brightest nixie tube clock already assembled

[Keith]

I am wanting to purchase a nixie tube clock already built but I would like to get one that has the most brightness. I was looking at in-18 size nixie tubes. When looking at some the brightness is not that bright. So far I found this one to be a brightest unless it's just Photoshop or because the ambient lighting around it is darker. Does anyone have any recommendations for where to buy one that has a good reputation but does not cost an arm and a leg like this does?

$500 is a bit much

http://nixieshop.com/in-18-clock.html

[Terry S]

Brightness is a trade off with tube life, so consider that before you look for the brightest clock. Does it need to be visible in direct sunlight?

Why does it need to be so bright?

This particular clock looks like it direct drive, non multiplexed, so chances are it is bright enough. But don't trust the photos.

[Nicholas Stock]

Consider that a set of IN18 tubes alone will set you back at least 300 dollars or thereabouts, then 500 for a completed clock is more than reasonable price I think.....they are not cheap tubes anymore alas...

Sent from my iPhone

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[Jeff Walton]

Keith,

 

Photo editing and a dark background can make anything look spectacular.  The IN-18 is a nice looking tube that is still in some supply.  Having said that, the price of tubes in the open market is $40-$60 each on ebay, so if there is already $250-$350 tied up in just the tubes, use that as a consideration of what a clock costs.  There are a lot of nice kits out there that are feature rich and easy to build.  You can purchase kits for $100-$150 from places like PV Electronics and there are cases available as well.

 

“Arm and a leg” description is a relative term.  When it comes to nixie clocks, the larger the display tube, the higher the premium.  The prices are likely not going to get better as the tubes continue to get scarce...

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[gregebert]

Considering the prices of IN-18's these days, if you can get an assembled 6-tube clock for 500 USD, it sounds reasonable to me.

I wont confess how much I've spent completing 4 nixie clock designs the past 6 years, but to give you a rough idea each run for a PCB is at least $100 ($300 for a large board), another $100 for parts, easily $50 for the case. And then there's tubes. So it's conceivable you would spend as much, and probably more, doing your own design versus buying.

Buying (enjoy it now) vs building (it will take about 1 year, and a lot of your time) can be a tough decision.

[Jeff Walton]

In this member response: “Buying (enjoy it now) vs building (it will take about 1 year, and a lot of your time) can be a tough decision.”  I think that the term “building” is maybe meaning to design.  You can buy a kit that can be built in several hours with great results...

 

 

 

From: neoni...@googlegroups.com [mailto:neoni...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of gregebert

Sent: Friday, March 10, 2017 2:21 PM
To: neonixie-l

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[Roddy Scott]

If you are looking to buy a Nixie clock with bright tubes with clear digits then you really have to look at the bigger tubes such as Z566M, Z5660M, ZM1040 and as you mentioned, IN-18. These tubes give exceptional clarity in their displays but as you pointed out, they are expensive as a ready built clock. Buying a kit such as a PV Electronics Spectrum kit and the tubes themselves will still set you back around $400 to $450 but then you have the satisfaction of knowing you built it yourself.

There are a lot of smaller tubes that have good display qualities and these range from the diminutive IN-17 up to tubes like the ZM1020 which is an end view tube or if you want a vertical tube then something like the IN-8 which has very clear digits. As previous replies have told you, IN-18 tubes and their likes are expensive and if you can find them for less than $350 then you are lucky.

The ultimate in quality tubes available in quantity just now are those of Dalibor Farny, the R|Z568M which is a masterpiece of workmanship but are $145 each! If you think that is expensive then try and buy a set of RODAN Okaya CD47s!

You can quite easily build a very good clock for around $150 including board, tubes and power supply. Add $40 more and you could get THIS CLOCK.

If you search Fleabay for Nixie Clocks you will see the variety that is available and the range of prices. If you want better photographs of any clock then just contact the seller and ask for them.

BTW, the clock you looked at is out of stock and when it does come back in stock it will probably be dearer due to teh increase on IN-18 tube prices.

As in all things, you get what you pay for.

The photo shows a Z566M clock with a IN-14 board in front of it. Taken in daylight so you can see how 'bright' the digits are even with the RGB tube lighting on.

By the time the Z566M clock is finished and in a custom built case, it will be worth a lot more than the $350 I paid for the components 

[Keith]

Thank you all for your suggestions and advice. With regards to building one myself that's not an option. I'm actually a quadriplegic and don't have use of my hands.

I know Roddy Scott gave some advice as to which tubes to look for for brightness and clarity, thank you for that. I will google all of them and decide which I can try to look for in an already built clock.

Thanks again

Does anyone have any advice on some clocks that are already built?

[Paul Andrews]

Interesting. I played around with adding Alexa support to one of my clocks. Nothing fancy, just being able to turn the alarm on and off, the backlights on and off etc. Basically it made it look like multiple wemo devices so all the commands were things like 'Alexa turn backlight off'

The alarm thing was actually pretty tricky because 'alarm' is already an Alexa feature, so I had to call it something else.

[Paul Andrews]

I like the clocks from these guys: http://www.ebay.com/usr/gra_and_afch_2?_trksid=p2053788.m1543.l2754 They are direct drive so as bright as they can be. They come in various forms, so you would probably want to make sure you at least bought one with the arduino included. They have one with a case here: 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/IN-14-NIXIE-Tubes-Clock-Musical-USB-RGB-Arduino-Divergence-Meter-GRA-AFCH-/162261613376?hash=item25c78bbb40:g:l2wAAOSwB09YFdZE

[chuck richards]

Let me see if I understand this correctly:

You want a bright clock. You want a high-quality clock.
You want a preassembled, tested, working clock.

But you don't want to spend much money on it.

Choose any two things from the following list:

1) inexpensive.
2) high quality.
3) nice and bright.

Again, you may have any TWO of these things.
But NOT all THREE at the same time.

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Subject: [neonixie-l] Re: brightest nixie tube clock already assembled

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[ten kowal]

Direct driven nixie clock don't have to be brighter. Many multiplexed ones are driven with higher pulse current - which is still acceptable according to datasheets (it was acceptable to drive nixies with half-wave rectified mains! Something that no one with brains would design today). It again comes to decision of constructor - better visibility or undercurrenting to increase life*. I personally have built only one clock, with Z566M tubes, which are in my opinion the most beautuful tubes - right proportions, high quality, curved digits and great thickness of gas coating around digits. I am multiplexing them at 4mA (datasheets suggest 4,5mA in direct drive) and digits are barely visible in strong sunlight - as spring is around the corner, I will probably adjust it to around 8-10mA, because more and more sun will come to my room :)

*I am not sure if strong undercurrenting will increase tube life. I aim at point between lowest and average value in datasheet.

Keith, I would suggest searching for top view tube clocks. They are generally cheaper, but in my opinion they look as good as side view tubes, they are less likely to be broken and these can actually look good with LED underlight (this is a phenomena I can't understand - in tube clock, the nixies should be the main thing that catches your eye). There is a small company in Poland, which creates beautiful clocks using Polish end view tubes: LC-513 and LC-516, which are (as far as I know) interchangeable with IN-1 and Z560M, respectively. These clocks can be purchased as finished products or as kits.

http://www.electronixclock.pl/nasze-zegary/zegary-gotowe/electronixclock-4xlc516/

http://www.electronixclock.pl/nasze-zegary/zegary-gotowe/electronixclock-4xlc513/

Both cost about 125$ without shipping.

Unfortunately, the site is in Polish only - but if you want, I can try to get them to contact with you. These clocks are well documented, as they are open source projects (again, documentation is avaible only on Polish forum elektroda.pl, I will find links and help to translate them if needed).

If not those clocks, try searching for Z560M clocks - those are beautiful and cheap tubes (here in Poland about 2,5$ for used tube)

[Paul Andrews]

They are nice lookinng clocks, BTW there is an option to select English as the language on the web site.

The LC-516 looks like a polish version of the IN-1. Does it have the same issue with tube lifetime? i.e. does it also not include mercury to extend the life of the tube?

[Tomasz Kowalczyk]

I don't know anything about their lifetime issues. I can't find a single thread on Polish forums in which someone would complain about them. I have even found someone, who put LC-516 in his clock in 2007, and at time of posting in 2014 one of them had two digits shorted, but other than that they were still fine. Clock was working all time and was direct driven, no info about any cleansing routines.

By the way: are Dolam tubes popular out of Poland? there aren't many of them on Ebay.

[Roddy Scott]

This from danyk.cz in regards to lifetime expectancy.

This is probably caused by the addition of mercury, which limits evaporation of the cathode material and cathode poisoning. The lifetime is still several times underestimated, it is a minimum guaranteed lifetime. With proper handling, of mercury-enriched nixie can serve without any problem more than 5 or even 10 years of continuous operation. Especially if all of the cathodes are used evenly and sufficiently often alternated. When used in clocks it is therefore possible to achieve greater durability, particularly in frequently changing digits (seconds), than in the nixie measurement equipment, where most of the time, when they're not active, showed all zeros.

Dolam LC-516 contain mercury so you can expect a reasonable lifetime from them for your clock if you use them. I have had IN-1 tubes fail in a few weeks while others have ran for a couple of years. As with all tubes there are good production runs and there are bad production runs, it is a case of suck it and see. With technology from the 70s and 80s you cannot expect a cast iron guarantee for performance.

The brightest tubes I have in clocks are Z566Ms and a set of the hens teeth  ITT GNP-7AHs. After saying that, the set up of a tube is what will give the optimum in performance and longevity. Correct voltage and current will always get the best out of any tube, that is why we have data sheets from the manufacturers to assist us in design and circuitry.

[Alic]

Tomasz :
If you have a source for LC-631, I think you would become quite popular here ;-)

[Tomasz Kowalczyk]

They are hella rare even here. I'm currently "contacting" with some man, who has 19 of them (all used), his price is laughably low, but I'm e-mailing with him for 2 months now, and he still doesn't have time to package all stuff and check how much the postage will be... so I'm afraid I will end up without them :(

To be honest about their rarity: I've lurked archives of polish version of Ebay, Allegro. excluding auctions, which didn't have a buyer, so they ended up being posted again, there were 13 auctions for tubes and one for clock made with LC-631s in last 8 years. Half of them were cheap and obviously purchased quickly (like 3.5$ for NOS), some offered tubes so used, they had a black coating in front of anodes, and some were 20$ per used tube - for a collector it would be still reasonable, but it is easier to buy a used Z566M for ~15$, which is prettier and more durable :)

[Tomasz Kowalczyk]

Fun fact about LC-516 and why they look a bit different from IN-1 (hexagonal grid):

LC-516 was made in a very similar way as LC-513 were done with same method (probably same machines to save costs), and later they had B13B to U11 adapter glued to them. I found photos of an LC-516 with black part taken off:

http://obrazki.elektroda.pl/3143775400_1361302255.jpg

http://obrazki.elektroda.pl/2781526900_1361307069.jpg

I wonder what would happen if the plastic part of IN-1 would be removed... unfortunately I don't own any.

[David Skin]

As far as I know, almost all the models have brightness in tubes. Are you talking about the blue light? They usually don't post pictures of blue light, like here https://nixietubesclock.com/products/ but they do have that option. Just ask about it. 

[alex nolan]

I've been lucky enough to purchase some LC-631 for my collection over the years. They're not the most expensive tubes I own, but they're definitely at the top in terms of rarity. It's a shame Meratronik didn't use LC-631 instead of Z566M, which are now abundantly sold after being removed from those old voltmeters.

[Michail Wilson]

David,

That was a thread from 2017.

 

Michail

 

 

From: neoni...@googlegroups.com <neoni...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of David Skin
Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2020 5:36 AM
To: neonixie-l <neoni...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [neonixie-l] Re: brightest nixie tube clock already assembled

 

As far as I know, almost all the models have brightness in tubes. Are you talking about the blue light? They usually don't post pictures of blue light, like here https://nixietubesclock.com/products/ but they do have that option. Just ask about it.