Finally completed my latest project...

[Tony Adams]

Hi all,

Hope you won't mind me spamming this here but I've finally completed
something nixie-based.

I have a bad habit of building prototypes only to add to an ever-
growing list of 'features' which inevitably result in a completely new
design and software rewrite - so I decided to build something that
couldn't suffer from feature creep and wouldn't 'benefit' from
humidity sensors, GPS, USB, IR or RF remote or movement activation.

Some pictures and a (not very good) video of it in operation can be
found here:

http://www.lasermad.com/?p=235

Hmmm... a PIR sensor might just... I could easily add that to the
controller... and a touch switch to deactivate.. or maybe a Zigbee....

Tony.

[jb-electronics]

Seriously: The coolest thing I have ever seen with Nixie tubes. How do
you drive the tubes?

Jens

[Nicholas Stock]

How you'd ever consider that 'spamming' is beyond me...;-) what a great and unique way to use all those nixie tubes that nobody has a use for in a clock! Presumably the tubes are driven inductively, but how do you use each symbol to denote the chess piece...just utilize that pin on the underside of the tube?

Amazing..

Nick

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[kay486]

This is absolutely amazing! How did you managed to power the tubes without any risk?

[Dalibor Farný]

Wow, I simply don't understand! As Jens said, I haven't better nixie project!

Do You have some technical info on your site?

Dalibor

2012/6/21 kay486 <luck...@gmail.com>

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[Tony Adams]

Thank you :)

They're driven inductively using an array of 64 tuned primaries and a
secondary coil in the base of each piece which directly feeds a C-W
multplier to produce around 180v.

Tony.

On Jun 21, 7:35 pm, jb-electronics <webmas...@jb-electronics.de>
wrote:

[Dekatron42]

Absolutely fantastic!

This might actually get me to play chess again!

Will you publish schematic drawing of this so it could be built?

/Martin

[Tony Adams]

Thanks everyone for the positive comments, I'm not very good at
promoting things - maybe one of the reasons why I'm always redesigning
rather than finishing them.

I've added an extra photograph to the blog post showing the receiver
coil and multiplier circuit, only the cathode required is connected
leaving the rest unused. The assembled pieces have 3 pins to provide
more stability as they're not glued together, allowing a broken tube
to be unplugged and replaced if ever needed.

Technically it's reasonably simple to build but mostly monotonous due
to the amount of repetition in assembly.

Tony.

On Jun 21, 8:04 pm, Dalibor Farný <dali...@farny.cz> wrote:
> Wow, I simply don't understand! As Jens said, I haven't better nixie
> project!
>
> Do You have some technical info on your site?
>
> Dalibor
>

> 2012/6/21 kay486 <luckyl...@gmail.com>

[Tidak Ada]

Beware of counterfeit keep is for yourself.
Some sly cats, here, smell the meat....

eric

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[Tony Adams]

Hi,

Much of the work is in cutting and machining the parts, if there is
enough interest I'd supply it as a kit though.

Tony.

[Nicholas Stock]

I'd be very interested in a kit!

Nick

[Dan Harboe Burer]

This IS the most impressive non-clock nixie project I have ever seen. WOW
:o)

Yes a kit would be very interesting for me too :o) (a bit depinding on
price)

Regards
Dan

[Nicholas Stock]

Well, you can still buy IN-7 tubes on the bay for less than 1 buck a tube so get them while they last...;-)

How much juice does the chess set need for all 32 illuminated? About 130 mA at 170V so a 25 W supply?

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[Lucky]

Kudos Tony, Kudos!
and here was me looking at illuminating a glass chess set, this totally outshines that (Pun intended). The most novel application I have ever seen and being interested in the 'steampunk' genre right up my street.
(I want one lol)

> > neonixie-l+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

[jb-electronics]

Usually I do not buy kits, but if there was a kit for this, I would change my mind :-)

Jens

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[Michel]

Really cool and very creative!

Most of the work was making the chess board itself I think?

You could always add a nixie chess-clock to go with the nixie chess board ;-)

Michel

[Nicholas Stock]

Or a nixie tube chess timer!

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[Michel]

Yes, that's what I mean. We call them chess-clocks but maybe the official name is chess timer, I don't know. They have 2 buttons at the top for starting one, stopping the other. That would be very cool I reckon.

Michel

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[Nicholas Stock]

Why not both a clock and a two button timer...Tony sounds like he likes to add new features to his projects...;-)

Nick

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[Tom Nolan]

Now you've done it! He'll never finish it. ;-)

Tom

[Michel]

Not really, we just make him work harder :-)

Add some copper piping here and there and you got yourself an amazing steampunk chess game!

Michel

[Tony Adams]

The chess timer idea did pop up at one point when it seemed it needed
more software, along with the idea of an extra 6 pieces with numeric
tubes that would be placed on the board to use it as a clock when it
wasn't in use for chess - but I managed to resist...;)

Tony.

[Michel]

I think I would also try to let it run on rechargeable batteries and make it portable. I roughly estimated you need about 5W for all chess pieces which is not all that much. It only needs to operate for a few hours and when pieces disappear from the board, it will draw less power.

Michel

[Tony Adams]

The driver circuits aren't that efficient though, I'd estimate the
nixies take about 10W and the board loses another 15W. If the edges
were made wider it would be possible to fit enough mh cells in for
maybe 2 hours or longer using Li.
As it stands though it can be fed from an external 12v battery, the
terminals are marked 'LT accumulator' though it's not very easy to see
in the videos.

Tony.

[Tony Adams]

Thank you, I was aiming for a 'vintage' look while still being
functional, though it might look good with some copper or brass pipe
railings around the edges to prevent pieces sliding off.

I'll have to work out a realisitc price for a kit, it would be
difficult to supply ready built at a sensible price due to the time it
takes to assemble - after winding 96 coils you'll see why ;).

Tony.

> > > > neonixie-l+...@googlegroups.com.

[Lucky]

Have to laugh Tony. You started off this thread with the words "...so I decided to build something that
couldn't suffer from feature creep". Hah! Fool you, you showed it to us! Now we have a never ending list of 'features' for you to add. Mind you something like this chess set just screams out for collective 'personalisation'. There'll be no stopping the flood now I tell you ;)
Dave. 

[Dennis]

This is absolutely the coolest thing I've seen in awhile. A perfect use for odd ball tubes. I too would be interested in a kit if you decide to go there.

---

From: Tony Adams <sa...@amt-electronics.com>
To: neonixie-l <neoni...@googlegroups.com>

Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2012 12:52 PM

Subject: [neonixie-l] Re: Finally completed my latest project...

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[David Forbes]

On 6/21/12 12:36 PM, Tony Adams wrote:
>
> I've added an extra photograph to the blog post showing the receiver
> coil and multiplier circuit, only the cathode required is connected
> leaving the rest unused. The assembled pieces have 3 pins to provide
> more stability as they're not glued together, allowing a broken tube
> to be unplugged and replaced if ever needed.
>
> Technically it's reasonably simple to build but mostly monotonous due
> to the amount of repetition in assembly.
>
> Tony.
>

Tony,

That's a truly beautiful chess set! I like the way that it achieves its
effect with "no moving parts". That is, each tube's lit cathode is
selected at assembly time.

Unfortunately, the photo of the voltage multiplier guts isn't on the
post, possibly due to your rebuilding of the database as you mentioned
in your latest blog post.

Would you be kind enough to post the photo again? Thanks.

--
David Forbes, Tucson AZ

[Tidak Ada]

I should put copperwire in the kit, so the bulders can wind their coils
themselves. It's a part of the fun and doesn't degrade the kit not to an
IKEA item (including Allen-wrench ;-) ).

An other possibility is to develop an simle winding machine....

eric


-----Original Message-----
From: neoni...@googlegroups.com [mailto:neoni...@googlegroups.com] On
Behalf Of Tony Adams

Sent: vrijdag 22 juni 2012 3:18
To: neonixie-l
Subject: [neonixie-l] Re: Finally completed my latest project...

[Michel]

It sometimes pays off to check easy to get parts for something that may just do the job for you rather than winding all the coils yourself. You could check miniature solenoids or things like that, take them apart and see if you can get it working with the coils from the solenoids.

Yeah, if your total circuit draws about 25W it will take a bit more effort to make it battery powered. An alternative is to have chess pieces with build-in rechargeable batteries. You could then charge the batteries through your induction system. Maybe it is possible  to make a "charge plate" with say 4 or 5 coils that charges the 32 chess pieces.

Michel

[Tidak Ada]

Tony's methode is most efficient: The tubes shut off, as soon as jou lift them from the board, like a pen from a WACOM® tablet (also an indication someone lift a piece from the board and he MUST move that piece).

How would you switch off the tubes in case of battery supply? (Don't say they shut off automaticaly when the battery is empty...  :•þ  )

 

eric

---

From: neoni...@googlegroups.com [mailto:neoni...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Michel
Sent: vrijdag 22 juni 2012 10:43
To: neoni...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [neonixie-l] Re: Finally completed my latest project...

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[Michel]

Yes I know, I was just thinking of a way to make it portable without carrying a big battery. You could put reed switches inside the chess pieces and mount small magnets underneath each square of the chess board. That way they will also turn off when you lift them or put them aside.

But however you look at it, the chess pieces will obviously become quite a bit bigger so that will probably take away the charm they have at the moment.

Michel

On Friday, June 22, 2012 7:20:21 PM UTC+10, Tidak Ada wrote:

Tony's methode is most efficient: The tubes shut off, as soon as jou lift them from the board, like a pen from a WACOM® tablet (also an indication someone lift a piece from the board and he MUST move that piece).

How would you switch off the tubes in case of battery supply? (Don't say they shut off automaticaly when the battery is empty...  :•þ  )

 

eric

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From: neoni...@googlegroups.com [mailto:neonixie-l@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Michel

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[Nick]

Top project - very nice - very cute - we like this!

I realise you have 8x8 + 2x16 sets of coils - couldn't you use a single coil for the board - some sort of convolution to get a more even field maybe? There are a lot of "wireless power" notes and practical projects around - design of xmit coils on planar surfaces is an interesting subject...

As for identifying the pieces, how about RFID tags? Put them all in the starting position, press "learn", then all the pieces are registered with the correct type and virtual colour (it doesn't really matter which side is white or black - just that one lot of 16 is different from the other lot). Move any piece to a new square and it'll be easy for the board to know what it is. Remember this in an eeprom each move.

When you re-power the board, you can read back what should be where....

Really impressed with what you've done.

Nick

[Mefistofelix]

Absolutely stunning - I would be in for a kit !

 

Mark

On Thursday, June 21, 2012 7:30:38 PM UTC+1, Tony Adams wrote:

[caliburgers]

Absolutely stunning!  I be interested in a kit!!!!

Sent from my iPhone

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[jb-electronics]

Actually, I am just as well interested in the custom made chess Nixie
tubes, Ron ;-)

Jens

[kay486]

Im sure youll be able to make some one day!

[Tony Adams]

I'll try to reply to most of the pints in one post to prevent
cluttering the thread up, but first of all - you are all a bunch of
feature creeps! ;)

I did consider one large coil but couldn't see it being possible to
provide even coverage and avoid hotspots or overdriving the displays
if it wasn't fully loaded - it may be possible but I didn't explore
that.

Power efficiency, the loaded drivers deliver 70%+ of the input to the
display, the figures only look bad as unloaded they still use quite a
bit of power. Probably 10W could be saved by switching off the unused
squares but it adds to the complexity and would prevent another idea I
have from working.

Any kit will be exactly that, you'll be thrown a bunch of machined
paxolin discs and a roll of copper wire - reminds me of a clock case
'kit' I bought many years ago which consisted of some paper stencils
and 2 sheets of plywood..... well it won't be that bad :).

As for modifications that would turn it into an electronic chess game
I've had the following ideas, along with a few hints offlist from
Dekatron42:
.
The base coils are currently driven in rows of eight, they're also fed
in rows of eight via 8x 2R2 fusible resistors. If I rearrange them to
be supplied in rows and driven in columns this should work:

The starting positions are known, or at least can be assumed.
The controller will need to keep a map of the piece positions and
track each movement.

When a piece is picked up or put down there is a change in current
through that row resistor, the controller can detect it then scan
through the columns to find out which square has changed. As all the
pieces are mapped it will know what was on that square and which
squares will be valid for it to reappear on.

When an increase is recorded across one of the resistors it can scan
again to see which square is now occupied. If it detects it's on a
valid square the game continues, if not it will stay in a loop waiting
for a legal move to be made or end the game depending on programming.

For the computer to make a move it will indicate it by only driving
the coil under the piece to be moved and the destination square.
As you know which moves are valid for that piece it will be easy to
find that square and the piece will light up. Again if it's not moved
to the correct square the controller can detect it and halt the game
until it is.

As all the pieces are mapped by the controller it doesn't need to
identify them and swapping them for another piece or attempting to
cheat will only halt the game or confuse the human player.

To make this work I'll need to change the current row/row arrangement
to row/column, add ADC lines from each resistor and add a 12v switch
to each row of 8 coils. It'll need a larger microcontroller and a few
spare pins will be needed to allow external programming. I really
don't want to end up bogged down with more modifications though so if
I do make these up as a kit I'd just supply the board with the above
mods, basic always-on software and a means to program it externally.
It's then up to the end user to do the rest.

- and chess piece Nixie tubes would be just incredible expecially if
they're made as plugin replacements.

Tony.

On Jun 22, 6:17 pm, jb-electronics <webmas...@jb-electronics.de>
wrote:

[Michel]

If you can supply this with custom made chess nixies, and a nixie chess timer I'd be very tempted to buy a set! Not sure about a kit though, it looks like a lot of work to assemble and I already have so much spare time left..... For myself it's not really important if it can or cannot be hooked up to a computer, won't be using that feature anyways. IMHO a nixie chess game doesn't need the features of a modern chess computer.

Michel

[threeneurons]

That's just way too cool ! Spam all you want !

On Thursday, June 21, 2012 11:30:38 AM UTC-7, Tony Adams wrote:

Hi all,

Hope you won't mind me spamming this here but I've finally completed
something nixie-based.

http://www.lasermad.com/?p=235

Tony.

Nixies and inductive power transfer. You can't make a better combo ... well, you could replace the kings with spinning dekatrons ... maybe !?

 

[Gene Segal]

Very impressive!  Where can I get one?  =)

On Thursday, June 21, 2012 11:30:38 AM UTC-7, Tony Adams wrote:

Hi all,

Hope you won't mind me spamming this here but I've finally completed
something nixie-based.

http://www.lasermad.com/?p=235

Tony.

Nixies and inductive power transfer. You can't make a better combo ... well, you could replace the kings with spinning dekatrons ... maybe !?

 

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[Tony Adams]

Just for fun, I'm working on it ;) A101s are a bit on the large side
though...

[Tony Adams]

Shameless plug time - hope you all won't mind too much.

I've finally listed kit options and prices, there are only 7 complete
kits available just now and I'd prefer to sell them to the first to
show interest so that will probably be to members here - so if you're
still interested in buying one could you contact me directly and I can
work out what order they should go out in.

http://www.lasermad.com/?p=319

Tony.

On Jun 24, 2:28 am, Gene Segal <wavefr...@earthlink.net> wrote:
> Very impressive!  Where can I get one?  =)
> On Thursday, June 21, 2012 11:30:38 AM UTC-7, Tony Adams wrote:Hi all,
> Hope you won't mind me spamming this here but I've finally completed

> something nixie-based.http://www.lasermad.com/?p=235

> Tony.
>
> Nixies and inductive power transfer. You can't make a better combo ... well, you could replace the kings with spinning dekatrons ... maybe !?
>
>
>
>
>
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[Mich...@aol.com]

No shame.

 

I will take one.   Big kit.

 

Michail
206-920-6312

[Jon Jackson]

Hi Tony,

I am interested in the Full Neon Jacket Chessboard Kit based on my
earlier post on your web page. I do have some of the tubes, but I
haven't counted them lately, so I'll go for the Full Neon Jacket kit.

Thanks for the response! Congrats on the overwhelming response to
your unique design.

Jon Jackson

(I contacted you directly per the email you sent me)

[Jon]

Hi Tony,

 

I replied to you directly as requested.

 

Cheers,

 

Jon.

[Mefistofelix]

Hi Tony,

 

Not sure if my iPad mail to you diect got through (modern technology - who needs it !)

 

I would very much like to purchase a full kit.

 

Mark

 

On Thursday, 21 June 2012 19:30:38 UTC+1, Tony Adams wrote:

Hi all,

Hope you won't mind me spamming this here but I've finally completed