***Official Electronics Thread of Officialness (it starts off with lots of Nixie Tube Clock goodness

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Right, i need to get back into this. How hard do you reckon it would be to make something like this:

jBihu.png

Where the iron is an Antex XS25W (or similar) that comes without a mains cable, wired straight into something similar to one of those 'soldering iron dimmer switch' mods which then goes to the mains.
 
PermaBanned said:
Right, i need to get back into this. How hard do you reckon it would be to make something like this:

jBihu.png

Where the iron is an Antex XS25W (or similar) that comes without a mains cable, wired straight into something similar to one of those 'soldering iron dimmer switch' mods which then goes to the mains.
Click to expand...

probably quite a lot harder then it would be to simply buy an adjustable Iron on its own? :p :D
 
I've never owned or felt the need for a variable temperature iron and I reckon that after over 35 years of soldering that if I didn't need one before, I probably don't need one now.
 
I posted it earlier in the thread, I've got a Weller PU-3D station. It's temperature controlled but not variable temperature and they seem to go from time to time on eBay for around £30 or less. I find that tip selection is the most important thing.
 
does it do that when the clock's in the diagnostic "cycle all tubes" mode when it's first powered on? are all the tube-leads correctly soldered? are there any shorts you can see on the board?

Sorry you're having trouble :(
 
The default mode is to show the date every minute and so it's cycling the display into date mode for five seconds, hence changing the seconds to 11 for 2011 so don't panic, there's nothing wrong with it!

Did you fit the switches to the board? I found that until I installed all the switches that my tubes were in the diagnostic cycle mode but as soon as I put the switches on the board, the clock started running. Somehow yours has dropped into clock mode rather than the diagnostics.
 
I may have to buy a kit from PV and some tubes from ebay.

It's identical to the above kit apparently but a different pitch for the tubes on the PCB, as they need to be socketed rather than soldered in :)

[EDIT] Just ordered it :D
 
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Feek said:
The default mode is to show the date every minute and so it's cycling the display into date mode for five seconds, hence changing the seconds to 11 for 2011 so don't panic, there's nothing wrong with it!

Did you fit the switches to the board? I found that until I installed all the switches that my tubes were in the diagnostic cycle mode but as soon as I put the switches on the board, the clock started running. Somehow yours has dropped into clock mode rather than the diagnostics.
Click to expand...
Ah, of course, the date-display! I completely turned mine off so i didn't remember it came on between 50 to 55 seconds :)

I found that the clock comes out of diagnostic mode when the set button is pressed. if you turn the clock off for long enough for the Supercap to fully drain then it'll go back into diagnostic mode. :D

sHo0sH said:
Would IV-12 tubes work with a IN-12 kit? They are so much cheaper!
Click to expand...
No, IN-12's are Nixies, needing one cathode to be grounded to display a digit. the IV-12 is a seven-segment Vacuum-Fluorescent display needing multiple cathodes to be simultaneously connected to display a digit.

There may be IV-12 kits somewhere. here's one; http://nixiekits.eu/ (IV-12 "Jenny")

taliesyn said:
I suspect the same thing will befall me once (and if lol) I manage to get this one up and running :)

I went for the IN-8 kit, some socket pins, and will be ordering the tubes in a second :D
Click to expand...

Sweet! i expect build log with photos! :D
 
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