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Open Source Russian Vacuum Fluorescent Tube Clock
ptorrone writes "Hacker extraordinaire Ladyada (whose open source hardware projects we have discussed before) has just published a complete how-to, with design document, on making your own open source Russian vacuum fluorescent clock. The vacuum fluorescent tubes aren't as dangerous as (high-voltage) Nixie tubes, and there seem to be more of them available in the world. If you're not interested in building a clock from scratch, you can also pick up a kit version. All the schematics, source code, and files are available on the project's page."
Because most people don't the skills needed to actually build it. Go back to your corner.
Sigs? We don't need no steekin Sigs!
A long time ago I redirected my child interest in destroying and rebuilding electronics to tinkering with virtual constructs.
So I shouldn't be interested in "hardware hacking"; however, too many hours of fallout, too many zombie movies and too many post apocaliptic novels have given me a degree of interest in that part of the engineering poetry.
Time to go find an open source rifle made from old car parts.
IMHO this has more geek points.
Here's a gadget that is cool (from a geek point of view), that you can make yourself (provided you have the skills, you should as a geek), that makes other geeks go "ooooooh" in envy and awe, that glows in flurescent blue (that by itself is already enough) and you dismiss it as something you wouldn't want.
Please drop your geek card in the shredder by the door on your way out, will ya?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Truth is, how much simpler can electronics (and programming) get than a clock ... The basic "algorithm" once you get your reference frequency low enough (... generally 1 Hertz) is -> divide by 60 = seconds, divide by 60 = minutes, divide by 12 (or 24 if you prefer) = hours. Using a micro, you put the divides in an interrupt routine. You can chose to display at the end of the interrupt, or in the main loop.
... couldn't even make the case for that in any western country.)
I have seen (smart) 12 year olds build digital clocks using the relevant TTL/CMOS dividers, with the displays being either LED or Nixie tubes. (The difference between LED or Nixie is in the type of display driver chip.)
However, I wish the authors well. Don't see many people building anything electronic these days, probably because the price of consumer electronics is way lower than the price of just the parts! (IE: DVD player for under $20 is just one common item
That's not retro; it has a CPU in it. Look at this all vacuum tube digital clock where all the logic is tubes. 103 tubes.