Ian Sparkes

[Christopher Jackson]

Hi everyone,

Sorry for my intrusion.

I will have more in a month or so a new design I am working on using Bar Graph IN-13 Nixie Tubes, Arduino based although the languages used are unimportant since I design in a few dozen different Assembly languages.

It is a 33 tube architecture which can act as a weather station using weather related sensors to give the user a moving window of 33 seconds/minutes/hours/days/(years?). The mathematical analyses with incorporate Differential Equations (Fourier and Laplace Transforms and their inverses to switch from Frequency Domains to Time Domain, etc. It will also functions as an Audio Spectrum analyzer in Real Time (That's why I prefer Assembly languages over High Level languages. Discrete Cosine Transforms. The Windows can be static or the analysis data can be delivered un a Wave Function to display Historic Data of an length of time.

The possibilities are endless. 

I've done all of this stuff over my 45 year Professional Career.

I'm retired now but very active in my old stomping grounds.

I am an Aerospace Systems Design, Integration, and Test Principal Engineer for the Commercial, Military, Naval Nuclear Aircraft Carriers, Satellites, Satellites Communications, Space, and Space Platforms Industries with 45 years of Achievements on Programs which had historic impacts worldwide. I’m recognized for my designs never having failed, ever.

My babies are currently deployed in the Middle East in support of Operation Epic Fury. If any of you are interested in that stuff I can only write you about what has been declassified, not about any program which are still active and I always respond to email queries or secure chats via Proton, Signal, TOR, and  Zangi, 

 Has anyone heard from my friend Ian Sparkes?

I ordered a replacement Dekatron kit las November IIRC and it hasn't arrived yet.

Thank you for taking the time to read my ramblings.

John Christopherson
+1 (757) 979-5386


I hope all is well with help

[Richard Scales]

I am fairly sure he is still very active and have certainly heard from him in the last month or so, have you tried emailing him?
Contact details are at: https://www.nixieclock.biz/Contact.html

I am very interested in your IN-13 based project - I have been wanting to build a spectrum analyser for several years, I have experimented with drive circuitry and made the things glow but go no further than that. I did plan to use a big Teensy micro with lots of i/o, one port to drive each tube on a 20 tube system but I suspect that there are more elegant methods. Please do keep us posted on your plans.

- Richard

[David Austerman]

Uh oh. I sent money to him few weeks ago and he was going to ship a numitron clock kit out last Wed but I haven't heard a thing about it going out like that it went or some kind of tracking. I emailed him yesterday and haven't received a reply. He might be out on business or away from his keyboard which I totally understand but I just read where you ordered last November and nothing?? That's alarming. With his great website and online presence in general, he looks to be a real person with lots of cool offerings and creations though!

[Richard Scales]

He absolutely is!

 - Richard

[David Austerman]

I’m glad to hear that! Just received an email from him so all is good. I told him I got nervous reading this thread in the context of our world full of scammers. These niche hobbies rarely attract the amount of scammers that other realms have because most people don’t even know what we are talking about lol. I once had a guy try to take me online on a Hickok tube tester but I figured it out long before I sent funds to him. 

So OP Christoper, just email him. He’s around and very helpful and responsive guy!

[David Austerman]

Also, he appears to be a wizard at all of this. His creations are crazy cool.