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

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Right, I have been playing with the Arduino for a few days and after reading up a lot, have managed to get a good grasp of what I want to do and how to do it.

I'm now at the point where I need to switch a 12v component on and off so looking at a relay and transistor to do this.

Could anybody confirm that when looking on RS, I should be looking for a reed relay with a coil voltage of 5V as this is what the arduino can supply? Something like this... http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/reed-relays/2919669A/

and then I'm not sure of what to look for in a transistor. I have seen the 2N2222 name being thrown about so assume this will be ok? RS have these... http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/general-purpose-transistor/0295028/

Cheers
 
Virtually any NPN general purpose transistor would work (2N3904, BC546, BC109 are also common) but yes, 2N2222 is fine. It's a relatively high gain device so can switch with very minimal base current.

The reed relay says it can switch 1A so in theory is fine. I always think of reed relays only handling very small signal currents myself so if I were switching a load I'd just use a normal relay like this:

http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/electromechanical-relays/7083285/

But it's up to you, the reed one is more compact if important.


Got my 4543 chips now btw, will have a go at multiplexing a 3-digit display with them and the PIC.
 
I need some help, I've bought a nixie tube clock (thanks to this thread!) and I can not get the first tube to work. I have every other tube soldered in and working fine, just nothing happens with the first tube! I have the pvelectronics IN-16 kit, is there any way to test a tube on its own?
 
Anybody know what connector type I need for this? Preferably pre wired but not a big deal if not.

2012-02-08%2014.45.51.jpg
 
You need a XHP-3 connector to fit that one you've pictured.

Hoping Farnell is allowed to be linked to.

http://uk.farnell.com/jsp/displayPr...KU-DGA&s_kwcid=TC|13123|xhp-3||S|p|8220811389

They are used quite frequently in electronic goods as interconnect between different PCB and I've seen them used on graphics cards for the fans.

Not quite sure what you'd need to search for to find a cable assembly with one on.

I'm sure I've got a few kicking about in my parts box if you can't find anything, got them off a dismantled iPod dock alarm thingy.
 
Hey guys, I've got a quick question if anyone could help. I'm trying to find a component and I've got no idea what the name would be. What I want is something similar to a potentiometer in a guitar, but instead of having the dial turned in that way, I was wondering if you could get a device whereby a rod goes through the centre of it and it measures the degrees of rotation or the like? I could adapt a guitar pot I guess but it's not ideal...

Thanks! dirtychinchilla
 
I've had an idea for an electronics project I'd like to start on. The story is that I work as the ICT tech in a school. I often help out in assemblies when a teacher wants to use multimedia. When audio is involved I like to fade the sound out rather than just pause the video the sound is coming from. I often can't do that so I thought a sound volume control slider would be a cool thing to design and implement. It'd sit next to the laptop and take a 3.5mm connector to take in audio from the laptop. I'd then have a slider or a dial to allow me to fade in and out sound so it sounds a bit more professional.

The volume controller would have a 3.5mm connector to allow me to connect the sound cable that runs to the amp feeding the speakers in the school hall. Some of you might ask why I don't control the volume from the amp; well because of where the projector has to be the amp is several metres behind me so I can't be at both the laptop and amp at the same time to pause videos and fade sounds out.

I've had a look on a shop's online site and found 3.5mm sockets that I could use. I just need some help with how to get a slider or dial to control the volume. I'll also need to make up some kind of case for this.

So any ideas how I could make one? I've seen sound mixers but they are all £30+ and don't look that good, beside it'd be fun making my own one. :)
 
MarcLister said:
I've had an idea for an electronics project I'd like to start on. The story is that I work as the ICT tech in a school. I often help out in assemblies when a teacher wants to use multimedia. When audio is involved I like to fade the sound out rather than just pause the video the sound is coming from. I often can't do that so I thought a sound volume control slider would be a cool thing to design and implement. It'd sit next to the laptop and take a 3.5mm connector to take in audio from the laptop. I'd then have a slider or a dial to allow me to fade in and out sound so it sounds a bit more professional.

The volume controller would have a 3.5mm connector to allow me to connect the sound cable that runs to the amp feeding the speakers in the school hall. Some of you might ask why I don't control the volume from the amp; well because of where the projector has to be the amp is several metres behind me so I can't be at both the laptop and amp at the same time to pause videos and fade sounds out.

I've had a look on a shop's online site and found 3.5mm sockets that I could use. I just need some help with how to get a slider or dial to control the volume. I'll also need to make up some kind of case for this.

So any ideas how I could make one? I've seen sound mixers but they are all £30+ and don't look that good, beside it'd be fun making my own one. :)
Click to expand...
I think you could pretty much use an OP amp. With a potentiometer to change the gain by changing the resistor value. For the case you can get plastic black boxes ( I have forgotten what they are called) at a well known highstreet electronics store.
 
RomanNose said:
I think you could pretty much use an OP amp. With a potentiometer to change the gain by changing the resistor value. For the case you can get plastic black boxes ( I have forgotten what they are called) at a well known highstreet electronics store.
Click to expand...
Cheers for the reply. I'll do some research now I know some of the names of parts I'll need. :)
 
dirtychinchilla said:
Hey guys, I've got a quick question if anyone could help. I'm trying to find a component and I've got no idea what the name would be. What I want is something similar to a potentiometer in a guitar, but instead of having the dial turned in that way, I was wondering if you could get a device whereby a rod goes through the centre of it and it measures the degrees of rotation or the like? I could adapt a guitar pot I guess but it's not ideal...

Thanks! dirtychinchilla
Click to expand...

Not sure exactly what you mean, generally any sort of dial is at the base a pot, and then at the top end it has different knobs.
 
Well I finally got around to building my 'Sven' Nixie clock.

I cocked up near the start and it caused a bit of trouble nearer the end. When soldering a lead located adjacent to another solder pad I accidentally filled in the wrong solder pad. When I tried to remove the solder using some braid I only managed to pick up the surface solder and not the remaining bits within the hole itself. I thought it would be fine so carried on. The pad I filled was part of an array of 8 holes for the tube board connector. I thought I could get around it by melting the solder as I was pushing in the connector into the other holes. This didn't work out so great and I ended up damaging the solder pad :o All this meant that the far left tube didn't light up at all as there wasn't a good connection. I had to fix it by scratching away some of the trace on the underside and then making a solder bridge to the pin. Bit of a PITA!

The other problem I had was that one of the RGB LED's managed to short somehow and so isn't displaying it's green segment at all, thus ruining the look of the clock.

I have to say though that Jurgen (the guy who designed and sells them) has been excellent. He replies to emails within a couple of minutes (literally) and has offered to send me a replacement LED free of charge from Germany!

Needless to say I have a desoldering pump on the way which I shall be using in conjunction with the braid for properly removing components.
 
So, I mentioned at the very start of this thread that I intended to build a Nixie clock. Well, I'm finally getting around to doing it.

So I was at a car boot and I found a Model 7 Mk1 Avo Meter similar as below. It's probably dated to the early or mid 50s and looks perfect for a clock:
dlqhsl.png


So I'm intending to put the tubes where the glass is, but I'm having trouble deciding on what types of tubes to use. I think it'll have to be end view tubes to be able to curve round the glass as I'd want and I'd much prefer proper 5 digits. The glass it about 30mm high for reference but I'm not sure how many digits I'll be able to fit, it all depends on how wide the tubes are.

Any suggestions?
 
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