One of our Facebook fans, John, shared a link to this all-transistor clock kit. That's right, this is a kit: 194 Transistors, 566 Diodes, 400 Resistors and 87 Capacitors. The PCB + components is $199 while the PCB alone is $100. For the amount of engineering that went in to this, it seems like a very reasonable price. (Besides, it isn't like I could engineer one of these. It isn't exactly an Arduino + LCD) While you're at his site, be sure to check out his TTL clock, microprocessor clock and calendars too.
If you're thinking about getting on of these, you can view the assembly manual here: http://transistorclock.com/tranmanual.pdf
Images and text use with permission from KABtronics: http://transistorclock.com/
I recently featured one of Michael's clocks, the PanPacific, and I also want to show off this one. This devices is built using Z5680M tubes which are second only to the Rodan CD-47's. For a comparison, here is a CD-47 next to a Z5680M. One more impressive fact - this clock weighs in at over 25 Lbs!
The description from Mike's site:
The clock’s direct drive electronics are not mine, they are those of the venerable, Jeff Thomas, Nixie Clock builder extraordinaire. The black PCB is a current revision of the original. All the wonderful features of the Thomas clocks are present in this device. GPS is the discontinued Motorola Oncore, slung beneath the PCB making use of an external generic GPS antenna. It can be difficult to get this GPS to lock on, especially where signal strength is not optimum. I have added a beautiful little INS-1 as a center-mounted ‘pilot light’. The case just seemed to beg for it! The casework design is an effort to emulate the Streamline Moderne style, the U.S. answer to the Art Deco movement! Constructed of polished 1/2” X 6” T-6061 aluminum flat bar and 0.125” brass plate, the clock weighs in at a formidable 25.5 pounds. Measuring 16” X 6” at it’s base the clock is a monster, and it would take upwards of a 7.0 to even make it budge! Tubes for this bad boy are scarce and ridiculously priced, thereby rendering this device pretty much impractical as hell to leave running. So this clock will get by on it’s non-illuminated good looks most of the time.
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All images and text are used with permission and are owned by Michael B. http://www.badnixie.com/NixiModerne_-_the_resurrection.html
One of our Talk users, Greyfox, shared a link to a really cool product that I had never seen. It is called SmartNixie by Tayloredge and it it solves multiple challenges at once: It provides a simple mounting solution for nixie tubes and it simplifies device control by using the I2C bus. There are other modules that provide a GPS interface for timekeeping, a stand alone real time clock, and a power supply solution. Something like this really lowers the barriers to entry for people to tinker in our hobby. For such a simple solution, their prices seem really reasonable.
From their site:
The TES SmartNixie is a ready to use display module pre-programmed with several useful operating modes. The on board processor reads a four position DIP switch at boot up to configure itself as one of 112 possible I2C slaves or any of several special modes such as the I2C master of a digital clock. Modules are 100% interchangeable so that they may be alternated in the user application to maximize tube life especially when installed into 0.100" pitch socket strips which eliminates the need to solder directly to the module pins (See table at bottom of page). The ICSP (In Circuit Serial Programming) connections to the PIC16F677 processor are also brought out on the module pins to allow for user programming of the processor flash memory when all DIP switches are in the off position.
http://www.tayloredge.com/storefront/SmartNixie/index.html
Lastly, be sure to look at their gallery. http://www.tayloredge.com/storefront/SmartNixie/Gallery/index.html
Michael (http://www.badnixie.com) has some made some very nice and distinct looking nixie clocks that I want to share. He has been building an average of once clock every three months and has quite possibly the largest nixie clock collection that I've seen. His work is impressive; be sure to check out his site.
This clock is called the PanPacific Nixie clock. From his site:
The casework of the PanPacific Nixie clock is inspired by the now defunct Pan Pacific Auditorium in Los Angeles I make an attempt to emulate some of this gorgeous building’s Streamline Moderne design features. The case is constructed of black walnut with a piece of walnut crotch wood fashioned for the top plate. Crotch wood is milled from the saddle or crotch formed by a large branch and the trunk of the tree. The laminates are brass plate and the Colon towers are fashioned from brass bar stock. The electronics are extracted from of one of my Jeff Thomas NixiChrons and grafted to a tube board made up of Z5680M sockets harvested from a 1980’s German Frequency Analyzer purchased on Ebay. I terminated each socket lead with a male Mouser pin and plugged the pins into the female Mouser pins in the NixiChron board, thus leaving the NixiChron in tact. The leads from the custom made colon towers were similarly terminated. Anode resistors were changed from the standard 1/4 watt to 1 watt to address the increased current draw of the Z5680M vs. the IN-18’s, but other than that, no changes were made to the NixiChron. I did relocate the 1PPS/MCU run indicator LED to the rear panel, but I did that because I thought it looked kinda cool.
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(All images and text are used with permission and are owned by Michael B. http://www.badnixie.com/The_PanPacific.html
