Blue Magic Nixie Watch

[Cobra007]

G'day Folks!

It's been about 4 1/2 months since I had a eureka moment of how to
design and make my Nixie Watch. It is finally there and guess what, I
am wearing it :-).

I know some people on this forum showed some initial doubts, which I
can totally understand, but I finally have something to show.

Initially I gave it the name "Cold War" as the nixie tubes come from
that age, however, my wife re-named it yesterday to "Blue Magic",
which describes very well to what it actually is :-).

Have a look, all comments very welcome!

Michel

http://xiac.com/Images/KoprisoNWCW.jpg

[Per Jensen]

Looks Great!!

Maybe a video of it being worn, seen from different angles?

// Per.

Sendt fra min iPhone 4

[AndrakondrA (Daniil)]

Beautiful work. Congratulations!

Video or more photos, please! :)

Daniil.

 

[Lucky]

GOOOD LOOOKING Michel I want one haha.
Seriously great to see the finished item, does it meet all your/our ;) expectations? Anything you would have changed/

[Dieter Waechter]

The watch is great!!!
I love it!
Dieter

[Cobra007]

Thanks Guys!

Sure there is also a video coming one of these days but I first need
to finish off a bit of work here that I had put aside.....

@Lucky, yes it totally meets my expectations and in some areas even
exceeds them. Would I have done anything different? Well, not about
the watch but for sure for a future project I would first finish it
before announcing what I am planning to make :-). It is easy to get
distracted by input from other people when you have a real clear view
in your mind of how you want to design things.

Keep you posted and/or stay in touch on facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nixie-Watch/146174782160870?ref=tn_tnmn

Michel

[Jeff Thomas]

Excellent Michel!
I really enjoyed the cover label on the Lithium Cellski.

If you have a couple more unused I/O pins, maybe RGB led control?

Regards, Jeff

[Cobra007]

Thanks Jeff,

I got 0 I/O pins left, so at the moment that is not going to work :-).

For all questions about battery life expectancy, I have made this
excel file:
http://xiac.com/download/NixieWatchBatteryLife.xls
Battery life is strongly dependent on how the watch is used and the
amount of ambient light.
You can play around with the values in this excel file.

Michel

[David Forbes]

That's exciting! Now you get to enjoy the fun part of wearing it and
seeing peoples' reactions.

I can't wait to see a video of it in action.

--
David Forbes, Tucson AZ

[Cobra007]

Thanks David!

It's certainly on my schedule after finishing some backlog and ship
out the pre-ordered watches.

Funny thing, I worked out yesterday that (at the moment) the most
interesting way to check the time is by bringing the your arm (and
watch) close to your forehead to activate the motion sensor, and then
read the time :-). This will certainly draw some attention :-) Of
course, another interesting way is using someone else's cheek for
example.

I have to say, the nixie tubes are the most beautiful way to display
the time and the blue LEDs really make the tubes shine at the same
time. Just what I had in mind during my eureka moment! I also want to
take a picture with full moon and the nixie watch beside it, that's
going to be a bit tricky so I am still thinking about how to get that
done.

Michel

[Adam Jacobs]

Just super-impose the two pictures, that is the best solution. Getting a shot where the watch (a small & near object) and the moon (a very very far away object) are anything close to similar in size on the final image are going to be nearly impossible. You could try it with focus-stacking, but even then, you still have the problem that the normal lens that was needed for the watch is a totally different focal length than the super-zoom (or even telescope) lens that is needed for the moon.. and then, of course, there is the issue of exposure, but that one is easily solved with HDR.

-Adam

[Cobra007]

That is an option or else I was thinking of making 2 separate
pictures, both showing the watch and the moon at the same time.
Then 1 picture has the moon in focus and the other has the watch in
focus, just to show the true brightness of the tubes when it's dark
outside and the drawn battery current is only between 6 and 7mA.

Michel

[Adam Jacobs]

If your goal is the comparison of brightness, perhaps you can think of something else which would be easier to photograph that would work as a point of reference. 

-Adam

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group.
To post to this group, send an email to neoni...@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to neonixie-l+...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/neonixie-l?hl=en-GB.

[Cobra007]

I gave it a shot Adam, with an exposure time of 3 seconds there is not
much more to see in the picture than some vague street lights....
So I thought better just take the watch by itself in total darkness
with a 3 seconds exposure time.

The result is here:
http://xiac.com/Images/KoprisoNW3SecExp.jpg

6mA battery current, unbelievable, what a stunning result! At least
you won't be blinded by the light if you want to check the time in the
middle of the night :-).

Michel

[jb-electronics]

Michel,

really nice work!

> At least you won't be blinded by the light if you want to check the time in the middle of the night :-).

Very reasonable, happens to me all the time with my LED binary watch.

Jens

[Cobra007]

Thanks Dieter & Jens,

LED watches have indeed the same problem. I made a domino watch some
time ago:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Domino-Watch/290040851018314

Not as stunning as the Nixie Watch but I incorporated the same trick
with an ambient light sensor otherwise it really is a shock when you
check the time in the middle of the night.

Michel



On May 19, 10:12 pm, jb-electronics <webmas...@jb-electronics.de>
wrote:

[jb-electronics]

Hey, that clock is neat! Still too large for my wrist, though ;-)

Do you have a website with your projects?

Jens

> Thanks Dieter& Jens,

[Cobra007]

Too large?? I think it is too small :-). I tried to make it as small
as possible and in my opinion it ended up to be too small :-).
I want to make a new design in the future (you know, "one day") but
then a normal size domino tile (2" x 1")

No, I have no website with projects, I am more or less snowed under
with all the things I do already :-). (maybe "one day")

I made this clock in 2008, still running :-):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-0yBt9ZQMk

Michel


On May 19, 10:22 pm, jb-electronics <webmas...@jb-electronics.de>
wrote:

[Michel van der Meij]

Interestingly, I am now being asked about my 4 tube nixie watch. Apparently, some people have misunderstood the message that I accidentally sent to the group.

 

To make things clear, I am not working on a 4 tube watch, the reason I wanted to buy the tubes was IN CASE I wanted to design a 4 tube watch in the future. I thought it would be better to buy them now rather than in say 5 or 10 years time.

 

The reason I sent the confidentiality message afterwards was because I had disclosed information about another group member and the type and amount of nixie tubes he has. I know that most people prefer to keep this information secret, so I felt terrible that I had disclosed this information but it had nothing to do with a 4 tube watch.

 

I am happy with the watch as I have designed it and at the moment I have no reason and no time to work on a new watch. I have listed one on ebay as I will most likely list future ones as well once they are finished. If you’re interested, the auction ends in about 18 hours.

 

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/251171932207?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649#ht_873wt_1397

 

Best regards,

Michel