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

  • Thread starter Thread starter Aod
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PermaBanned said:
:(

So i guess it's rather important to sort out some sort of enclosure as soon as possible?
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so it would appear... i'm a little concerned but the solution was simple, as i suspected it would be.

I'll have to get some sort of enclosure sorted for it soon though.
 
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.
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probably quite a lot harder then it would be to simply buy an adjustable Iron on its own? :p :D
 
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 :(
 
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.
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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!
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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
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Sweet! i expect build log with photos! :D
 
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Feek said:
I didn't fit them either, I think they look a bit tacky. If you're not fitting them then you miss out some other components but that's all explained in the very detailed installation instructions.

Something just happened and I can't explain how it occurred.

I appear to have six IN-18s on the way. I don't know how it happened, I was looking at an eBay page and somehow the 'buy-it-now' button clicked itself :D :cool: :o
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Oh no! :eek:

how will you cope Feek!?! :(










:D

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Of course, now you're going to have to invest in a set of six Rodan CD47 tubes, the biggest in the world.
http://www.tube-tester.com/sites/nixie/data/cd47-gr414.htm


 
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Oh crap, I killed my clock :( :mad:

I accidentally shorted the pins at front of the clock (with a zap! :eek:) and now it's not working. i think that i've both burnt out the fuse as well as killed the LM7805 Voltage Regulator.

At least I have some spare '7805s :)

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Oh crumbs... i replaced the LM7805 and hotwired the fuse with straight wire... nothing :(
 
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no, it was the transistor-resistor pinblock for NX6, the rightmost front group of pins. I dropped a 2p coin which bounced and landed on it :mad:

it's not the K155ND1 I don't think, but i actually have six spare of those anyway. :(

there's something seriously wrong with the board because even though i replaced the LM7805 and bypassed the fuse, the voltage-test point for 5v is showing roughly bugger all (about 83mV)
 
Feel like taking mine apart and finding the fault? :D

It looks really good though taliesyn :)
icon14.gif
 
PermaBanned said:
Oh, and all in favour of changing thread name to "***Official Electronics Thread***"? ;)
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Sounds good to me :D :)

Tefal said:
definitely this :p



the fume extractors don't work at all the peak from the bump caps just holds the fumes in your face :(



Anyhow payday is next Friday so I'll be finally buy some electronics stuff to start playing with myself :D.....wait a second that sounds far dirtier than I expected :o


So I've got in mind some early projects (lots of practice soldering too :p)


Turning an old 250W pc PSU into a bench supply with fixed out puts + a variable one.


a little hand held fume extractor from an old pc fan + little tin (more to just get used to makign things small/compact + it's relatively practice :p

uv exposure box + an etching bubble tank.



then using that to make an arduino single sided serial

Also need to make a serial adapter to use to program it >.<


Would fancy around Christmas time to be looking to build an 8*8 LED cube :D

Any other fun/good learning pieces you guys can think of?

also tips on what to buy/where from etc :


mostly been looking at rapid and ebay.

Thinking antex xs25 or is there a better one that's not insanely expensive?
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That's what i like to hear Tefal! :D
icon14.gif
 
I'd be happy to create the "***Official Electronics Thread of Officialness***" but why not just rename this one?

Those look beautiful Feek! by the way, how did you get in contact with Pete from PV? through the site?
I'm hoping he can help my debug and fix my clock :)

Also, Lead free solder is complete cack and i hate the stuff with a passion. not to mention that it drastically increases the failure rate of anything it's used in and is stupidly expensive by comparison to regular lead solder.
 
Feek said:
I may have just renamed the thread, hope that's OK :)

Aod, I just started off emailing him using the addresses on the site and it's carried on from there.

PB - I'll work out a radio thread over the next week or so. I don't have time at work to do much nowadays and I'm away at the RSGB Convention all weekend so I can't give it the time it needs straight away.
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Rename's fine with me :)
maybe merge the Zener diode thread into this one now?

I'll email him soon then :)

I look forward to your Radio thread, i'm not a radio enthusiast but i'm sure it'll make for fun reading :)
 
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