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Nixie Tube Clock — Parallax Forums

Nixie Tube Clock

DigitalBobDigitalBob Posts: 1,513
in General Discussion
My son bought me this cool nixie clock as a gift for Arduino. I have to figure out how to pin this in and get it to work with the Prop and BS2.
Nixie Clock.jpg
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Comments

  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2018-09-19 16:51
    That is cool. A bit late mind, I built my Nixie clock using TTL chips in 1971.

    I always though adding blue LEDs to a Nixie display was a bit of a naff hipster gimmick. Not in the spirit of things.

    Recently I found out there might be a very good reason for it.

    It is suggested that Nixies might not start their gas discharge when voltage is applied without a bit of help from stray photons in the environment. Nixes were even made with some radio active stuff inside that gave them a kick in the dark and got them to light up.

    This was never a problem for my Nixie clock back in the day, where every tube had it's own driver, but perhaps when multiplexing the Nixie drive at speed it is.

    See here:



    I have some Nixie tubes here. This calls for an experiment...





  • tomcrawfordtomcrawford Posts: 1,126
    They aren't just blue (the LEDs, that is). They are RGB and the colors vary according to an algorithm I haven't figured out yet. It is pretty cool.

    Edit: I take it back; they might be just blue on Bob's. I see now that mine is from a different vendor.

  • DigitalBobDigitalBob Posts: 1,513
    I built it from a kit my son bought for me. It's also has a temp. readout, gps, etc. The tubes are driven from HV5122 on the cathode. 180 VDC supply on the anode. I tried to view your video but it won't load.
  • David BetzDavid Betz Posts: 14,516
    DigitalBob wrote: »
    My son bought me this cool nixie clock as a gift for Arduino. I have to figure out how to pin this in and get it to work with the Prop and BS2.
    I wonder if this would work with the Propeller ASC+?
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2018-09-19 21:07
    @tomcrawford,
    They are RGB and the colors vary according to an algorithm I haven't figured out yet. It is pretty cool.
    I'm sorry but I'm old skool.

    If you are going to use a Nixie display then use a Nixie display. These things are beautiful enough already. They don't need a cheapskate LED light show.

    @DigitalBob

    Really? What is up with that? It's just a link to a regular Youtube video.
  • YanomaniYanomani Posts: 1,524
    edited 2018-09-19 22:56
    Heater. wrote: »

    Really? What is up with that? It's just a link to a regular Youtube video.

    As per one of Peter Jakacki's tips, on another thread (I don't found/remember where, ATM), try removing the "s" part of the "https" link address.

    I believe it has to do with changing from one country to another, when linking, but I'm not sure. It worked for me, several times, so it should work for other ones too.

    Henrique
  • DigitalBobDigitalBob Posts: 1,513
    The LED's are RGB when you plug the clock in it boot's up a multicolor light show.
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