LED Word Clock

[Mitch]

I've been wanting to design a word clock for a while. I have several, but with the escalating cost of B7971 tubes and their increasing scarcity, I didn't think that would be a good option, especially since each of my three kids wants one. So I decided to use 16 segment, .8" LEDS instead. They are cheap individually, and cheap as dirt in quantities.

The software has a long way to go, probably another couple months before a first release is ready. These are the features I will add:

Change effects and some options similar to the original Wesling FLW.

Several libraries of words including bad words on the SD card, in easily editable text files, grouped by language.

Fonts also in text files on the SD card associated with word files, so multiple languages will be supported and displayed simultaneously

Several levels of bad word display, similar to the original FLW

Four, five, or six letter words grouped or mixed

Time using NTP or GPS

Light sensor to adjust brightness

COLONS! I really wanted colons to properly display time. I think the spacing between displays is a good compromise between time and words. The colon LEDs will move 2mm farther apart in the next revision.

Setup using a web browser

This board includes four transistors and eight resistors to drive the colons. Stupidly, I didn't think that since the 16 segment x 8 character display driver chip was only using six displays, 32 extra segments were available to drive LEDs. The next revision will eliminate all of those parts.

[Bill Notfaded]

That's sweet Mitch! I like it. I love my badnixie alphanumeric clocks (my favorite) but other alpha numeric's are awesome and open up so many other options vs just numbers. The vfd tubes are also a neat option and price available in quantity. IV-4 and IV-17 I think they are? Your modern electronics would be really awesome with any alphanumerics! Perhaps if sticking to LED how about even bigger ones? Just some ideas... The one thing that's hard to match though are the nixie fade effects... Vfd's and LED's just don't seem to have an equivalent for that. Some alternatives like slides in/out and build up/tear downs, and slot machine effects are there at least.

Bill

[Mitch Feig]

Thanks, Bill. I will add all of the effects the original FLW has, and everything the MOD-6 has except for fading. It will be easy for anyone to add different fonts and languages, too. 

One company that I known of makes 2.3" displays. I'm not sure that they will be compatible, but I will check at some point. The . 8" displays I'm using now are readable at 20 feet. 

Regards,

Mitch

On Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 7:21 PM Bill Notfaded <notf...@gmail.com> wrote:

That's sweet Mitch!  I like it.  I love my badnixie alphanumeric clocks (my favorite) but other alpha numeric's are awesome and open up so many other options vs just numbers. The vfd tubes are also a neat option and price available in quantity.  IV-4 and IV-17 I think they are?  Your modern electronics would be really awesome with any alphanumerics!  Perhaps if sticking to LED how about even bigger ones?  Just some ideas... The one thing that's hard to match though are the nixie fade effects... Vfd's and LED's just don't seem to have an equivalent for that.  Some alternatives like slides in/out and build up/tear downs, and slot machine effects are there at least.

Bill

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[Terry Kennedy]

On Thursday, July 25, 2019 at 7:49:04 PM UTC-4, Mitch wrote:

One company that I known of makes 2.3" displays. I'm not sure that they will be compatible, but I will check at some point. The . 8" displays I'm using now are readable at 20 feet. 

evilmadscience has (I think, I didn't look lately) several different large sizes in both common-anode and common-cathode configuration and a variety of colors.

BTW, some MOD-6 development is done on boards with LED displays (less likely to fall off the bench and smash expensive tubes). And no, that version isn't available, sorry.

[Nicholas Stock]

http://www.opto-electronics.com.cn/display-diode/seven-segment-led/alphanumeric-led/2.3-inch-alphanumeric-led.html

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[Bill Notfaded]

https://www.mouser.com/Optoelectronics/Displays/LED-Displays-Accessories/_/N-6j734?P=1z0j231

There's some nice 14 segment LED displays 4sure!  Keep looking for bigger ones!

Bill

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[Mitch Feig]

Terry, the 2.3" displays will require extra driver circuitry. Some segments use two LEDs, and some four LEDs. We'll see once I finish the software.

I think a large LED version of the MOD-6 would be a great, especially considering the price of B7971 tubes now. I would certainly buy one to join my two MOD-6s.

Regards,

Mitch

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[Mitch Feig]

They draw more current so will require extra driver circuitry. We'll see.

Thanks, Bill.

Mitch

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[Bill Notfaded]

I've thought of bigger than six too... Why not 8 or 10!  You can make a whole lot more words.

Bill

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[Terry Kennedy]

On Thursday, July 25, 2019 at 9:36:59 PM UTC-4, Mitch wrote:

I think a large LED version of the MOD-6 would be a great, especially considering the price of B7971 tubes now. I would certainly buy one to join my two MOD-6s.

The problem is that there aren't going to be many people willing to pay $675 (last published price for an assembled MOD-6 + RPTR-OLED) to drive maybe $42 worth of LEDs (evilmadscience price for 6 x 2.3" red 14-segment displays). We are thinking about a cost-reduced version of the MOD-6 with LEDs, perhaps in a "bring your own case" type offering. But that won't happen until the next product is out the door. Keep an eye on http://badnixie.com/Badnixie.com_Welcome.html for announcements. 

[Mike Mitchell]

A few years ago I built a clock using 14-segment displays, as shown in the attached photo.

I have it scrolling RSS feeds, one from a weather service, another news headlines.

It also shows the date, the phase of the moon, calendar events, and proverbs.

Time is sync'd using NTP.

The 14-segment displays I used are from adafruit, https://www.adafruit.com/product/2159

The large time display is also from adafruit, https://www.adafruit.com/product/1268

[Bill Notfaded]

Wow Mike that's a really cool clock.  I just love the alphanumerics.  The ultimate is neon alphanumerics and we all know what requires... some really hard to find tubes but dang they sure are awesome!!!

Bill

[H. Carl Ott]

The "solid state" MOD-SIXs. The old big one and a mini,

 I use them for CPU testing and code development. Like Terry mentioned, reduces risk of damage to any of my increasingly precious tubes. 

I already blew out some of the driver chips on the mini this morning doing something stupid.  Will swap them out later.  

   

carl
--------------------------------------------------------
Henry Carl Ott   N2RVQ    hcar...@gmail.com

On Fri, Jul 26, 2019 at 7:28 AM Bill Notfaded <notf...@gmail.com> wrote:

Wow Mike that's a really cool clock.  I just love the alphanumerics.  The ultimate is neon alphanumerics and we all know what requires... some really hard to find tubes but dang they sure are awesome!!!

Bill

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[【ツ】John Smout]

Replacement ‘Union Flag’ alphanumeric LED displays have been custom made in orange, to closely match the neon in old pinball displays. Rottendog make modules using them. Maybe they would supply the individual displays, I don’t know.

John S

[Mitch]

Orange, 2.3" 16 segment alphanumeric displays are available here. Thanks, Nick.

https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/large-2-3-alphanumeric-led-16_60316006912.html

[Bill Notfaded]

That's neat Carl I like it... It's what makes the mod-six possible!  The whole small display fits on the driver board!  One thing I really love about the mod-six is the rotary encoder input.  Combined with alphanumeric output display of the Burroughs tubes it's a massively superior interface.  Completely intuitive which is not what you could say about most clock configuration interfaces.

Thanks,

Bill

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[Mark Moulding]

A while back I picked up a bunch of Wamco KW-104AL displays, which are tiny 16-segment incandescent displays, with the idea of building a FLW pocket watch.  The pocket watch enclosure has a few advantages.  First, it's OK for it to be a bit out-sized, compared to a wrist watch.  Also, it has a stem, which can couple to both a rotary encoder and a button for the interface.  However, I picked up a few pocket watch cases on eBay, and it's still a really tight fit.  The displays are great, though - they're incredibly easy to drive, rugged, and I think they look very nice.  They match the steampunk aesthetic of the brass pocket watch very well.

I really lucked out with the displays; I got a couple dozen for about ten bucks (plus shipping), and they all seem to be good.  (I've used a lot of Numitrons - and the Russian equivalents - in the past, and they're a very rugged, tolerant, and long-lasting technology.  I've never had one fail except when horribly abused.  One actually broke open on my art car at Burning Man, and continued to function *without the glass envelope* for several hours!)

~~
Mark Moulding

[Nicholas Stock]

Picture?? Sounds cool.

Numitrons are very rugged devices...

Sent from my iPhone

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[Robert L]

Hi guys,

This is a cool thread and has given me several ideas... Many thanks all!

This is my dev board with the common modular clock controller pcba on the back of an 8 "tube" display card. The display card can be configured for 2, 4, 6 or 8 "tubes"... Daisy chained to more...

Image captured in mid-fade of the 1 second tube:

And a short video:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Uoxqrm5MG4DjH6VdA

Best regards,

Bob

[Bill Notfaded]

Really cool Bob!  What is the modular clock controller you're using?  Where you can buy or build those from?

Thanks,

Bill

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[blkadder]

I love the thought of a word clock.  I would love to be able to get a kit and build one.  Here is a link to some massive 3" LED displays for a truly huge clock.

https://www.aliexpress.com LED Display

[Mitch]

Being retired has its advantages. I've been working on the software for the last few days with minor interruptions, and it's coming along nicely.

Font and expletive files are loaded from the SD card and stored in memory. The word file is accessed one word at a time, directly from the SD card. Everything is plain text so the files can easily be edited on a PC with any text editor. Multiple languages are supported with separate font, expletive, and word files for each. At some point I'll make them work together, with options to use each language for a specified mix of words expressed as a percentage. I'm working on that now with the expletive file. 

This project started with my clock software, so it will have automatic DST, NTP or GPS, three different sleep/off periods, etc. No alarms. I hate alarms.

Still lots to do, but I think a first version will be ready sometime next month. 

Flickering is only in the video, it is otherwise not noticeable.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1gqdbpl-0Y7T-AqMOrVnX94LucjA_LTFi

[Mitch]

Sorry. Wrong video.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1vEk3Gs5hPDzQu8PpPNUDxuHYG8yFYmSf

[【ツ】John Smout]

Perhaps it’s worth mentioning that Simon Law and I collaborated to amend PCBs and code for smartsockets back in 2010, so that they could drive LED ‘Union flag’ ‘Starburst’ ‘Alphanumeric' displays.

Details etc on the smartsocket group, which is, as always, at:

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/smartsockets/info

John S

[Bill Notfaded]

Also B-5971 tubes recently thanks to our own Michail Wilson!  He revived the smart socket design and software to bring back these smartsockets which are much more rare then even the venerable B-7971.  Both of the Burroughs B-8971 and B-5971 are considerably harder to find and building anything with them it's basically building with unobtanium I'd say.  A few people in the group had found some B-8971 but they came from very few sources from what I've seen so far.  As rare as the B-7971 are... they're almost common compared to the others.

https://youtu.be/iLKPCw44XEs

But big props to Michail for bringing the old smartsockets back to life again.  He really went the distance putting together kits for a few of us so we could complete our Burroughs alphanumeric tube clock collections.  It's pretty sweet to have the B-5971, B-7971, and B-8971 tubes all running in clocks.

And of course mega props to Michael Barile and Carl Ott who made the B-8971 unobtanium bad-nixie "black emerald" clock possible!!!  It doesn't get better than this people.  It's a good as it gets!

https://youtu.be/hKvchAddvb0

I'd be comfortable in saying they've made some of the best Nixie clocks in the entire world period.

Best Regards and keep the Nixie alive!!!

Bill

On Sat, Jul 27, 2019, 12:44 PM 【ツ】John Smout <j...@jsdesign.co.uk> wrote:

Perhaps it’s worth mentioning that Simon Law and collaborated to amend PCBs and code for smartsockets back in 2010, so that they could drive LED ‘Union flag’ ‘Starburst’ ‘Alphanumeric' displays.

Details etc on the smartsocket group, which is, as always, at:

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/smartsockets/info

John S

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