Magic Eye Resources

[Mac Doktor]

Before the prices rise out of sight, I'd like to have a few magic eye driver boards and tubes. Rather than reinvent the wheel, I thought I'd ask you guys first. All I need is the ability to feed a signal in and make them do interesting things. Most of the kits I've seen are so-called "VU" meters which expect an AF signal. I can work with that.

I'd like to do this cheaply but reliably. The goal is to have several arranged in a group so that I can use them with my Halloween displays.

What says the brain trust?

Terry Bowman, KA4HJH
"The Mac Doctor"

https://www.astarcloseup.com/

“...the book said something astonishing, a very big thought. The stars, it said, were suns but very far away. The Sun was a star but close up.”—Carl Sagan, "The Backbone Of Night", Cosmos, 1980

[Adrian Pardini]

Our fellow here Moorrees, has a handful of very nice working circuits
at https://threeneurons.wordpress.com/magic-eye-stuff/

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Adrián Pardini

[Tidak Ada]

Actually a magic eye is a bargraph like display.

There was some time ago an activity display for Windows Task manager. The magazine where it was published is Elektor (German and Dutch, but there was also an English issue (electronic world?) from the same editor.

 

eric

rVan: neoni...@googlegroups.com [mailto:neoni...@googlegroups.com] Namens Mac Doktor
Verzonden: donderdag 4 februari 2021 22:10
Aan: neonixie-l
Onderwerp: [neonixie-l] Magic Eye Resources

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[Mac Doktor]

On Feb 4, 2021, at 4:13 PM, Adrian Pardini <pardo...@gmail.com> wrote:

Our fellow here Moorrees, has a handful of very nice working circuits
at https://threeneurons.wordpress.com/magic-eye-stuff/

Yes, I've studied his site thoroughly but it's not exactly what I'm looking for (his Dekatron stuff is another matter and I already have his basic spinner kit). There are a bunch of cheap devices on eBay, some including tubes, but I'm not sure what I'd actually end up with.

A quick search with Google turned up lots of old sites and forum posts. A lot of it was outdated or offers for kits that sold out years ago. I'm hoping someone in this group has done some of the legwork for me. Seperated the wheat from the chaff, as it were.

I'm working on an overall description of what I'm trying to accomplish with interesting old gadgets and technologies. Someday I'll finish it and post it here.

Terry Bowman, KA4HJH
"The Mac Doctor"

https://www.astarcloseup.com/

"Every kid starts out as a natural-born scientist, and then we beat it out of them. A few trickle through the system with their wonder and enthusiasm for science intact."—Carl Sagan, Psychology Today, 1996

[gregebert]

Be warned that magic-eye tubes, such as the 6E5, have a rather short lifespan, so make sure you power them down when not in-use and keep the brightness as low as tolerable. They are pretty easy to use; I suggest you use a DAC under software-control to drive the grid.

[Mac Doktor]

On Feb 4, 2021, at 5:25 PM, gregebert <greg...@hotmail.com> wrote:

Be warned that magic-eye tubes, such as the 6E5, have a rather short lifespan, so make sure you power them down when not in-use and keep the brightness as low as tolerable. They are pretty easy to use; I suggest you use a DAC under software-control to drive the grid.

This is exactly the kind of information that I need. Note that I'm not up to the task of designing anything at such a low level, especially warm cathode tech. I'm looking for things that are more of the "shake the box" kind (to use a model kit analogy). By the same token, I don't want to waste money on a piece of junk from Asia. There's tons of stuff on eBay but I'd like to hear from others who've taken the plunge. 

Terry Bowman, KA4HJH
"The Mac Doctor"

https://www.astarcloseup.com/

[newxito]

German Elektor from January 2010 with an EM84 and a DIY transformer... 

[mjrippe]

I can't offer any circuits, but one piece of advice: In the round eye tubes, the phosphor gets darker with use.  They start off a light ash grey.  If you are offered tubes with charcoal grey phosphors, run away!