/roehrenkramladen/83b7 The PCB works just nicely, just been mounted on my newly aquired switch mode power supply, but i am having problems with the tubes. I am using IN8-2 tubes, and have grounded the decimal point on the middle one to make the denoter of XX.X volts. The problem i have - the transformer i selected for my power supply board for the tubes etc. is only putting out 165V DC after rectification, and that seems a bit low. The lighted cathodes in the tube steal the current from the decimal dot, so it goes out sometimes... Any good ideas of what i can do ? A capacitor-diode doubler circuit seems a bit overkill, since i will be getting a voltage that is too high... Maybe i need to redesign the power supply PCB layout ? I have a proposed PCB layout here: http://gallery.zapro.dk/index.php?album=Nixie+Panel+Meter&image=psu.png I have thought about two small PCB transformers, back to back to get around 230V to the tubes instead. I just had a bunch of these nice PCB transformers laying around from an Natural Gas furnace, with a 170V (unloaded) secondary and a 18V one too. I know that putting a resistor on each cathode on the nixie would possibly solve the problem, but im not going to make new PCB's again (already on revision 2, since i swapped all connections on the nixies (0 to 9 etc :-O - dangerous stuff when you design two pcb's apart, haha) TIA. // Per.

How would ebay item 180516094665 work out as a clock in someone's house. Nope, No nixie, but unique. Michail

Everything in our camp is solar powered. Of course, someone in the next camp over always parks their RV with its generator facing us. I'm bringing SatanVision, a big LED television that I built last year from surplus red LED modules. http://www.cathodecorner.com/satanvision/ We also made our Prius into an art car. It's not solar powered. http://www.selectric.org/10main/nautilus2.jpg If I were into Tesla coils, I'd bring a big one. But I'm not. -- David Forbes, Tucson AZ http://www.cathodecorner.com/

Burning Man ! That's something I gotta go to before I keel over: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_Man http://www.burningman.com/ One of the regular trio, to the TRW Swapmeet (tomorrow 8-28), Gary, goes there every year. He and Westdave go back a long way (hair still on the top of their heads, and none on their backs). From how Gary describes it, and from his videos and photos, its best described as a collision between Madri Gras and a maker faire, but on a heavy duty scale. If you're dragging something technical up there (other than one of your nixie watches), it'll probably need a diesel generator to power it. Hey, wasn't there one of those on eBay, lately ?

Here are a couple of photos from a book about the Rand Corporations early use of computers. One shows Johnivac, the only computer to use RCA's Selectron memory tubes (as opposed to common 'Selectron brand' radio tubes, made by RCA). The other shows an analog computer in use. Note the circled item on the floor. I have much more respect for Rand, after seeing that one. http://a.imageshack.us/img686/3238/rand02.jpg http://a.imageshack.us/img830/1180/rand01.jpg Here are a couple of links on analog computers and Selectron memory tubes if catches your interest: http://www.analogcomputermuseum.org/ http://www.rcaselectron.com/ Enjoy

I'm sure many in the group are aware of the incredible bargain Texas Instruments is currently offering on their MSP430 Launchpad development board. Were that I an accomplished programmer - especially in C which is the language the TI compiler uses. Has anyone in the group developed a nixie or VFD clock with the MSP430 as its heart? Does the MSP430 lend itself to a project such as a clock? Joe

Hi: Any experience with these? I'm considering getting a few, to make a 4-digit HH:MM and getting 2 smaller less costly numitrons for SS in a 6-digit clock. Can anyone vouch for their longevity?

I had a working one tube counter, a simple 0-9. I was using the Basic Stamp board. I moved to a Picaxe 08M, and now, it won't count past 7. I goes 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7, dark, dark, 0,1,2,3,4... Anyone have any experience with the 74141 TTL chips and microcontrollers? Did I leave something tiny, but important out? I have the four output pins of the 08M, going directly to the 1,8,2,4 inputs of the 74141 ( and yes I made sure about 12 times that the outs and ins all correspond.. No caps, no resistors except on the HV input on the tube.. I looked at it enough so I know that 8, and 9 are the only two digits that involve pin 4 (binary input 8) going high. I have tested this on three different microcontrollers, and still nothing. Anyone have any TTL experience that may have a suggestion? Thanks Shane

Hi, I have added the project description of a clock which uses analog meters to display the time. A bit off-topic, and not really anything very original, but a nice small project for a rainy Sunday afternoon to give your old meters a useful second life. Ronald

The kit site http://www.techkits.com/ got a call-out in Nuts and Volts magazine in the TECHknowledgey column.

Does anyone have any experience creating or using an IN-12 in eaglecad? I found the russian-nixies.lbr which includes an IN-12 part and claims to be compatible with the SK-136 socket..I'm skeptical, though. Can anyone verify? Also, is there a different or "better" way that anyone can suggest? I've seen people recommend mil-max pins for various parts (especially IN-8's), anyone done this with IN-12's (and hopefully have a library to share?). Thanks. -Adam

I need to use an AC power transformer rated at 2 amps at 12 v for a clock. After full wave rectification and filtering the voltage unloaded climbs to ~20 volts. I need 16 volts DC to get enough current out from my HV Nixie switch mode supply and 5 volts DC for the clock logic. My question is: can I use a L200CV adjustable regulator for the 16 volts and then feed the regulated 16 volts to another fixed 5v regulator? Will the current draw from the adjustable 200CV regulator be too much or would I be better off using two bridge rectifiers and feed the two regulators separately??? I will be using 6 B7971 tubes in one clock and 6 IN-8 tubes for another clock. Thanks for the help since I am a novice at this.

stupid, I forgot the link! www.dos4ever.com/Eug/Eug.html <http://www.dos4ever.com/Eug/Eug.html> Ronald

Hello. I am still enhancing my nixie clock firmware, which now handles 4 and 6 tubes, decimal dots (with many effects) and more. I'll post a link, pictures and videos once I get everything running, but it looks promising so far :) While adding an IR receiver, I am facing a weird issue. The tubes are multiplexed, there are 3 anode drivers. The high voltage is controlled by the PIC18. The IR receiver (a TSOPxx model) is hooked to an interrupt pin (RB1 here), and software does the decoding. Everything works fine when high voltage is off, or when the tubes are driven with low brightness. When brightness is medium or high, my code doesn't work anymore. Of course, I did some debug effort, and used the scope to discover that I am seeing spurious interrupts when the switch from one pair of tubes to the other pair occurs. One can see the scope trace here : http://www.vecoven.com/tmp/oscillo1.jpg <http://www.vecoven.com/tmp/oscillo1.jpg> The yellow trace is the interrupt line. It should be flat at 5V. The signal goes low enough to generate an interrupt. With low brightness, the same signal is there, but it doesn't drop low enough to cause the interrupt. The blue line is the +5V rail. Notice the 200mV scale, the +5 is very stable. The TSOPxx is wired as suggested in the datasheets (through a 100ohm resistor, and a 4.7uF cap). There is 470uF low-ESR near the inductor in my power supply, and 47uF behind the 7805 regulator (and several 100nF). The spurious interrupt occurs when the pair of tubes is changed. Too bad my scope has only 2 traces, but if I look at the anode driver pin using the blue trace, I can see the 0->1 transition occurring just after the interrupt is generated (a few ns after the yellow signal is at its lowest position). I tried adding more decoupling, but that didn't help. Does anybody have a suggestion ? I know how I can solve this in software (detect the first interrupt, check later if it's a valid one, and if yes, stop the multiplexing until the IR command is received), but I would like to understand why I am seeing this ! Cheers, -Frederic

UK documentary by James May featuring David's nixie watch. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0xamRXGe1E Apologies if this has been posted before. Vacuum? Filaments? What can he be talking about? John S

Hi: I'm shifting into CRT and dekatron mode now that I've bought too many Nixies. I put in an order for a CRT today with Sphere Research, and they told me that someone recently made off with their entire stock of Apollo/ITT DA2110 numitrons. Anyone here want to fess up? Just wondering what someone is planning to do with all those. I'm fascinated mainly by Nixies and CRTs, with VFDs in third. Unfortunately, I seem to have recently gotten bitten by interest in dekatrons. But occasionally I consider buying a handful of numitrons just to make a numitron clock for the sake of "completeness." So far I've only added a single numitron to my collection, just to see what it looks like up close. It doesn't help that most of the available ones are very small. Thus, the Russian IV-13 is very interesting, but the price is too high to buy a set (and replacements) "just for completeness." Good day!

I would like to use these sockets for the IN-8 Nixie tubes (http://www.tube-tester.com/pic/eby/cont/data-IN-8%20soc-engl.pdf) with the under mount LEDS to light the bases of the Nixie tubes and Neonixie's (Moses") 6D controller chip. Schematic can be seen here: http://www.allspectrum.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=501 If I tap the 5 volt supply from the logic circuit and use a a 62 ohm resistor for each LED anode that will limit the current to ~19 mA. Can you tell me what output pin on the controller will keep the 6 LEDS powered on only when the display is lit and off for timed DIM (I keep display off for 6 hours/day). A 2N222 switching transistor can be used to switch on the display from the controller. What value base resistor would you use? The collector goes to the LED common cathodes and the emitter goes to ground. Is this the correct way to turn on the tube LEDS?

Just noticed your link changed in your post. It is supposed to be a T at the end, instead of a slash T. Major thing I just noticed..... All my tubes have always had the CCCP logo on the back. Your tube(s) does not. Michail Wilson 206-920-6312 In a message dated 8/13/2010 10:31:26 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, crobc@... writes: Photos are located in "Photos|figureloop": Member: figureloop