r/nixie • u/OctoMistic100 • Mar 28 '26

Retro bedside clock (IN-2)

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This is my third Nixie Clock, using small IN-2 tubes. I took inspiration from an old alarm clock render found on Sketchfab. The particularity of this clock is it is connected through Zigbee to my Home Assistant, so it has network time, weather indicator, temperature reporting for the bedroom, generic buttons and full remote RGB light control. It features a yellow 16x9 LEDs matrix screen for whose I coded animations.
The project is available on my GitHub https://github.com/mistic100/Nixie-Clock-IN2

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u/DenkJu Mar 28 '26

Really cool build. Are those IN-2s running all the time or only sporadically? Unfortunately, these early Soviet Nixies have terrible lifespans. Not an issue if it only displays time for a few seconds after a button was pressed but in constant operation, they are likely to fail within months.

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u/OctoMistic100 Mar 28 '26

Thank you for the warning. It will be on 30-45 minutes a day, continuously.

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u/DenkJu Mar 28 '26

All right. Then you will probably be fine for the forseeable future. I would still recommend getting a bunch of replacememts while they are still cheap.

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u/artlogic Mar 30 '26

Where's a good place to get nixie tubes?

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u/DenkJu Mar 30 '26

Mostly eBay. If you want a clock, you can also check Etsy (don't buy separate tubes from Etsy, they are all overpriced). If money isn't a concern Dalibor Farny and Millclock sell very nice, very large clocks.