HOWTO build a nixie clock from near-scratch

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Has anyone started manufacturing new nixie tubes for the hobby market yet? Last I heard, they hadn’t been produced in decades and the prices of remaining stock have been skyrocketing as the hobbyist demand increases. Really a shame for anyone hoping to use them in a reasonably-priced project.

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There is a fellow in Poland who is starting to make his version of the Z568M tube, which is a large tube with good number shapes. He will probably charge over $100 each for the tubes. He has only made a few tubes at this time, but he is setting up to produce hundreds.

The NeoNixie list on Google has more information.

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This clock is very similar in size, shape and circuitry to one I designed in 2001. I sold it without a case, so that people could stick it in whatever piece of driftwood or old walnut cabinet they could come up with. The only one I have left, I put in a rackmount case with a rubidium time source.

I’m glad to see that it’s being offered as DIY instructions rather than as a kit, to get people thinking about doing all the fabrication work themselves. It’s a good way to pass some spare time.

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Once you have that its just a digital clock project.

About 35 years ago I built a dart game scorer for my dad’s Legion club using Nixies, a Touch-tone pad and CMOS logic. Still works great. Who knew I was ahead of the hipster trend? Nixie power schematic if anyone is interested: http://i.imgur.com/czDT7e4.jpg

There are a couple of good Arduino-based kit for making Nixie clocks for sale at: http://www.arduinix.com/

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