Neon Pixels!

[martin martin]

Thought the group would like this article

https://hackaday.io/project/173636-neon-pixels

[gregebert]

I certainly didn't expect to see a DCDC converter for each pixel. I have to admire the persistence to build 384 of those to make a display.

[Joe Croft]

Very pretty, but what a glutton for punishment!

[celzey11]

Allegedly there's some neon bulbs that actually act as thyratrons that can be used to make large scrolling displays...haven't seen any of those IRL though

[Nicholas Stock]

Let's try that again....movie was too large..

https://www.instagram.com/p/CCPMzuOjdBs/

On Thu, Jul 23, 2020 at 2:52 PM Nicholas Stock <nick...@gmail.com> wrote:

Speaking of glutton for punishment....

A follow on to Grahame's original Trigger tube clock....aptly called 'Neon'...that we're both working on....no semi-conductors.....the video shows one of the minutes boards fed with a 10Hz pulse for testing of the counters, hence the speed....

The ticking is from a couple of relays.

On Thu, Jul 23, 2020 at 2:38 PM celzey11 <celz...@gmail.com> wrote:

Allegedly there's some neon bulbs that actually act as thyratrons that can be used to make large scrolling displays...haven't seen any of those IRL though

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[Grahame Marsh]

or wait until tomorrow and i will put it on tge dropbox

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[Joe Croft]

Nick,

 

I like it! What is the final target for this, going by the counts of bulbs in the rings (8 & 12) it doesn't seem to be a clock. Unless it's from Mars.... ;)

 

Not to make this a pissing match, I know there are even prettier and more complex, ring counter clocks and not to mention it's yesteryear's news, but,I didn't exactly avoid punishments myself in the past. I did come up with the NixieNeon clock.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSaHHKSnvfI

 

7 ring counters with a total of 60 lamps . Not as many in total as yours, but they don't have the convenience of a trigger wire. The rings free run counting down the 60hz to the 12 bulb hour ring without the help of the processor,. The processor is only there to run the green lamps, the 5 minute eye candy and set to the time (assuming you have the RTC).

 

My point of my previous email was that assembling 384 little ass SMD boards was no small feat. I doubt I would've lasted through it.

 

My favorite ring counter clock of all time it this one! It is a great looking clock, I love the point to point wiring. I bet the 60 second ring was a nightmare to get counting so well!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4v7IDIYiNQ&list=PLcg96zVhEST67yy294qhAUgrr7ijZnUGe

 

-joe

[martin martin]

Reminds me of this project

https://makezine.com/2008/06/18/transistor-clock-kit-uses/ 

 

~

mcve...@gmail.com

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[Christian Elzey]

Yo there's a Nixie version of that that's tempting for sure

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[Nicholas Stock]

Joe,

I've built a couple of your neon counter clocks....many moons ago. My Father still has one too...they're great devices!

It is a clock, if you look to the far right in the video, you'll see another couple of nixies (hours), but the clock was in test mode deliberately sped up to test one of the trigger counters. 

You can find details of the predecessor on Grahame's website..

www.sgitheach.org.uk/nixie8.html

Nick

Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 24, 2020, at 07:21, Christian Elzey <celz...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Joe Croft]

Hi Nick,

 

I thought I remembered sending a kit to you. I guess old age took away the memory of the 2nd kit. How are the clocks running? I have two that I built way back in the day but every year or two I have to replace a ring of lamps.

 

The 8 & 12 groupings of the lamps confused me. It makes a little more sense after reading Grahame's site. It is interesting that the rings have reset and carry tubes. Especially the carry tubes. Is that because of loading issues with the last bulb needing to trigger two loops?

 

-joe

[Nicholas Stock]

I haven't used mine in a while, but my Dad is busy tending to an errant ring of lamps.... :) I still have a board to build, but I'm going to use socket pins to hold the neons so I can swap them in and out easier.....

I'm in the throes of designing a case for the trigger tube clock....once done, I'll post a few pictures.

-Nick

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[Grahame]

Hi Joe

The design is based on the Philips Z70U/Z70W (single trigger/dual trigger) application note and the nixie display design by JBDance. The reset to zero tubes are just a U tube in parallel with the U zero tube and act in the same way as the dual trigger version W tube. The W tubes are like hen's teeth so the trick of using two U tubes in parallel is a good dodge. The carry tubes act as a pulse shaper and, no doubt, a driver for the next ring. They appear in the Philips designs and I saw no reason to try to remove them as the effect on cost and size would be minimal. The only complexity in the design was the hours counter that resets to 00 when a count to 24 is made.

The great advantage of the Z70U trigger tube is they have both a trigger electrode and a stay alive primer electrode. The stay alive electrode means the clock will function in the complete dark which was something I learned about with my first trigger clock using the XC18 trigger tube which doesn't have a stay alive electrode (I think they were Kr85 doped but that will have long decayed away).

The clock intends to be a nixie read-out clock so the rings are not laid out to be time readable. You could make a Z70U read out clock but the bulk of the light comes out of its bottom wire end and not the top so some thought would be needed to make an effective clock.

All good fun

Grahame

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[Joe Croft]

Hi Grahame,

 

Thanks got the great explanation, i appreciate it.

 

I forgot about the light sensitivity of neon bulbs and that conversely, the absence of light can be just as bad. I remember, to play with that I once flashed my photo flash at my nixieneon clock and list up about a third of all the lamps. It blew the little fuse I have in the clock.

 

-joe