"The Harwell" Dekatron clock
Grahame
Since Bill mentioned the clock I though I would show you where
the project stands... This is one of the two prototypes I'm
building (one I will ship to Nick). The final boards will be black
solder mask.
From the top and clockwise are the dekatron driver board, the
controller board (there is a microcontroller board and optional
WIFI or GPS boards that plug in), the front panel board (it stacks
in front the dekatron driver board so the dekatrons pass through
it) and the PSU board 5V DC at 2A and 500V / 170V for the
dekatrons from 12V DC input.
I've been mounting the through hole parts and testing functional each board in turn. It'll be a few weeks before I have the prototypes fully assembled.
All good fun.
Cheers Grahame
martin martin
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Bill Notfaded
Jack Buechler
I am interested in your efforts.
Rather than be a take-take-taker, I can help…by building and feeding back on what I discover.
Get the beta ones sorted first.
Probably will need to find some Dekatrons first though….
Can I start by finding the Dekatrons – which ones are you using here?
Regards
Jack
From: 'Grahame' via neonixie-l <neoni...@googlegroups.com>
Reply-To: "neoni...@googlegroups.com" <neoni...@googlegroups.com>
Date: Thursday, 23 May 2019 at 14:27
To: neonixie-l <neoni...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [neonixie-l] "The Harwell" Dekatron clock
Since Bill mentioned the clock I though I would show you where the project stands... This is one of the two prototypes I'm building (one I will ship to Nick). The final boards will be black solder mask.
From the top and clockwise are the dekatron driver board, the controller board (there is a microcontroller board and optional WIFI or GPS boards that plug in), the front panel board (it stacks in front the dekatron driver board so the dekatrons pass through it) and the PSU board 5V DC at 2A and 500V / 170V for the dekatrons from 12V DC input.
I've been mounting the through hole parts and testing functional each board in turn. It'll be a few weeks before I have the prototypes fully assembled.
All good fun.
Cheers Grahame
--
Tidak Ada
Hi Graham,
I am highly interested is the driving technology in this clock.
I an already for longer trying to set up a dekatron clock with analoge (meters) readout.
Starting with a 4Mhz TCXOI will devide down to 4 Hz. The first stage is restricted to CMOS, because there is no dekatron that is able to run at that frequency.
Therefore I want o use in the first stages EZ10 B and Z10A dekatrons (I finally got the original sockets!!), there after going down to 4Hz with Sylvania 6879 dekatrons.
The 4 Hz will be devided to 2; 1; ½ and ¼Hz (probably by trigger tube flip-flops) to drive two dekatrons and two dodekatrons that in turn will drive the meters by R/2R networks.
The trouble I meet at the moment is how to drive the dekatrons, especially the high frequency ones, with a minimum of power. Also the level shift from 12V CMOS to drive the EZ10B
Dance gives some examples with E82CC tubes, but hat will drive my electric power bill to astronomic levels.
So a schematic and some explanation would be very helpful.
Eric (Netherlands)
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Grahame
Hi
I'm afraid that the driver circuits are no more than one closely based on a design by Mike "Dekatron" Moorrees.
I have copied the complete set of the prototype schematics and board layouts to this DropBox
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/vbxwpxwj4dzgiuu/AAADKYDZXZ3gdRCGZ0uGjtjda?dl=0
They are Eagle 7.7.0 files and the free Eagle version will open them but not allow editing.
I have also exported
one sheet showing the dekatron driver transistors and saved it
to the DropBox as a PNG file as well. The dekatrons themselves
are not shown as connections are made from the driver board to
the octal sockets using wire leads to allow the dekatrons to be
individually rotated to get the '0' cathode perfectly aligned at
the top.
So for example TP1 connects to cathode '0', TP2 connects to cathodes '1' to '9', TP3 connects to the anode via the anode resistor (not shown), TP4 and TP5 connect to the guide electrodes.
The microcontroller can control the voltage level on G1 and G2 and read if cathode '0' is glowing.
Hope this helps
Grahame
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Mac Doktor
On May 23, 2019, at 9:49 AM, martin martin <mcve...@gmail.com> wrote:Excellent!I think I will need one...
"The Mac Doctor"
Tidak Ada
Hello Grahame,
The PNG is very helpful, however, I have to consider the frequency is very low against the 400kc/s in my first devider stage. Frequency compensation will be needed, a challenge!
The EZ10A has a max counting rate of 500k counts/second, whereas an EZ10B goes up to 1M counts/s according to the datasheet
Anyhow the schematic serves an good base for further development. Only how can I get it in my PhotoShop? By copy the file only get a thumbnail, that is unreadable.
Printed circuits will probably not frequently used in my design. Most of the electronics will be old school. I stopped PCB design at the time the use of Brady® tape and Mecanorma® where the rule. I am not familiar with Eagle and use at the moment CorelDraw to make a design. SMD components are too small for y eyes, so geber and other CAD files are useless to me.
Another question is do you have any experience in the use of th EZ10A and EZ10B. As far as I know, these tubes aren’t not compatible in sense of supply voltage, despite they are pin compatible. Using a EZ10A in a EZ10B circuit, will damage the EZ10A. Or can I better ask this question to Mike Morrees?
Kind regards,
eric
.
.
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Dave ZL3FJ
You can download the zip file for everything - button at top right when the drop box is opened, or just click on the folder then double click on any of the files and it should open at full screen so you can then save etc.
DaveB,NZ
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Grahame Marsh
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Mac Doktor
On May 25, 2019, at 5:42 AM, Tidak Ada <off...@zeelandnet.nl> wrote:Anyhow the schematic serves an good base for further development. Only how can I get it in my PhotoShop? By copy the file only get a thumbnail, that is unreadable.
Bill Notfaded
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Mac Doktor
>
> What application is the original made with and what is the file type/format? Or what's the extension on the file name like .jpg, .gif, or ???
http://www.mediafire.com/view/lz9u02s04824mo4/dekadriver.png
martin martin
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Tidak Ada
Strange enough PS reads and writes PNG without problems, but not this one. Therefore my asking.
eric
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Mac Doktor
On May 25, 2019, at 6:34 PM, Tidak Ada <off...@zeelandnet.nl> wrote:Strange enough PS reads and writes PNG without problems, but not this one. Therefore my asking.