Great new clock....

159 views
Skip to first unread message

Nick

unread,
Jul 16, 2014, 6:57:10 AM7/16/14
to

Nicholas Stock

unread,
Jul 16, 2014, 11:13:36 AM7/16/14
to neoni...@googlegroups.com
Wow, nice clock and a lot of work!

If anyone is interested in building something similar (or purchasing a complete one) I can thoroughly recommend..


ClockTHREE Jr.


On Wed, Jul 16, 2014 at 3:57 AM, Nick <ni...@desmith.net> wrote:
http://imgur.com/a/iMXmj?dm_i=25MP,2MYDC,GCGNM3,9MW94,1

Nick

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to neonixie-l+...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to neoni...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/d65cbb5e-a20e-4c39-b0c0-bc36e8e5e78e%40googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

Dman777

unread,
Jul 16, 2014, 11:24:10 PM7/16/14
to neoni...@googlegroups.com

I have a ClockTHREE Jr. and love it. 

Paul Parry

unread,
Jul 17, 2014, 4:19:55 AM7/17/14
to neoni...@googlegroups.com
Also seen these here: (or very similar)
 
 
 

Dave

unread,
Jul 17, 2014, 9:35:56 AM7/17/14
to
This is a great blog.
Instead of skipping the messy parts, you show it all and will save others time and money.

I would like to see you to post your code.

Here is another word clock.  What I like is that it show the process of creating and more importantly, mounting a stencil set of words:
Black Stencil based Word Clock

greg...@hotmail.com

unread,
Jul 17, 2014, 1:19:12 PM7/17/14
to neoni...@googlegroups.com
Now, if only these clocks were neon.....swapping NE2's for the LEDs is certainly possible; my big clock uses 306 individual NE2's. The bulbs are not controlled individually, I have them grouped to 72 individual drivers.

I recall that Burroughs made alphabetical nixie tubes. Not segmented tubes, like the 7971, but real fully-formed cathodes shaped like letters. The 5018 purportedly had letters ABCDEFGHJK (note that I' is missing), though I've never seen one. If any of you have been fortunate to make a project with these, please post a picture.

Nicholas Stock

unread,
Jul 17, 2014, 3:40:11 PM7/17/14
to neoni...@googlegroups.com
Greg, I'd be interested in seeing details of your large clock...do you have a blog/website? Can you multiplex NE2's easily...I have no experience with this, just curious.


On Thu, Jul 17, 2014 at 10:19 AM, greg...@hotmail.com <greg...@hotmail.com> wrote:
Now, if only these clocks were neon.....swapping NE2's for the LEDs is certainly possible; my big clock uses 306 individual NE2's. The bulbs are not controlled individually, I have them grouped to 72 individual drivers.

I recall that Burroughs made alphabetical nixie tubes. Not segmented tubes, like the 7971, but real fully-formed cathodes shaped like letters. The 5018 purportedly had letters ABCDEFGHJK (note that I' is missing), though I've never seen one. If any of you have been fortunate to make a project with these, please post a picture.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to neonixie-l+...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to neoni...@googlegroups.com.

greg...@hotmail.com

unread,
Jul 17, 2014, 4:23:58 PM7/17/14
to neoni...@googlegroups.com
Here's a not-so-good picture. Basically the NE2's simulate the large & small hands of a traditional mechanical clock, and the outer digits are nixie tubes. The NE2's are grouped into 36 'rays'. Each ray represents 100 seconds for a minutes-hand, or 20 minutes for the hours hand. The hours hand is shorter, so the rays are split into inner-rays (for the hours and minutes hands), and outer-rays (for the minutes-hand only). Towards the center, the innermost bulb is shared between adjacent rays, because you can make a smaller circle with 18 bulbs than you can with 36 bulbs. 36rays * 8 bulbs per ray = 288 bulbs. Then an additional 18 for the center = 306 bulbs, which means 306 dropping resistors. Yes I had fun soldering this.

Each ray is driven by an opto-triac, which applies AC to the bulbs so both electrodes glow. If I used transistor drivers, it would require DC and therefore only a single electrode would glow. Not only does this reduce brightness, it probably reduces lifetime. The 72 opto-triacs are driven by TTL latches (74LV374), and they are connected in series to reduce PCB and cable wiring. This in-turn is controlled by an FPGA, which sends the light-bulb information serially at about 1 Mhz when the AC-line-voltage is around zero volts. If I did not do this, there would be streaking of other rays. The FPGA monitors the AC-line to know when the zero-cross occurs, and also uses it as the time-base.

Although I developed a PCB for this, I dont intend to sell / give-away the design because I dont have the time to support it. It would take away from my time I want to spend on other projects.
small_nh1clk.jpg

Nicholas Stock

unread,
Jul 17, 2014, 4:44:45 PM7/17/14
to neoni...@googlegroups.com
Very nice! Thanks for sharing.


--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to neonixie-l+...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to neoni...@googlegroups.com.
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages