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

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anyone ever used

http://www.tubehobby.com/store.php?cat=1

their kits seem reasonably price (thew in -18'#s though are insanely expensive and don't come with the kit)

But i always liked the look of the in-14's it's the little pinched bit at the top i like and that kit including tubes seems pretty reasonable :p

They also sell dinky little crt tubes including a pretty cool looking 1" one (you could make them into a clock too, or an awesome retro/steampunk( with the right wood and bras casing) portable oscilloscope, with all the accuracy of a bus drawing lines in the desert mind but it would still be cool :p)

56601298.jpg




One thing i would love is a normal nixie clock with a IN-13 (or In-9) bar graph tube underneath linked to a timer function.


So you set the alarm and the bar graph fills as the time runs out (like a loading bar) mostly for short times i.e 10-30 mins not say for your normal daily 8 o clock alarm etc that wouldn't use the bar.


Just as a nice quick visual indicator of time left (could always run it backwards if you prefer it to empty as time runs out) either till something is done (food/download etc) or until you need to be ready (ie alarm goes off to wake you up then that kicks in and counts down for the next 30 mins you have to get ready).


But i think it ill take quite some time before i learn enough about electronics to get to the stage to design and integrate it into the clock (without say going over board and just putting i na full arduino/pic thing that would greatly increase the size of it :p)
 
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Looks like something out of bioshock. Would be amazing if you could mount the PCB(?) into some cool looking, steam-punk dock :)
 
Hank_Marvin said:
So could I get a kit for the IN-8's? This perhaps? http://www.pvelectronics.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=35

18mm is quite small, hmmmm, not sure it would have the wow factor.

Cheers
Click to expand...
My clock as seen in the OP uses IN-8-2 tubes with 18mm digits. they're easily visible and legible from across the whole room, but also not too huge to be comfortable to see under my monitor on my desk. 18mm is a good size :)

Tefal said:
yeah steam punk nixie things are awesome :D


http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/4508/steampunknixieclock.jpg


http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/6083/steampunknixie2.jpg
Click to expand...

Drooooooool :eek: :o

Tefal said:
anyone ever used

http://www.tubehobby.com/store.php?cat=1

their kits seem reasonably price (thew in -18'#s though are insanely expensive and don't come with the kit)

But i always liked the look of the in-14's it's the little pinched bit at the top i like and that kit including tubes seems pretty reasonable :p

They also sell dinky little crt tubes including a pretty cool looking 1" one (you could make them into a clock too, or an awesome retro/steampunk( with the right wood and bras casing) portable oscilloscope, with all the accuracy of a bus drawing lines in the desert mind but it would still be cool :p)

56601298.jpg




One thing i would love is a normal nixie clock with a IN-13 (or In-9) bar graph tube underneath linked to a timer function.


So you set the alarm and the bar graph fills as the time runs out (like a loading bar) mostly for short times i.e 10-30 mins not say for your normal daily 8 o clock alarm etc that wouldn't use the bar.


Just as a nice quick visual indicator of time left (could always run it backwards if you prefer it to empty as time runs out) either till something is done (food/download etc) or until you need to be ready (ie alarm goes off to wake you up then that kicks in and counts down for the next 30 mins you have to get ready).


But i think it ill take quite some time before i learn enough about electronics to get to the stage to design and integrate it into the clock (without say going over board and just putting i na full arduino/pic thing that would greatly increase the size of it :p)
Click to expand...

PV Electronics also have a complete nixie-kit with the IN-14 tubes included. i don't like the IN-14's because the Russians skimped on cost and used upside-down "2" as "5" so they look a bit wierd. many many other tubes also have the sealing pip at the top :p
 
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I think they best compromise is 4 x IN 18 (40 ish each) for the time and 2 x IN 8 (10 each) for seconds?


clock-day-front.jpg
 
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Hank_Marvin said:
Are IN-8's the same as IN-8-2's?

So the kit I linked and those IN-8's you linked on ebay, £5each'ish would work together?


Cheers dude.
Click to expand...

IN-8's are electrically identical to IN-8-2's but have solid pins instead of solderable wires :)

Which Kit are you looking at? there are ones available that come with little individual sockets :)

Sukh said:
I think they best compromise is 4 x IN 18 (40 ish each) for the time and 2 x IN 8 (10 each) for seconds?


clock-day-front.jpg
Click to expand...

I think that Clocks look a bit silly with different sized digits. if you're going to splash out on four IN-18's you might as well go the whole way and get six.
In the 3rd post of this thread i linked to ebay auctions selling lots of six IN-18's for £150, that's only £25 per tube :)
 
simulatorman said:
Does it put out much electrical interference?
Click to expand...

none that i've noticed :)

Sukh said:
Problem is I am average at best with soldering so don't want to kill £150 of nixies :(


Might do an 8 first an then try an 18.
Click to expand...

the IN-18's are socketed, you'd be quite unlikely to kill them unless you really really badly mess up your kit, i'm not even sure if you could. apart from gross physical damage Nixies are remarkably resilient.
Either way, building an 8 and then an 18 when you've got the hang of it sounds good, especially because then you'd have two clocks :D
 
This looks pretty amazing! I love the retro feel it gives!
I may have to try build using the smaller Nixies for now as i cannot remember the last time i soldered anything!

Bookmarked and ready!
 
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