Scope Clock rising from the ashes

[David Forbes]

Folks,

I have been trying to find a way to fit all my stuff into the storage
room, and realized that it has too many CRTs in it. This has led to me
taking the year off the First Robotics team I've mentored, to get some
free time to design a product that will help me sell all those CRTs.

I am working on reviving my Scope Clocks.

I've decided to go with an Arduino style processor, since it's way more
user-friendly and popular than those wacky Motorola processors I used or
the PICs that the OscilloClock uses. So I'm rewriting the code in C,
which will take a few weeks.

I've also redesigned the board and case to be DIY-friendly, and to
resemble an old 3 inch oscilloscope. I have come up with a circuit board
layout that fits behind the front panel. The panel has the look of a
fifties 'scope, with the intensity and focus knobs at top corners and
the H and V knobs below, and a big time-setting encoder in the lower
center. (Did you know that it's impossible to find high voltage pots and
rotary encoders that share a common knob?)

I've already designed and made a quickie laser-cut case, since I have
access to a laser cutter now. Quick turn fab is marvelous.

I'll post photos when I have something to take photos of.

--
David Forbes, Tucson AZ

[J Forbes]

I like to hear this! For fun, here are a couple pictures of the first Scope Clock I saw, in November 2000. One with flash, one without. Taken with my first digital camera, back when they were a kind of new thing.

http://selectric.org/16main/scope2.jpg

http://selectric.org/16main/scope1.jpg

[Grahame]

On 13/01/2016 06:00, David Forbes wrote:

Folks,

I am working on reviving my Scope Clocks.

Hi everyone

Amazing!
Snap!
Competition!

My scope clock has followed a not dissimilar path. I have a circle drawing scope clock project available as a kit - I also use an Arduino (a Due) - and have a laser cut acrylic chassis as a kit option.

I'm just finishing the code and then finalising the (optional) chassis and case. The clock manual is being written.

Main board:

Power supply


Minimal SMD parts so constructor friendly (I hope).

My target CRT is 100 - 125mm diameter and the boards are designed to be very flexible and suit a wide range of CRTs (including 50mm and 75mm diameter).

I have a supply of new Brimar D10-230 CRTs - 100mm diameter, flat screen in either P31 (green) or P7 (blue/yellow). A nice CRT.

Here's the mark 1 "sit up and beg" experimental chassis (without the dust cover) with the D10-230 held



The whole design is open and open source code. PM me and I'll send a link to the project files.



Grahame

[dixter]

wow,,,,  David,,,   please put me down for one when  you are selling these...  thanks  

dick bell

[John Rehwinkel]

> I have been trying to find a way to fit all my stuff into the storage room, and realized that it has too many CRTs in it. This has led to me taking the year off the First Robotics team I've mentored, to get some free time to design a product that will help me sell all those CRTs.

I too am working on CRT projects. Still wrapping my head around how analog vector generators work. I've got basic designs for the HV supply and deflection amplifiers. I'd like to have a Z-axis driver, so I'm seeing if I can power the logic from the (already floating at cathode potential) heater supply. I'm aiming to have the deflection and anode near ground potential for safety and to avoid waveform distortion if someone touches the screen, so the cathode will be at a largish negative voltage. Current HVPS design is using a slightly modified CCFL inverter and rectifier in a switching power supply control loop. It's performing well, but if I open-source it, I'll redesign it using off-the-shelf parts.

> I've decided to go with an Arduino style processor, since it's way more user-friendly and popular than those wacky Motorola processors I used or the PICs that the OscilloClock uses. So I'm rewriting the code in C, which will take a few weeks.

I too abandoned PIC after one too many issues with DOS-only software, undocumented proprietary interfaces, and frustration with programming in assembler (Atmel is very good with documenting their stuff, an the AVR architecture is more compiler-friendly than the PIC).

> I've also redesigned the board and case to be DIY-friendly, and to resemble an old 3 inch oscilloscope. I have come up with a circuit board layout that fits behind the front panel. The panel has the look of a fifties 'scope, with the intensity and focus knobs at top corners and the H and V knobs below, and a big time-setting encoder in the lower center.

Nice! I do enjoy that æsthetic. I've been building things into older scopes to get the advantage of the nice case and control layout, along with CRT mounting and useful power supply components.

> (Did you know that it's impossible to find high voltage pots and rotary encoders that share a common knob?)

Yes, I am well aware of this!

> I've already designed and made a quickie laser-cut case, since I have access to a laser cutter now. Quick turn fab is marvelous.

Agreed! Still trying to get my personal laser cutter working the way I want to (I'm currently stalled in the process of adding air assist).

> I'll post photos when I have something to take photos of.

Looking forward to it!

- John

[NeonJohn]

Is this going to be like the original scopeclock, in the clear acrylic
case? If so sign me up. I'll find the money tree somewhere... :-)

John

--
John DeArmond
Tellico Plains, Occupied TN
http://www.tnduction.com <-- THE source for induction heaters
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Originals
PGP key: wwwkeys.pgp.net: BCB68D77

[David Forbes]

John,

I am planning to make it available in both wood and acrylic cases. The
laser cutter works on either. There will be bolts and tabs holding it
together, similar to the Makerbot.

The PC board will be SMT, with all the parts visible through the acrylic
front panel. A few thru-hole parts will be on the rear of the panel. I
will have a USB port on the board, and a header to mount a USB jack on
the rear panel of the case.

I do plan to offer it as a board semi-kit (machine-stuffed SMT parts),
and to publish the laser cutter files for people to make their own cases.

I plan to eventually produce a generic board that works with any tube
size, but first I want to get the one done that helps me unload all
those 3RP1 CRTs I have!

David Forbes, Tucson AZ

[NeonJohn]

Good. I've coveted that original clock ever since you first made it but
I couldn't scrape together the shekels :-( Thrilled to get another
opportunity.

Say, could I trade you an induction heater for a clock? :-)

John

[Donald Stramock]

Sign me up too! How many are you planning to offer?

Sent from my iPad

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[David Forbes]

I have a couple hundred transformers and tubes, so I can supply that many clocks.

On 1/13/2016 4:09 PM, Donald Stramock wrote:
> Sign me up too! How many are you planning to offer?
>
> Sent from my iPad
>

--
David Forbes, Tucson, AZ

[Terry S]

So David, I have this huge NOS 5BP1 in my stash, will your kit drive such a monster?

Terry

[Dylan Distasio]

Any idea on pricing so I can start saving :-)?

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[Paul Parry]

Superb work..

Please put me down for one as well, would love to incorporate that into a Steampunk Casing

Cheers,

Paul

[Oscilloclock]

Fantastic news David - can't wait to see the results!

I know from conversations with Grahame how much flexibility the Arduino (and doing it in C!) can give, but I enjoy the assembly challenge so much I can't bear to give in just yet... However, I will have to do something soon, as my PIC has just 27 bytes of 3384B RAM remaining after recent enhancements. It's near top of the 18F lineup, so no simple swap-out will give me more capacity.

[David Forbes]

I feel that the Arduino platform will give many more people the
confidence to modify the code, and to come up with new display modes and
functionality that I wouldn't be able to dream of.

I am part way through translating the code to C, and I will test the
draw function first to make sure that the performance is up to snuff.
Hopefully, I won't have to code it in asm, but I might.

[A. Nonamus]

Is it not possible to find a combination, for which it's easy to build a simple adapter so they can share a knob style, using either 3-D printing or traditional fabrication?

[David Forbes]

I can get the same knob in 1/4 and 1/8 inch, so the only thing that
doesn't fit is the 6mm rotary encoder, which is .014" too small in
diameter. A couple layers of Coke can shim wrapped around the encoder
shaft will fix that.

[Kerry Borgne]

David,

Great news!! 

 I have been patiently (or maybe not so patiently??) waiting for the next incarnation of your scope clock since I missed the last sell off many years ago.. (was it back in 2008???)  Please PLEASE add my name to the list of folks wanting one.  I'm not sure I can bear the wait hehehe..

Thanks,

Kerry

[Kerry Borgne]

 I'm sitting here, trying to remember when i first heard or read about Davids scope clock and my memory has failed me. I know it was many years ago. I do remember seeing someone (David? an agent? someone trying to make a buck or two?) selling the scope clock kits out in the flea market part of the Dayton Hamvention. If memory serves the 'vendor' was located near the back of the lot, near the fence. Now I'm assuming the person was selling authentic "Forbes' oscilloscope clock kits" as this was one of the first times I had ventured down to Dayton from my home in Michigan and back then I don't think anyone else was marketing any type of kit like that!

 Unfortunately I didn't have any extra money back then and came home without a kit to build. I did fully intend to save up my pennies and eventually buy one, but life has a way of changing even the best of plans and that never happened.  Hopefully, maybe this time I'll get a chance to finally have one for myself....

[David Forbes]

Kerry.

The seller at Dayton in 2001 was probably a fellow named Greg Buchwald.
He was a sharp cookie. Worked for Motorola. Last I heard, he was doing
living-people detection in the rubble of the WTC disaster.

[Jens Grabner]

Here is the "Dutchtronix AVR Oscilloscope Clock"
http://www.dutchtronix.com/ScopeClockH3-1-Enhanced.htm