***Official Electronics Thread of Officialness (it starts off with lots of Nixie Tube Clock goodness
- Thread starter Aod
- Start date
Can some help me please with the Nixie clocks, the guide says and i quote
"Output 12V DC
Minimum power output capability of 250 mA"
My 12v power supply reads
"Output 12v 2.0A"
Is this too many amps for my nixie clock circuit, the guide says "minimum" 0.25mA so does it matter if im putting more amperage through the circuit but the volts are correct at 12.
Dammit should have listened better at uni in our electronics labs as part of my product design course , doh !
I can confirm this for you. You can have any current rating as long as it fulfills the minimum 250mA. Just think of computer power supplies that can output 80A at 12v yet are quite happy just chomping through 10A at idle and less than 1A at standby.
The only potential problem is the regulation of your power supply and how well it can keep 12v, that is if it's important for a Nixie clock. Most of my plug in power supplies at 12v will provide 18v+ with minimal draw. Indeed the 12v power supply I use for my CMoy actually provides 18.6v to the circuit as it's such a low power draw. I'm not quite sure if it's a good or bad thing so will probably use a 24v regulated supply eventually.
@2bit - Thanks for posting that picture of that, whatever it is, it's brightened my day. So old fashioned it looks amazing.
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this looks like quite a cool project
http://benryves.com/journal/3632205
^his code can be found there.
http://benryves.com/journal/3632205
^his code can be found there.
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Deleted member 651465
D
Deleted member 651465
That video of it working freaked me out.
At first I was like "yeah, cool clock".. then I saw the cycling digits and I had a OMGWTFBBQ moment. I could imagine myself looking up at the time and having a seizure!
Epic.
At first I was like "yeah, cool clock".. then I saw the cycling digits and I had a OMGWTFBBQ moment. I could imagine myself looking up at the time and having a seizure!
Epic.
Soldato
- Joined
- 19 Jan 2006
- Posts
- 4,651
Colin is an absolute legend, I liked his MidiVox kit. I can't stand KipKay or the horrible band of trolls that seem to follow him on YouTube.
I'm currently building my second 3D printer, it is called an eMaker Huxley and is a RepRap derivative.
I had to do my first bit of surface mount soldering which was a 28-pin SOIC. It's a FTDI 232 USB to serial bridge, I managed to do it with plenty of flux and a hot iron.
I've had it since August and am making progress on it slowly when I get some free time.
I don't know if any of you are in or around Birmingham but on Wednesday evenings we run a Hackerspace called Fizzpop (http://www.fizzpop.org.uk). I often take this along or my MakerBot and work on it, other people are up to various things such as playing with Arduino's, programming, fixing stuff and just generally playing with bits of tech, it's great fun. This Wednesday we're planning on doing some lockpicking as one of our members is running a little workshop on the topic with us. Fell free to come along if you're in the area (6-10pm).
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This kit was under £300 because it was part of this Indiegogo project: http://www.indiegogo.com/eMAKER-Huxley-3D-printer-kits
I met Jean-Marc, the guy behind this printer at the Newcastle MakerFaire earlier this year and loved his design, he said he was planning to go into production this year. I bough kit #20 when he started the funding project, it started of really slow but then it got onto BoinBoing and went mental.
I too have a makerbot, but its been mothballed for the last 2 years, needs some upgrades I have not had time to do! (number 28 for the record!). I have just bought a nixie clock kit, and plan on lasercutting myself an enclosure for it once built. I'm thinking clear acrylic and mirrored for the rear.
how dpes this
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/613-Piece-Electronic-Component-Starter-Kit-k011-/350462080437
or this
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Electroni...462080437&po=&ps=63&clkid=3393826365911036979
look for sort of starter component kits?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/613-Piece-Electronic-Component-Starter-Kit-k011-/350462080437
or this
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Electroni...462080437&po=&ps=63&clkid=3393826365911036979
look for sort of starter component kits?
The first set seems more geared towards actual stuff you might use in early projects and as it includes a small breadboard this confirms it.
The second set gives you a shed load of components but I feel a lot of them are surplus to requirements for most projects and misses out on so much because of the completeness of it's capacitor range.
The second set gives you a shed load of components but I feel a lot of them are surplus to requirements for most projects and misses out on so much because of the completeness of it's capacitor range.
Ooh, electronics thread! 
I'm currently working on a little servo controller. Version 1 of the project was a way to get myself up to speed with PIC programming because I've been fascinated for a couple of years but never got around to do anything. I decided to jump in at the deep end and bought a little programmer from a well known auction site. The final controller read the position of a three position switch and outputted the pulse width modulated signal to adjust the servo's position to one of three pre-defined positions.
I'm now on to version 2, which will utilise the analogue-to-digital converter on the chip. A pot will adjust the voltage on one of the pins and the chip will convert the voltage to a specific pulse length. This will let me use the servo in an analogue fashion, which is much better. I've found a nice slider pot with a centre detent which I can use as the control pot.
I'm currently working on a little servo controller. Version 1 of the project was a way to get myself up to speed with PIC programming because I've been fascinated for a couple of years but never got around to do anything. I decided to jump in at the deep end and bought a little programmer from a well known auction site. The final controller read the position of a three position switch and outputted the pulse width modulated signal to adjust the servo's position to one of three pre-defined positions.
I'm now on to version 2, which will utilise the analogue-to-digital converter on the chip. A pot will adjust the voltage on one of the pins and the chip will convert the voltage to a specific pulse length. This will let me use the servo in an analogue fashion, which is much better. I've found a nice slider pot with a centre detent which I can use as the control pot.
Oh i dunno what im doing wrong with this nixie clock.. appeared to have 5V then when i got to the next test which is the test and setting of 170v my 5v test point now reads ~1.62v and the 170v test point reads 2.6v 
the adjustable screw on the 1k petentiometer doesnt affect the voltage what so ever!
Is there a good way to test which component might be causing this crazyness!!??
the adjustable screw on the 1k petentiometer doesnt affect the voltage what so ever!
Is there a good way to test which component might be causing this crazyness!!??
Oh i dunno what im doing wrong with this nixie clock.. appeared to have 5V then when i got to the next test which is the test and setting of 170v my 5v test point now reads ~1.62v and the 170v test point reads 2.6v
the adjustable screw on the 1k petentiometer doesnt affect the voltage what so ever!
Is there a good way to test which component might be causing this crazyness!!??
Check the fuse
Good advice. Check the IC is firmly in the socket, also check you haven't soldered a capacitor the wrong way round. Check for any dry joints on the underside of the board, check that you haven't accidentally created a solder bridge between two points of the board. Check the solder joints around the power in socket, and just double check that all the necessary components are in place and check that the resistors are actually the correct values with a multimeter.
Failing that, and assuming the fuse is OK, I would just remove the IC, desolder the HV components and see if you get back to 5v or so on the LV circuit.
ok I've been thinking of a little project for a while.
What i'd like to make a a bunch of little pcb's say around the size of the arduino mini (or a couple of inches square but smaller than a credit card you know little rectangle size).
Each one having a single logic gate on it, NAND, NOt, OR etc. then having say 2 angle male headers on one end for power/ground I/o then another pair on the other but female basically so they could be clipped together in a line etc with the power coming from one board equal dimensions but instead with a little psu/voltage regulator hooked up to a laptop/bench psu.
then the Q /not Q out puts would also either clip in or be done by just vertical headers and a jumper wire (might have it so that there are little jumper caps like i na pc to enable/disable which input/output is used (maybe cheaper than switches?)
then later build some I/O ones that say turn the logic out put into somthing useful (same form factor) to drive an led and other board that does motors and say another that drives a relay etc you know just various things.
another board would have to have a clock on it (could maybe make one from a 555 timer or divide down a crystal?
I know you get i'cs with like 4 gates in them but this seems like a fun thing to build to learn how to design circuits and then prototype and produce them (will have to wait till my uv exposure box and etching tank is done, but will design circuits in breadboard and eagle before then.
So in the end i'll have a bunch of these little boards covers in transistors and that say which gate they are/what they do, and i could just plug them together like lego to learn basic logic stuff and what you can make with it.
^now that's the geeky reason but not the real one...the real one is so much worse....It will let me rapidly design/test/build minecraft logic circuits without mining for all that red stone >.<
what you guys think?
What i'd like to make a a bunch of little pcb's say around the size of the arduino mini (or a couple of inches square but smaller than a credit card you know little rectangle size).
Each one having a single logic gate on it, NAND, NOt, OR etc. then having say 2 angle male headers on one end for power/ground I/o then another pair on the other but female basically so they could be clipped together in a line etc with the power coming from one board equal dimensions but instead with a little psu/voltage regulator hooked up to a laptop/bench psu.
then the Q /not Q out puts would also either clip in or be done by just vertical headers and a jumper wire (might have it so that there are little jumper caps like i na pc to enable/disable which input/output is used (maybe cheaper than switches?)
then later build some I/O ones that say turn the logic out put into somthing useful (same form factor) to drive an led and other board that does motors and say another that drives a relay etc you know just various things.
another board would have to have a clock on it (could maybe make one from a 555 timer or divide down a crystal?
I know you get i'cs with like 4 gates in them but this seems like a fun thing to build to learn how to design circuits and then prototype and produce them (will have to wait till my uv exposure box and etching tank is done, but will design circuits in breadboard and eagle before then.
So in the end i'll have a bunch of these little boards covers in transistors and that say which gate they are/what they do, and i could just plug them together like lego to learn basic logic stuff and what you can make with it.
^now that's the geeky reason but not the real one...the real one is so much worse....It will let me rapidly design/test/build minecraft logic circuits without mining for all that red stone >.<
what you guys think?
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