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Build A Nixie Tube Clock
J Aldridge writes: "People are still using Nixie tubes. Their warm glow seems to be the digital equivalent of the warm sound of vacuum amplifiers. One person has constructed a tube wristwatch."
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reminds me of the Navy days...
The coolest looking nixie tube based clocks I've seen on the web are these over at World Power Systems.
(Be sure to check out the Story Teller if you go to that site - extremely cool!)
I used to date a girl whose fathers father worked for some government contract oufit (can't remember off the top of my head). He was part of the program to build the first digital clock. So, his team managed to do it and for about $60K in parts they built a clock that was slightly smaller than your desktop computers and used the nixie tubes for the display. This was by far the coolest clock I have ever seen, and probably ever will see. The girls dad ended up giving me the clock because of my fascination (and even he wasnt supposed to have it, funny story behind that for a later date) and the girl took it when we split up. One of those things I will never get over, but these clocks are so incredibly cool. I'm definitely not a compotent electrical engineer type person but would definitely consider buying one if anyone is in the building market.
Dacels Jewelers can't be trusted.
"Warning! As this design uses a transformerless power supply, the whole circuit is at mains potential. Disconnect before making any adjustments etc.
If you need to use an oscilloscope for debugging, the circuit MUST be operated through an isolating transformer."
As cool as this looks (yet still too much for me to tinker with), just this warning would put me off. One small error at 340V could be an, ahh, inconvience! And I didn't see any mention of what type of currents are running. Crispy!
But seriously, having the rough equivalent of neon tubes for "UK£10/US$15 (excluding nixies)" would be neat. But considering that my lab group for EE201 blew out every circuit/component we tried to build in lab, I wouldn't trust myself with a soldering iron on anything more dangerous than an unplugged PCB board.
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
Isn't life odd?
:)
Of all the obscure things to hit me twice in one day!
A friend of mine has a page up detailing exactly this.
He's a valve lover, not a web designer, but he has lots of pictures, and would love feedback!
His main page is here.
Prisoner #655321
Wow, those nixie clocks bring back some fond memories. I always wanted to build a nixie project, but as a novice hardware hacker, couldn't even read the hookup schematic. Now, a little older, wiser, and with the help of these kits maybe I'll finally build one.
However, while browsing some of the associated links, I came across this clock, which I find even cooler:
http://www.cathodecorner.com/
It uses an oscilloscope tube to draw the time in green phosphor arcs - no pixels. Way cool! And a kit is available with a guts-on-display plexiglass case. Awesome...
--Jim
Oh, sheesh ... a minute and a half with Google turned up the following if you really want to see the circuit.
f _asci2.htm
http://margo.student.utwente.nl/el/misc/text_cir/
Warning, this circuit Really Is Dangerous.
I don't mean to be nit picky, but I question the qualifications of the person who designed that circuit. First off, there is no reason not to isolate the power supply from the main line. It doesn't add much cost, and the safety is well worth it. Especially on home built projects, it's already easy enough to shock yourself or start a fire (don't ask...I have done either too many times...) Second, there is also no reason to use the frequency of the mains to drive the circuit. Any one who has ever looked into that has noticed that the mains frequency varies quite a lot over time. Isolating the circuit and using an updated digital circuit or even a small micro-controller (PIC or 8x51) you could build a better, more accurate clock with more features for cheaper. I might even design one myself, put my EE degree to use...
The idea dates from around 1915--there were several patents for similar
cold-cathode gas display devices before WWII.
National Union made such numeric displays around 1940,
the GI series tubes used bent wires to form numerals and
had large 9-pin bases.
The Haydu Brothers Co. developed what we call Nixies today
circa 1947/48--
Burroughs bought the Haydus out in 1952, making all their
display tubes (and their complex "Trochotron" counter tubes)
into Burroughs products. After Burroughs
was absorbed by Unisys, tube manufacture ceased--however,
companies such as Richardson/National and Philips were making
Nixies well into the 1980s. Richardson still has the special
tooling to make them, and could make more if demand
appears. Prices for NOS Nixies are rising, because so many people
are building clocks and fooling with old test equipment....
--Eric Barbour
VACUUM TUBE VALLEY magazine
(www.vacuumtube.com)
In Europe the frequency actually can not deviate too much from 50 Hz, because all generators are locked into this frequency (if the frequency of one generator would be different an enormous current would flow from the other plants into this generator and it would most probably blow up). This system is used to cover peak loads:
When a large load is applied to the grid, the frequency drops slightly and all generators in Europe deliver extra power to compensate for this (i.e. keep the frequency at 50 Hz), this is called frequency compensation.
If the load persists longer, the plant/country/company responsible for the load increases its power output (thereby raising its frequency) to make sure the cost of this load is directed to the proper plant (power compensation).
Due to the inertia of the entire European powergrid most of these frequency changes are no more than microHertzes, even when applying loads of megawatts.
Just putting my "Process control in high-power electrical systems" course to use, I'm not an enormous expert in this field, and this course was a few years ago (my field is optical communications)..
I've seen the odd Bally machine that used the neon displays for scoring. Said displays are called 'PanaPlex,' and they were originally developed by Burroughs Corp.
They're kind of interesting in that they're nothing more than complex neon lamps. They consist of metal segments, laid out in the pattern of a seven or fifteen-segment display, sealed in a glass enclosure that contains (of course) neon. Apply about +130VDC to the common anode, and then ground the appropriate lead for the segment that you want to light up.
I don't see them much any more, at least not in pinball machines. The reason, I think, is that PanaPlex displays did not stand up to vibration and shock particularly well, and pinball machines dispense both in generous quantity.
For trivia buffs: There was one other type of vacuum display tube made that consisted of individual incandescent filaments, in the familiar seven-segment pattern, sealed into what looked for all the world like a standard miniature tube envelope. I don't recall who made them, but their trade name was 'Numitron.'
Anyone remember any more about them? The BART system in the Bay Area (California) had loads of them in their old ticket machines and other digital readouts, such as those used on the station agent consoles.
Bruce Lane, KC7GR,
Blue Feather Technologies
Yes, technologically, Nixies & related are a pain to interface to +5V CMOS logic, but that's not the point. LCDs are clearly superior in sooo many ways, but they are... well, boring.
... fun.
Pretty much all instrumentation these days looks the same, membrane switch, LCDs, a few LEDs, a pile of nifty software, an order-of-magnitude more accurate than the previous model, runs on a AA cell for 2 years until you throw it out.
However, our lovely bodies are physical, and they like being enticed with 'interface' (sic) that connects with more than just yore brane. You can *touch* nixies, the glass is nice to touch, and so are heavy bakelite knobs, switches you can *feel* change state.... Nixie digits jump around. The orange color works well with your eyes. There's no blinky multiplex updates to dazzle.
In general, pre-photomicrolithography electronic stuff was more fun to touch and use (though largely sucked when it came to power consumption, reliability, size, heat output, portability, ad nauseum) as is quite obvious.
A Tektronix scope is an excellent example of technology and interface design and of paradigms lost -- they use first-principle physics (the cathode ray tube is more than just a display, it's an integral measurement component), a mixture of solid-state and state-of-the-art electron tubes, analog computing components (verniers), big clicky knobs, coded by color, size, shape and placement, nice colors and shape, a manual that contains data and meta-data (operating, maintenance, design! and curious gratuitous cartoon graphic characters walking along signal paths...) Like other targetd instrumentation, it embodied and defined a culture of use that was far more
But performance-wise, my TDS-220 software'n'LCD 100MHz BW gigasample scope, the size of an old table radio, is incomparable. It's a pretty amazing contrast for only 30 years of development.
But now we get the best of both worlds (sic), teensy micros under the nice part of the old stuff. I think it's a pretty normal development, culturally, this re-use of the "outsides" of old equipment to achieve a revisionist view.
Interface is always where the interesting stuff is.
The best nixie and 'scope clock technology out there today, is hands-down, David's (http://www.cathodecorner.com), surface mount, AC power line isolation, small, low-power, software driven, switcher HV supply, reasonable price (no I get no kickback frmo his sales).
I wrote a brief history of nixie and decimal tube history here: http://wps.com/texts/decimal-tubes/index.html, nothing exhaustive, but a good start.
For home-brew, a transformer/diode bridge/series regulator with zener is somewhat crude, but easy to make, reliable, and reasonably low power. For a transformer I use a Thordarson-Meissner # 26R60 transformer from Allied Electronics (web order) around $19 each (provides 6.3V and 150V outputs). This is no where near as elegant as David's but for one-off it's fine.
I too make clocks (http://wps.com/products) but I'm not in the clock business per se, mine are simply art (more accurately craft) objects, though I'll make more. My emphasis is more on a functional, tactile artifact, a Nice Thing to hold and use. I've only made a half dozen so far, I've got another half-dozen in the works. After I use up my stock of PCBs I'll end up buying guts from David, it's a much better design.