Jeff Thomas WWVB clock

[Terry S]

I was poking around the archived Jeff Thomas site this morning, and reading up on the WWVB radio controlled clock. Jeff wrote that only one was built, and delivered to a celeb in Vegas.

I was collaborating with Jeff on another small project back in those days, and he sent me a PCB & tubes to build the clock. Is it possible I have the only other WWVB clock of Jeff's design in existence? All this time I was under the impression that he had sold these clocks to others.

It uses the enormous Z568M tubes.... and has worked flawlessly for 13 years. Several years ago, I fixed a problem with cathode poisoning, with Jeff's generous help.

Anyone else have an example?

Terry

[Nicholas Stock]

I have one too.

Nick

Sent from my iPhone

--
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/82245705-44db-49e9-ae05-15008351f1f9%40googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[Nicholas Stock]

[Nick]

Nice. Similar to the Nixisat too. I love my Nixisat - WWVB wouldn't make much sense in Blighty...

Nick (t'other one)

[Dan Harboe Burer]

Beautiful

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/CAOX%2BRHLtucd4VbvXxnbWcfSYwgd7j3G6TaHpMrTQa8%3DLd5F45Q%40mail.gmail.com.

[Terry S]

Here's mine. Please excuse the reflections.

The glue joints in the acrylic haven't aged so well. Might need to re-do that one day.

I hand built the wooden base. 

[Nicholas Stock]

Nicely done. Solvent welded acrylic joints sometimes bubble over time...had that problem myself.

Nick

Sent from my iPhone

--

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/36cccfb2-0fab-4e33-9ca3-cde623ee947a%40googlegroups.com.

[MichaelB]

There's another one-to-be out there. I got hold of an original PCB from one of our kind MOD-SIX customers and with the help of another WWVB owner am currently building one. Very excited to get it running!

[Terry S]

Very cool. The trickiest part will be the clock module mods. Have you found the Quartex module yet?

Terry

[Terry S]

Michael, to avoid cathode poisoning of those expensive tubes, you'll want to "replace the anode resistors with 10K 1w flameproof" resistors.

I put that in quotes because that is straight from Jeff Thomas' email on the subject.

Also from Jeff: "Use a slightly higher voltage output AC power transformer. The original is 14V if I remember correctly,  and preferably select a 16VAC @ 500ma"

Terry

On Saturday, December 19, 2015 at 7:25:08 PM UTC-6, MichaelB wrote:

[MichaelB]

Yes, they are still very much available on the Klockit site

[MichaelB]

Hey Terri, thanks, yeah I have plenty of those 10K 1 watts in stock that I use on Jeff's NIxiSat clocks. See attached NixiSat Schematic with notes from the 'master'. He was an amazing guy and was always willing to help! Would have loved to banter with him about the WWVB. He and I only talked about the NixiSat as that was what I wanted to resurrect at the time. Now I wish I had the time to chat about the WWVB. Oh well. But as I understand it, he was not all that enthused with the WWVB after the Sat was released. Others may know better than me.

[Mich...@aol.com]

It you don't have the WWVB clock mech, I would happily donate one to you.

 

Personally, I think one would be better off with a specific WWVB reception module (no hacking of the clock).  I got those as well.  (eBay, of course).

 

Michail Wilson
206-920-6312

[MichaelB]

Thx Michail, I'm good there. I bought 2 of them. One for screw ups. ;-)

Clock is not really hacked to work with the Klockit mechanism, but the Klockit sure is.

[emuman100]

I have built Jeff's WWVB nixie clock using B5870S nixies using his wonderful schematic and his PIC code. I had this very same quartex module that I used in a dial clock. In 2012, I decided to build his design. It worked absolutely beautiful and had it running perfectly for months. During a time change, the module would increment really fast. It still is one of my favorite designs, and love the clever use of a WWVB module designed to drive a clock movement motor being used to increment counters. I had wondered if it was possible if there was a WWVB data output somewhere on the quartex board, and I thought I found one, but was unsure. At the time, Jeff was also unaware. I wanted to use it as a "signal indicator", but I was unable to find it. I'm not sure what I actually found. Attached are pictures of my build.

The quartex module sold today is completely different that the one used in Jeff's design. The one sold by Klockit is a completely different design. You may be able to find the original version on Amazon, but I'm not really sure. I wanted to get a few more of the originals anyway, so I'll go looking.

MichaelB, I wanted to build Jeff's NixiChron. Thank you for posting the schematic. Do you have the software for it?

Jonathan

[MichaelB]

Email me: badn...@badnixie.com

[emuman100]

I have found the link I saved. The picture shows the right movement, but I'm not sure if this is what you'll get or if they are selling the newer version with the old picture. It can be found here.

On Saturday, December 19, 2015 at 11:56:16 AM UTC-5, Terry S wrote:

[MichaelB]

A totally different movement is sold now. Would have to be 're-hacked'. I know, I bought one and had to find one of the originals.

[emuman100]

I purchased a new one too. I think there are three phototransistors and three IR LEDs from what I could remember. Extensive hacking would be required for this more "intelligent" version. With a good signal, the old one worked very nicely with Jeff's design. Here you can see a video of this WWVB clock I built during a DST switch over. It's incrementing really fast until it sets to the proper time.