Elektronika 7-06M

[Terry Kennedy]

Not quite a Nixie, but possibly of interest to the group, is the
Elektronika 7-06M clock. It is a 1980's Soviet clock which uses 16
IV-26 VFDs to display the time. Brian Stuckey at TubeClockDB once
called it "so unique it has its own Wikipedia entry".

I've posted a detailed article about the design, operation, and
refurbishing of one of these clocks on my blog: http://www.tmk.com/blog/?p=310

This is the "baby" Elektronika 7 model - I'll be posting another
article covering the 48-tube version in the future.

[Quixotic Nixotic]

On 28 Jun 2012, at 03:48, Terry Kennedy wrote:

> Brian Stuckey at TubeClockDB once
> called it "so unique it has its own Wikipedia entry".

Which strangely is orphaned from the entry at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elektronika, which does not even mention clocks.

Very nice restoration, I'd love one of those clocks but I guess everyone will be on the hunt for them now.

John S

[Terry Kennedy]

On Jun 28, 2:23 am, Quixotic Nixotic <nixci...@jsdesign.co.uk> wrote:
> Which strangely is orphaned from the entry athttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elektronika, which does not even mention clocks.

Elektronika seems to have been a catch-all name for a variety of
products from different manufacturers. The digit after the name
apparently indicates the company that built the product as well as the
product category, so the 7 indicates wall clocks from Reflektor.

> Very nice restoration, I'd love one of those clocks but I guess everyone will be on the hunt for them now.

Thanks! There have been a bunch on eBay recently from different
sellers. You're probably right that the attention will drive the price
up, though.

[Michel]

Nice tubes! Would be cool to make a propeller clock with 1 of them!

Michel

[jb-electronics]

Terry,

that is a very well written article, quite interesting to read, so
thanks a lot!

Jens

[GastonP]

> Not quite a Nixie, but possibly of interest to the group, is the
> Elektronika 7-06M clock. It is a 1980's Soviet clock which uses 16
> IV-26 VFDs to display the time. Brian Stuckey at TubeClockDB once
> called it "so unique it has its own Wikipedia entry".
>
> I've posted a detailed article about the design, operation, and
> refurbishing of one of these clocks on my blog: http://www.tmk.com/blog/?p=310
>
> This is the "baby" Elektronika 7 model - I'll be posting another
> article covering the 48-tube version in the future.
>

Nice article...

It's possible the strange combination of dimples that is in the inspection card be braille writing.

[Terry Kennedy]

On Jun 28, 9:50 am, GastonP <ghpic...@gmail.com> wrote:
> It's possible the strange combination of dimples that is in the inspection
> card be braille writing.

They don't seem to fall into the 2 x 3 grid normally used for Braille.
Also, the combination of bumps and depressions would make it double-
sided. I think it may be something along the lines of a Kimball tag:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimball_tag

[Terry Kennedy]

On Jun 28, 3:14 am, Terry Kennedy <terry+googleb...@tmk.com> wrote:

> There have been a bunch on eBay recently from different
> sellers. You're probably right that the attention will drive the price
> up, though.

One seller (0 feedback, newly registered) is selling a late model
(11/1991) 7-06M, same type as the one in my blog, for $110 Buy It Now
+ $80 shipping. I purchased a 44-tube Elektronika (the in-between
size) from him the other day. So I can't vouch for his reliability yet
as he is just shipping the clock today. His new listing is item
130721977083.

Even if this was one of the last ones made, it still has 20 years of
use on it and could benefit from many of the things I listed on my
blog as part of the restoration work I performed. You might want to
also get a single NOS IV-26 and a 3 clip leads, and jumper the 2
filament pins from an installed tube to the new tube, and any one of
the anode pins the same. That will let you compare old tubes to a new
tube, side-by-side, to help you decide if a complete swap is in order.
If you care about dim mode, check it as well because tubes that seem
acceptable in bright mode can have dots that barely light in dim mode.

For folks in the NYC area, I might be able to guide / assist you if
you do a restoration, or I could do the whole checkout and restoration
for a smallish fee. Otherwise, feel free to ask questions / post
comments on my blog entry and I'll respond there.

[Quixotic Nixotic]

This looks like a good site for Russian kit, including the clocks:

http://www.leningrad.su/museum/

John S

[Terry Kennedy]

On Jun 28, 3:14 am, Terry Kennedy <terry+googleb...@tmk.com> wrote:

> Thanks! There have been a bunch on eBay recently from different
> sellers. You're probably right that the attention will drive the price
> up, though.

A number of them have been listed on eBay since I posted my writeup.
Item 261057580263 is an Elektronika 7-06M that seems to be in very
good condition compared to the one I started with. The tubes may need
replacing, but it has what appears to be a very good case and an
intact power cord. I purchased a 12-tube Elektronika from that seller
a while ago.

For people in the US, remember that you need a 220V outlet for these,
or a transformer-based converter like the one shown in my writeup. A
simple plug adapter won't work.

[Terry Kennedy]

On Jun 27, 10:48 pm, Terry Kennedy <terry+googleb...@tmk.com> wrote:
> This is the "baby" Elektronika 7 model - I'll be posting another
> article covering the 48-tube version in the future.

The Big Elektronika article has now been posted: http://www.tmk.com/blog/?p=419

[Terry Kennedy]

On Aug 1, 11:51 am, Terry Kennedy <terry+googleb...@tmk.com> wrote:
> The Big Elektronika article has now been posted:http://www.tmk.com/blog/?p=419

One last Elektronika blog entry, to finish out the series - replica
faceplates: http://www.tmk.com/blog/?p=525

[Konstantin]

Hi Terry,

Thanks for your info on Electronica 7 clock, helped me a lot, as I got big
one, as a gift, and have played with it yesterday -
- one tube has been broken in transit and I have to replace it with IV-26
type 1, as I cannot find type 2 tube, even on ebay or in Russia yet...

My clock is quite young, mage in 1998, has all features of 06K model and 11
tubes per digit plus, looks like, there is board to display temperature,
but I have no idea what temperature sensor should be used with it...

Clock transformer has 2 winds rated for 110volts connected in series, so I
believe,
it's quite simple to re-solder one wire for one wind use for 110-120Vmains,
as in USA.


Best regards, Konstantin
www.kosbo.com

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[JohnK]

Careful, I thought that you would need to reconnect BOTH wires because of
phase.

John K.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Konstantin" <k...@kosbo.com>
To: <neoni...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, August 25, 2012 10:23 PM
Subject: RE: [neonixie-l] Re: Elektronika 7-06M


...clip...

[John Rehwinkel]

> - one tube has been broken in transit and I have to replace it with IV-26
> type 1, as I cannot find type 2 tube, even on ebay or in Russia yet...

Vitaly, do you have any of the type 2 tubes? Or the orange or red phosphor ones?

- John

[Lucky]

John, who is this Vitaly you refer to?

[John Rehwinkel]

> On Saturday, 25 August 2012 15:52:49 UTC+1, jrehwin wrote:
> > - one tube has been broken in transit and I have to replace it with IV-26
> > type 1, as I cannot find type 2 tube, even on ebay or in Russia yet...
>
> Vitaly, do you have any of the type 2 tubes? Or the orange or red phosphor ones?

> John, who is this Vitaly you refer to?

He posted to the group a while back, offering to sell nixie, VFD, and related tubes:

> From: Vitaly Nart <vital...@gmail.com>
> Subject: [neonixie-l] Nixie supplier for your projects
> Date: July 27, 2012 8:07:50 PM EDT
> To: neonixie-l <neoni...@googlegroups.com>
>
> Hi, I am glad that many peoples have interest in nixie tubes. We can
> offer you many nixie tubes of Soviet Union for your new projects.
> There are many IN and IV types of tubes in my stock. Our company
> accept Paypal and we can give you reasonable prices, datasheets and
> charakteristics of tubes for your projects. I f you have interest in,
> please contact with us.
> Regards
> Vitaly

I don't know what he has in his stock, but I had been thinking of asking him
about some of the more obscure IV-26 or IVLM1-1/7 types, especially the
orange or red phosphor variants. Then you mentioned the type 2 tubes, and
it occurred to me he might be able to source those.

- John

[kay486]

How are the type 2 tubes different?

[Konstantin]

IV-26 has been manufactured in 3 types, although all types are the same in dimensions and  dot sizes, type 1 has  wires connected to each individual dot, but type 2 has dots 1 and 2 connected together,  dots 3,4, 5 are also grouped and 7,8 .  So type 2 tube has less wires and designed to use in clocks like Electronika 7-06, type 3  has other dots grouped together and for use in clocks like Electronika  7-06M

 

 

Best regards, Konstantin

www.kosbo.com

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[kay486]

Ah ok, thanks for the info!

[Konstantin]

Hi John,

I thought that instead of 2 serial connected winds, for 110V supply to use
only 1 wind, so there is no cross phase problem there. Or am I missing
something?

Best regards, Konstantin
www.kosbo.com


-----Original Message-----
From: neoni...@googlegroups.com [mailto:neoni...@googlegroups.com] On

Behalf Of JohnK
Sent: Saturday, August 25, 2012 2:29 PM
To: neoni...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [neonixie-l] Re: Elektronika 7-06M

[Charles MacDonald]

On 12-08-25 08:53 AM, Konstantin wrote:

> Clock transformer has 2 winds rated for 110volts connected in series, so I
> believe,
> it's quite simple to re-solder one wire for one wind use for 110-120Vmains,
> as in USA.

Only catch with only using one winding is that it handles all the power.
Running 110volts rather than 220, of course means that the current
required doubles. If you connect both windings in parallel, each takes
half the required current, and so they each carry the same load as if
the two were in series on 220.

I don't know if the soviet designers were into using fusible links in
transformers. Many UL/CSA transformers have a "weak" link in the
windings, so over-current will open the primary. To keep UL and CSA
happy, that link tends to be on the inside of the winding so that a
consumer would not defeat the protection.


--
Charles MacDonald Stittsville Ontario
cm...@zeusprune.ca Just Beyond the Fringe
http://users.trytel.com/~cmacd/tubes.html
No Microsoft Products were used in sending this e-mail.

[Konstantin]

Hi Charles,
In my Elektronika 7-06K clock, transformer is quite big, primary winds
are 0.35mm diameter (!!!) and it looks like about 100-200W, no idea why
it's so big, probably they just used the standard one they had in stock, but
I have measured power and clock takes only 18-20W, so I am sure, the use
just one wind would be OK and as far as I remember, when I disassembled and
investigated lots of circuits in the past ;-), there were lots of
transformers with double 110V winds and they used switch on the device
back to change the voltage and I am quite sure that they were not used in
parallel and just one or 2 in series winds have been used.
I also never seen any Soviet transformers with fuse or thermal breaker
inside transformer, they always used external fuse only ;-(

Best regards, Konstantin
www.kosbo.com


-----Original Message-----
From: neoni...@googlegroups.com [mailto:neoni...@googlegroups.com] On

Behalf Of Charles MacDonald
Sent: Saturday, August 25, 2012 7:36 PM
To: neoni...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [neonixie-l] Re: Elektronika 7-06M

[Terry Kennedy]

On Aug 25, 8:53 am, "Konstantin" <k...@kosbo.com> wrote:
> Thanks for your info on Electronica 7 clock, helped me a lot, as I got big
> one, as a gift, and have played with it yesterday -
> - one tube has been broken in transit and I have to replace it with IV-26
> type 1, as I cannot find type 2 tube, even on ebay or in Russia  yet...

I've contacted all of the eBay sellers as well as the online
electronic shops that claim to have Type 2, and I have either received
no reply or a statement that they do not have any Type 2. Fortunately,
Type 1 is quite common and with some jumpering can be used to replace
Type 2 or 3. I can probably come up with one Type 2 tube (probably
used) for you if you can't get a Type 1 to fit.

> My clock is quite young, mage in 1998, has all features of  06K model and 11
> tubes per digit  plus, looks like, there is board to display temperature,
> but I have no idea what temperature sensor should be used with it...

I would be very interested in pictures of the date code label as well
as the temperature board and other components, along with scans of the
manual (if you have it). The 12-tube manual and schematics are linked
from my blog; I have an 11-tube manual / schematic from 1990 if you
need that posted.

> Clock transformer  has 2 winds rated for 110volts connected in series, so I
> believe,
> it's quite simple to re-solder one wire for  one wind use for 110-120Vmains,
> as in USA.

The winding should be paralleled, and in phase. Refer to this document
from Hammond Manufacturing: http://www.hammondmfg.com/5CHook.htm The
pin numbers will be different, but it should convey the needed changes.

[Charles MacDonald]

On 12-08-25 04:14 PM, Konstantin wrote:
> Hi Charles,
> In my Elektronika 7-06K clock, transformer is quite big,

> I also never seen any Soviet transformers with fuse or thermal breaker
> inside transformer, they always used external fuse only ;-(

Yes, the soviet designers often were working with Production quotas
based on Weight. which would give an incentive to "over spec" the
transformer.

I just raised the point as you can't be too careful.

[JohnK]

Ah, I expected you to use both primaries still.
To do that the primaries have to be kept in the same phase.
Thus the wire of Primary 2 that was common with Primary 1 has to be moved to
the opposite end of Primary 1. The other end of Primary 2 now has to be
moved to where the original common point was at the end of Primary 1.

eg S= start of winding, E = end of winding, 1 = pri one, 2 = pri two..

originally 230V :-
S1111111111ES2222222222E

intended 115V :-

S11111111111E
S22222222222E

John K.
[power reasons as in Charles' post]