What do you guys think of my homemade Nixiewatch?

[Remco]

Hi guys,

The last year or so I was doing a hobby project of a nixiewatch. I was wondering what you guys think of it.

I got inspired for the case by Craig Smith from this post: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/neonixie-l/RINs0RbaYB8

It features:

- Two small nixie tubes of type z5900m.

- Accurate real time clock.

- Calculations showed that 350 hours standby time was easily achievable.

- Bluetooth for controlling settings and setting the time of the watch as well as seeing the battery status.
- Some Bluetooth settings include: Animation On/Off, Manual or accelerometer triggering of tubes, background led On/Off. Programmable button for seeing temperature of battery      percentage.

- Accelerometer for triggering the tubes when wrist is turned

- 300 mAh battery.

- Powerfull microcontroller.

- Ultra low power microcontroller.

- RGB led for multiple purposes.

- Battery gas gauge IC for accurately monitoring the battery state.

- micro USB for charging the battery.

- One multi direction button for triggering, Bluetooth connection and a programmable button for temperature reading or battery status.

- CNC milled housing from Aluminum.

- Plexiglass window for protection

- Bluetooth phone application.

- Optional time synchronization via WiFi.

- Optional Vibration motor to indicate smartphone notifications like Whatsapp, Facebook, Snapchat, SMS...

[Remco]

Some more pictures. 

Op woensdag 17 juli 2019 15:19:33 UTC+2 schreef Remco:

[Kevin A.]

Very nice!!! To pull off the electrical design, fab and integrate it into an aesthetically pleasing watch design is no small feat. 

My only criticism of the z5900m is the coarse anode. In my opinion the previous style tube you used (Burroughs) with the fine mesh anode is much nicer to look at. But with your modular design, I'm sure swapping tubes is relatively easy to do; the electrical requirements between similarly sized tubes should be very similar if not identical. 

Do you plan on sharing the boards on OshPark and releasing schematics/ firmware for some of us DIYers out there? ;) 

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[HuggerMugger]

COOL!!!

But doesn’t get too for your wrist ...??

 

/Magnus

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[Paul Andrews]

Amazing achievement. Having explored low power nixie tube applications myself, I can appreciate just how hard it is to do something with very constrained requirements like this. I'm curious what processor you used?

[Nicholas Stock]

Anybody done something similar with B4998 tubes? I know Jeff (RIP) was working on a wristwatch using them....

Nick

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[David Forbes]

Nice set of features. The case looks awfully similar to my square Nixie watch. I guess that's where the design converges to.

I'm still puzzled why other people need an RTC chip and a fast computer to make a Nixie watch. I can get excellent results from a PIC running at 32 kHz, keeping time in software to ~1 second per week.

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/CAOX%2BRH%2BBiL6aMp_jQTB-RuUaMkVcg8nJ_3Veg_V6_uSDAkNfpQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Remco]

Thanks Kevin A.

I used the z5900m because these were the smallest i could find.

You are right! I can change the tubes easily but some changes have to be done on the layout of the PCB.

Unfortunately I do not plan to share the design.

 

[Remco]

Thanks Magnus!

Yes it is a bit big on my wrist Being only 23 years old they will probably grow. 

I think the case needs another iteration I still have 2.5 millimeter of aluminium on the bottom part wich can be brought down.

[Remco]

Thank you Paul!

Because of all the features and being still an electronics student on school. 

I used an esp32 processor mainly for its ease of implementation and features.

The esp32 will draw a bit more power then other processors.

[Remco]

Hi!

I used the internal ULP of the ESP32 to do some stuff while the watch is sleeping. This ULP has a very basic set of instructions 

I found it easier to use a separate RTC wich holds the time much better with much more features and at a much lower voltage then the esp32 processor. 

[Paul Andrews]

From your description, it sounded like the esp32. I've started using that myself. It's hard to beat on the features. Did you use the pico d4? That's what I'm using.

[Remco]

Yes I did use the pico. The integrated flash and oscillator make it very handy for tiny products. Also you don't have to worry about EMC/EMI issues.

Op donderdag 18 juli 2019 13:48:16 UTC+2 schreef Paul Andrews:

[SWISSNIXIE - Jonathan F.]

Amazing Work, very well made! How did u make the Case?

The only very small thing i dislike is the screws :D I would have put torx or allen screws there ;)

[Remco]

Thank you

I CNC milled the case out of aluminium and did the holes myself.

It is hard to find screws this small. luckily is found these.

Op zaterdag 20 juli 2019 15:09:12 UTC+2 schreef SWISSNIXIE - Jonathan F.:

[Remco]

Does anyone know how to properly anodize aluminum I still want my case to get anodized.

Cant find a company that will do one case only

[Nicholas Stock]

Where are you located?

Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 20, 2019, at 06:45, Remco <remcoku...@gmail.com> wrote:

Does anyone know how to properly anodize aluminum I still want my case to get anodized.

Cant find a company that will do one case only

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[J Forbes]

I love the slot head screws!  :)

 

The only very small thing i dislike is the screws :D I would have put torx or allen screws there ;)

So...no USB-C connector available? That seems to me to be the only thing about the Cathode Corner watch you copied that's a bit iffy to me.

[Remco]

Hi,

Due to the size of the USB-C connector. And needing an extra long connector I did not choose to use the USB-C.

[Remco]

Holland

[Remco]

A bit of background info...

I got inspired by making the watch from pictures on the web. First I made a 4 tube one Wich worked with ESP32 wroom module. And a small 170V Nixie supply board. I chose the modules for ease of design however this turned out to be too bulky. I then looked into making my own processor board. And power supply. This to get rit of the bulky modules. The power supply turned out to be a tricky design so I turned to the web and found the very nice schematic by David Forbes from Cathode corner. I implemented this schematic design into the watch. The case was iterated from about 56 versions down to the one on the pictures now. The hour cutouts I got inspired by Craig Smith's watch.