A modern nixie tube clock of great ambition, regrettably IoTed

boing
63

Hah. :slight_smile: I programmed it with a bunch of different modes:

  • Temperature (F) mode
  • Temperature © mode
  • Barometer mode (because why the hell not)
  • Counter mode (where it cycles from 000-999)
  • Random number mode (I call this “prop mode”)

It just so happened at the time I took that picture I had it in cycle mode. The decimal point is permanently powered although I may change this in the future.

More background in case anybody cares. My project is using an Arduino Micro as its MCU (although I’ll probably change it to a bare ATmega328 when it’s all done). I have 3 chained 75HC595 shift registers handling signalling to the 3 74141 BCD decoders that handle the tubes’ numeric output. There’s 3 Neopixels underneath the tubes as well as the aforementioned MPL3115A2 weather sensor all being driven over the I2C bus. A separate 12V to 160V boost converter handles lighting up the nixie tubes.

I’ve transferred the PSU components to a permanent board but I still a long way to do go actually complete the project. The big thing I need to do is build a case for it which I plan to laser cut out of clear acrylic. I need to permanently mount the rest of the components to their own board and of course I have to add a bunch of blinkenlights along the I/O paths just because it will look damn cool. I’ve had basically zero time over the past year to invest in this but once I do finally finish it I’ll be sure to post pictures to the crafty thread here.

2 Likes
64

(I think this might actually be IO Ted.)

65

Nonononononono!

Only glass panes joined by soldered brass will do for a project this magnificent!

:smile:

66

I once bought such thing at local military sulprus store:

20170509_104541.jpg1672×1536 1.49 MB

It has three Japanese nixie tubes and lots of small lightbulbs. It doesn’t have enough tubes to make a good clock, but something like that would look cool in your project :slight_smile:

I can’t find any info about it on the internet, but part number on the front is PC7939\2 F and 490-FAU-289 on the back side.

1 Like
67

That’s a pretty neat find. Those look like IN12 tubes.

68

And it was only 3$ :slight_smile:

I have frequency counter with 8 IN12 tubes and these are very similar. The type is Rodan CD43.

1 Like
69

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