Shameless Plug: Arduino Shield for a Dekatron

[threeneurons]

If you're familiar with the Arduino, here's a shield that will plug into an Arduino Uno, so that sketches can control the dekatron. It also has an A101 socket built in. I have three sample sketches available, and more to come. No charge on the sketches.

Dekatron Shield Kit

Video

[Nick]

Lovely job as always!

Nick

[Terry S]

Looks like I may have to buy yet another cool kit from you! So much potential with the Arduino.... 

[Mich...@aol.com]

Only 2.  Thanks.  :)

 

Michail 

[blkadder]

I was lucky enough to grab the last one listed on ebay.  I look forward to putting another Dekatron back in action.

Ron

[Paul Andrews]

Now I might have to buy a dekatron!

On Wednesday, May 10, 2017 at 2:29:40 AM UTC-4, threeneurons wrote:

[Terry S]

Pretty sure Mike will make some more....

[Keith Moore]

Hero Mike, 

I went to grab some and they they are gone. :-(  Make more! I am an arduino freak and a dekatron freak. Very excited to get a few of these.

- Keith  

On Wednesday, May 10, 2017 at 2:29:40 AM UTC-4, threeneurons wrote:

[threeneurons]

I've got plenty of boards, and most of the parts. Looked in my 1uf 250V bin, which usually has plenty of parts, and its damn near empty. Have them on order, from two places (can never have enough), and will kit, and list them, when ready. Hopefully, early next week.

I've got plenty of project ideas, based around this board. So, if I don't get hit by a truck (higher probability than you would think), I should be stocking this kit for a good long time. 

[Paul Andrews]

Will this work with OG-7? How will I socket it?

On Wednesday, May 10, 2017 at 2:29:40 AM UTC-4, threeneurons wrote:

[threeneurons]

On Thursday, May 11, 2017 at 1:30:39 PM UTC-7, Paul Andrews wrote:

Will this work with OG-7? How will I socket it?

The OG-7 is a high speed tube. It has the OG-4 pin out. If you think of the the OG-4 as being a Russian 6802, the OG-7 is the Russian 6909.

I specifically made this kit for orange neon tubes. Those are the best behaved. And the Russian A101 (in my experience) is the most forgiving, and reliable dekatron ever ! That's compare to everything, both from the West and Communist Block. The next best, in my opinion, is the 6802, followed by the rest of the orange/neon 2-guide tubes. The little GC10/2P and 6879 being the pickiest, of the orange tubes. But by far, all the orange/neon 2-guide tubes are the friendliest of all dekatrons.

High speeds, in general, are a pain is [backside] ! Most need a higher voltage, and current, which may be too much for the supply provided on this board. To make it work, the on-board supply may need to be bypassed, and a more traditional boost supply used, tapped off of Vin (see DC power jack of the Arduino). Vin needs to be more than 9V, then. I recommend against any "high speed" (OG-3, OG-7, OG-8, A102, A103, 6909, 6910, DK23, GC10D ...) with this kit.

The board only has the A101 socket. To use other tubes (orange only), there is the connector J1, which has the 5 requisite signals, arranged in the same pinout, that I've used since my first clock kit, and earlier. 

[Paul Andrews]

Thanks. I ordered an A101 because I figured I should start out with what you were using in your video. I also ordered an A103 because, you know, purple! So all I need now is a few of your kits for the little project I have in mind.

[threeneurons]

Just relisted some more kits. Will be kitting more, so the available count may bump up occasionally, or it will be relisted again. In short, I have more.

Dekatron Shield Kit

Video

[Paul Andrews]

Because we are all about clocks. Here is a clock implemented using this shield: https://youtu.be/LNCbABuIcr0
The display looks flickery in the video, but it isn't in real life. I need to tidy the code up a bit, then I'll upload it to github. I'll leave it as an excercise to the reader to figure out how to set the initial time.

[gregebert]

A101 ? How fast are you running it ? I'm amazed how well 3 distinct dots show up.

[Dave]

Very Nicely done !

[threeneurons]

Wow ! That's just way too cool !

On Wednesday, May 31, 2017 at 9:53:22 PM UTC-7, Paul Andrews wrote:

: https://youtu.be/LNCbABuIcr0

[Paul Andrews]

Clock code is on my github. This is a video of it running at 100x.

@greg. Yes it is an A101. I step between 'lit pins' about once every 80-100us. I linger on each lit pin for about 7000us.

It was inspired both those small persistence-of-vision USB clock/fan gizmos.

[threeneurons]

Just occurred to me, that hours may be a bit weird. A dekatron having 30 rods, works well for seconds and minutes. For those hands, just advance their locations, once every 2 seconds, or minutes, respective of which hand, it represents.

Hours is a bit odd. That's why on my original one dekatron clock, the "hour hand" dithers, around the correct hour position, since 30 doesn't divide evenly into 12.

But if its truly an analog representation, that need not be a requirement. Since on an old analog clock, all hands were in constant motion. So here, the "hours hand", advances every 24 minutes (0.4 hour), assuming a 12-hour clock.

[Paul Andrews]

In the code as it stands, simple integer math is used, I.e. results are truncated from their full real value. I had been considering widening the hour indicator to two pins, so that it could be distinguished from the minutes (seconds is easily distinguished because it moves faster). Dithering (or anti-aliasing I guess) the hour hand would be an interesting challenge. The likely downside is that it would be dimmer, although now I think about it that might also be an interesting way  of providing a visual distinction between the hands. 

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[Jon D.]

When I go look at the Github, I only see a readme.md file and no code. Am I missing something?

[Paul Andrews]

It should be there now...

On Jun 2, 2017, at 7:54 AM, Jon D. <jond...@gmail.com> wrote:

When I go look at the Github, I only see a readme.md file and no code. Am I missing something?

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[Jon D.]

I see it now Paul.  Thanks.

[Paul Andrews]

I modified it so you can set the brightness of each pin, so the hour now defaults to be brighter than the other two. 

I briefly tried anti-aliasing the hour hand, but that would be a much more invasive change. The hack I tried was not good!

On Jun 2, 2017, at 8:20 AM, Jon D. <jond...@gmail.com> wrote:

I see it now Paul.  Thanks.

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