Nixie Tube Project

[EEVblog]

So I've got 8 nixie tubes from the mailbag.
What project to do?
Clocks have been done to death.
Several on youtube suggested a multimeter, but, meh.
What else?
A wargames launch code display would be cool, but they only numbers.

[tautech]

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[notsob]

I worked for many years for Burroughs and Nixies were common on the control/diagnostic display of their medium system mainframes. Interesting is that what we now know as hex (ie A - F) were displayed with numbers with a dash on them, known as "undigits". So Dave if you do some searching on Burroughs, you may find something, but more probably do a multiplexed radial display of world solar availability levels

[EEVblog]

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Don't mind that idea.

[jonovid]

Quote from: tautech on Today at 06:36:10 PM
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Don't mind that idea.

use nixie display as part of a multi function rack mounted display unit. use as a movie set backdrop prop in you videos,

[apelly]

I agree with some sort of forum or twitter counter, but:

Requirement	Reason
Runs off batteries, or 5v USB	An interesting power design
WiFi or ethernet	IoT don't you know. Also should demonstrate some practical design
Remote controlled	Public interaction. Should make Hackaday
ARM processor	Not Arduino, and it'd be good to show some code. Also, then you can still turn it into a clock later if you want.
Don't forget a 3d printed case	Isn't it about time you used that printer?
Actually do it	It's also about time you made something for fun.

[cat87]

I have to admit, that  rack mounted  nixie clock with those decade counters that jonovid posted, looks  really sexy.

How about a nixie tube calculator? Talk about retro calculators....       8 digits is a reasonable number  for this.

Whatever you decide to build Dave, I hope it's going to be in the background when you do your Mailbag videos 

[VK5RC]

The nice thing about a clock is you can leave it on and it tells the time, link it to your GPS disciplined oscillator for UTC. I have one in my office and I get lots of positive comments - I do like to look at it for the time more than a boring LCD clock.
Otherwise a GPS based frequency counter?

[Skashkash]

Clocks are OK. You can always add extra bells and whistles to make it a bit different.

You could also do a Geiger counter. Highlights the cold war tech origins.
Get to demonstrate HV power supply designs.

Shows the background radiation in the the shop, and it can double as a random number generator.

[David Hess]

I would prefer something which operates continuously:

1. Power line frequency and voltage monitor.
2. Barometric pressure, temperature, and/or humidity monitor.
3. Status display for a GPSDO.  But status of what?

And of course add in some code to cycle the digits for maximum operating life.

[DaJMasta]

I went the clock route for my last nixie project, but I tossed in some extras: temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure displays too.  If those are IN-12 tubes as mine were, you can get matching tubes with a bunch of symbols (designed for multimeters) and with the right configuration, I could get F (not C or degrees), kPa, %, AM, and PM for the display too.

I actually way overbuilt the design because I wanted to mess around making some i2c slave modules, but it can be hooked up to the computer and used as a generalized display for whatever, and coding in temperature offset (for being inside a box) or daylight savings time is simple enough.



Not super electronicsey since a lot of it was micros, but it was a fun project and it's been a great little display over for the last year.

[rrinker]

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Don't mind that idea.

 You could use a RasPi or whatever else you have laying around as the control for this, to pull the stats and so forth.

[David Hess]

I would say if anyone makes a WS2812-like individually addressable 5V/3.3V Nixie module, I would be very interested in it.

Do you mean where it is serially controlled and only requires a 3.3 to 5 volt supply?  You could do that but then each Nixie module will have its own high voltage converter which is a lot of unnecessary duplication.

I thought it would be neat to use Selectron tubes to make a Nixie like dot matrix character display.

[strawberry]

I will make real time classic ttl discrete solar powered nixie clock and lauch it in space and land it on the moon. and everything will be translated in live youtube video chanel in glory of EEVBlog and engineering.

[jonovid]

I hear the call for independence, racks are torture, why be confined to a steel case. and why not, freedom of movement for the nixies, maybe Iot in the lab, let the people decide  

[karoru]

Several on youtube suggested a multimeter, but, meh.

Maybe not exactly a multimeter, but double-slope ADC? Like in the old days before ICL7016 and so, with integrator, comparator, few decade counters and so on - it just needs a few opamps and 74' logic and it's a nice way to show how a multimeter works on a low level, not "well there's this chip, it takes 0-200 mV and outputs 7-segment" like it's usually done at hobbyist level. There's nice things to show how clever that method is, with many errors canceling out and so on, fundamental whateverday material:)

[strawberry]

nixie calculator? or analog calculator could be good intro in wintage computing
nummeric VU spectral meter
Bulshit counter
mailbag counter

[SaabFAN]

Just a few Ideas thrown around:
- Lux-Meter for the studio-lights
- Frequency Counter (little twist: With Reed-Relays instead of transistors)
- Noise-level meter
- Watt-Meter for your solar-installation - including a counter that shows how many kWh the watt-meter consumed
- And finally some sort of clock: How about a Chess-Clock / Stopwatch? Would look nice in the videos when it runs in the background and tells the viewer how many hours you have spent shooting the footage

[@rt]

Frequency counter with no programmable controller would be cool.

[ludzinc]

You have a uCalc, uCurrent and uSupply.

Time to *THINK BIG*

How about the EEVBlog MEGACALC!

Big cherry keys, mains powered, heavy as heavy and completely impractical.

WIN!

[ludzinc]

A fully discrete 4 banger while your at it too 

[Pjotr]

I'm still interested in a clock. No microcontrollers though please. Clocks are popular for a reason.

Since people have clocks they don't have time any more. And that becomes worse the longer they gaze at those devices  Hopeless!

If you want something else completely useless: A device that displays its own running time or actual life so far in hours. 8 digits should be sufficient up to the next ice age.

Can give a good discussion about what electrolytic caps are suitable   

[jonovid]

Can give a good discussion about what electrolytic caps are suitable   

for HT High Tension = High voltage, your looking at 250Volt electrolytic capacitors specifically for vintage tube radio applications.
however take a look at this http://arduinix.com/   350 Volt 1uF Capacitors.  caution Zappy stuff

[RoadRunner]

i would say network speed monitor showing your upload and down load rate . sorry if this sound stupid

[sahko123]

A frequency counter seems like a cool idea for a project or in my opinion changing an existing instrument to have a nixie tube display.

[Ysjoelfir]

- And finally some sort of clock: How about a Chess-Clock / Stopwatch? Would look nice in the videos when it runs in the background and tells the viewer how many hours you have spent shooting the footage

I would absolutely love this approach. Would be interesting to see how much time it needs to shoot such high class videos.

[JJalling]

Do you mean where it is serially controlled and only requires a 3.3 to 5 volt supply?  You could do that but then each Nixie module will have its own high voltage converter which is a lot of unnecessary duplication.

All SMT construction with 1210 package ultra miniaturized transformer and MHz range switching frequency plus SOT883 transistors and DFN package MCU, I see no reason why it cannot be made small enough to even fit in the base of a Nixie tube.
The benefit of having individual converter and driver is that brightness is not affected by other tubes since they don't share the same HV power supply.
At 1k quantity, a tiny MCU, a 1.5w HV PSU and a 10 channel HV driver can cost less than $10.

Hi, I'm sorry to bring back such an old thread, but your comment poked my interest - it could be a very interesting project.
But do you have an example for such a small transformer, available from any of the larger distributors? Would you use a readily available switching controller, or use the micro for that as well?

BR Jonas