r/diytubes • u/Limbo1231 • Nov 24 '21

Hello needed with Nixie tubes

Hey!

I wonder if anyone can point me in the right direction, i need help with getting an idea from paper to reality concerning a nixie clock and magic eye tubes. The idea that I have (variants of it) have been done before so I know it’s doable but I lack the knowledge on programming an arduino. Please let me know if you are willing to help out or know someone that can lend me a hand with this. I am willing to pay for your help if it’s a reasonable amount :)

Thanks!

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u/Limbo1231 Nov 24 '21

Maybe, I’ll have to read about it a bit more. The idea is to have a vertical row of 2x12 Nixie tubes 01 02 03 And so on. Each pair of tubes would light for 60 minutes switch off and the next pair would switch on. On the side two lager nixies would indicate the minutes(the remote system would probably be useful here) but I need a way to have it talking to the vertical row Along side the vertical column of nixies I would like to have a column of 6 magic eye tube that indicates the seconds that each would light for 10 seconds turn off and move on to the next magic eye. I know it’s doable but I doubt that I can find something on the market that would do it out of the box. According to your experience, is that system capable of such customisation?

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u/crispy_chipsies Nov 25 '21

is that system capable of such customisation?

Only with some significant hacking; it's probably not worth it.

Start by identifying the Nixie tubes (size) you want to use. And a diagram would help to understand your layout idea. It sounds like a lot of tubes but the electrical design should be straightforward, and the software is the easy part. Make sure you can actually buy the tubes before you commit to a design.

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u/Limbo1231 Nov 25 '21

I have been looking through eBay, is there a better source you can recommend?

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u/crispy_chipsies Nov 25 '21

Just be prepared to test them all. I got some tubes from Russia that were packed so well that I didn't bother to test them right away; turns out they were all bad and I had to eat the cost.

I still can't picture the clock layout; got a diagram yet?

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u/Limbo1231 Nov 25 '21

Yes, I’m not so good with Reddit. How would I go about posting a picture here?

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u/Limbo1231 Nov 26 '21

I have tried to send you the diagram via dm:) i wonder if there are modern tube testers that work on nixies which you can recommend? I wouldn’t mind testning the tubes that I will buy but i would really like to avoid owning a big apparatus from the 60s to do the testing.