The driver chip on the arduinix opens the 0 cathode terminal, allowing the 0 cathode lead to ground out, lighting the 0 element in the tube. Applying power to one cathode surrounds it with an. This design uses no exotic or obsolete components other than the nixie tubes themselves. Welcome to vintage nixie tube clocks workshop i am pleased to announce that now you can buy our retro nixie tube clocks at our online shop. Pinball display clock version 1 a clock using six digit neon gas plasma displays these displays were used between 1977 until 1980 on a variety of bally and stern pinball machines. If you take a closer look at the internal schematic of the nixie driver then you will notice that one of the shift registers has two outputs not connected. Nixies were once the most popular digital display technology in use. The nixie tube driver from doayee is a convenient and easy way to implement a 6digit nixie tube display into any project of yours. Nixies are neon valve tubes, where ten cathodes have shape of digits and are lighted up by plasma when high voltage flows through them.
The tester allows you to connect 16 different sockets for several dozen nixie tubes and nixie tube drivers. This instructable is a followup to the nixie tube driver module part i that i posted here. For the high voltage supply of this build, thomas is turning to one of the standard circuits based on the mc34063 thats simple enough and good. With that in mind, i created 4 modules schematics and matching boards. If you can find a few 7441s or 74141s, you can use these vintage ics in a project.
The 7441 and its successor, the 74141 were very common nixie driver ics from the ttl era. Most nixie tube drivers require the obsolete and hard to find 7441 or 74141 ttl. Serial nixie driver is a board roughly the size of a in12 soviet era nixie tube that can be driven using a serial interface, hence the name. Basically the way these boards work is to use k155d nixie tube drivers controlled by i2c io expanders mcp23017 and pcf8574. This post covers building a power supply and controller board that mounts underneath the socket and driver board to power the nixie tube. By connecting dht22 sensor it is also possible to build binary thermometer and hygrometer. If you are a maker or nixie enthusiast, you have probably used or had contact with a nixie tube drivers e. November072003 finished back to dieters nixie tube page email to dieter as i have dozens of old unknown condition 74141 and 7441 driver chips laying around. Nixie tubes nixie tube is a cold cathode lamp filled with gas typically neon with some argon at a low pressure, mercury is sometimes added for longer life. Some of these were nixie driving circuits, such as a display bank with memory, using scrs. The driver can also be used for multisegment tubes e. Nixie tube clock custom pcb for nixie clock nixie clock project parts lessons learned this was my very first circuit board design and the only help i had was my research.
I take extra care to keep the anode traces well separated from all the cathode and logic traces on the pc board. High voltage power supply for nixie and valve tubes. If you have built a nixie clock, send me a picture. A simple nixie display driver bobs electron bunker. The cathode corner nixie watch is just about the most unusual yet practical timepiece you can wear on your wrist. Nixie tube clock wooden handcraft nixie tube clocks. Especially, when using cathode drivers like a 74141 or its russian equivalent. Doayee is raising funds for nixie tube driver on kickstarter. In this tutorial, you will learn how to control a nixie tube with an arduino nixie tubes were the only way to display numbers back in the 50s, before vfd and seven segments displays.
There are a variety of integrated circuits capable of driving nixie tubes, such as the vintage 7441, 7441a, and 74141 ttl chips, and modern highvoltage drivers such as those made by supertex. More about nixie tube driver v2 can be found on the project website. Each driver chip has eight opencollector 50 volt transistor driver circuits, designed to be driven from logic level signals of about 3v. An scrbased nixiedriver, nice but scrs are expensive today. I wanted to produce a nixie display using easily obtainable parts well except for the nixies, and at the same time keep the parts count low. Also check out westdaves huge nixie clock collection. As first instructable of the year i managed to finally complete my agelong nixie clock project. The nixie driver board is designed to receive serial input from an external microcontroller arduino, etc. Oct 09, 2008 i built this just to test my in1 nixie i will post a schematics later showing exactly how to driver tube and display numbers. While i would normally be fine with leaving the pcbs out in the open, this particular project involves high enough voltages that a nasty shock can occur if care is not taken when handling the clock when powered on. Heres a 1976 catalog page from bursteinapplebee for the b7971 giant nixie tubes, as used in the four letter word by ray weisling. If youve come to this page from a web search or link and dont have a clue what a nixie tube is, go here for more info.
I used the same boards that i used for the nixie tube calculator project, also described in an article and video of mine called controlling nixie tubes via i2c. I recommend that you do the design and put it on a breadboard to make sure things work the way you thought they would. The onboard shift registeres allows the modules to be daisy chained. You could also use a led or some magic eye tube that alters height angle during the seconds ticking. Use your arduino nano or particle photon board and build a binary nixie clock with 18 x in2 nixie tubes. Each tube would take a lot of pins if i had 1 pin per digit. It supports in12ab and in15ab tubes, giving you the option of displaying numbers, decimal points and symbols. What would be the most practical and preferably cheapest way to drive 34 nixie tubes from an arduino uno. But real tubes require a heater supply which is several 100 ma normally while the entire circuit with the 8 cmos chips, the driver transistors and such takes less than 10 ma. Initially, after we had access to almost inexhaustible supply of excellent quality soviet nixie tubes in12, in14 and in18, there was going to make a simple display of the nixie tubes as shield for arduino. I am looking for a setup that, once i make it, will make setting the nixie tube is as easy as a digitalwrite. There are a variety of integrated circuits capable of driving nixie tubes, such as the vintage 7441. Aug 27, 2018 with that in mind, i created 4 modules schematics and matching boards.
It is a twodigit nixie tube wristwatch designed for everyday use. Duplicating this circuit ten times, and assuming that only one transistor at a time will be turned on, you could drive a nixie as shown next. Two common choices are to use a highvoltage vce transistor like the mpsa42 or to use a nixie driver chip like the 7441 or 74141 ttl chips. Unfortunately, a few months after i built this circuit, the a6818. The serial interface itself is compatible with hardware spi, but software bitbanging can also be used.
The first in this series of posts described building a socket and driver board for a dalibor farny rz568m nixie tube and driving the tube using a power supply and particle photon from another nixie project. Driver board holds one k155id1 ic, connects to expander and tube boards. Bc547 transistor 470f16v electrolytic capacitors 1k 14w resistor 10k 14w resistor 2k2 14w resistor 220k 14w resistor 1k trimmer 4. But they are hard to get and being ttl devices, they use more power and have larger input currents than modern ics.
Six digit nixie clock 150189 71 programmed controller for six digit nixie clock 150189 41 bare pcb for six digit nixie clock 150189 1 acrylic glass case for six digit nixie clock 150189 72 elektor dtp colors. Nixie tube hv driver nixie tube, electronic circuit. Contemporary wiring is insulated with plastic whilst knobandtube utilizes rubber. Id also love to find actual nixie clocks, whether test equipment such as the hewlettpackard hp 571b or commercially made units. Each module has two nixie tubes, a shift register and a nixie driver. A controller for a dalibor farny rz568m nixie tube photons. A simple way to implement a 6digit rgb backlit nixie tube display into any project, with an accompanying arduino library. Hi everyone, i recently finished the schematic for my nixie clock, and i was wondering if it would be too much to ask for someone to look over it and make sure there are no giant flaws or anything, i looked over it myself but i wanted to be sure before i started making a schematic any help. Sometimes vfd or ac electroluminescent display drivers such as hv5812 or hv5530 are used to control nixie tubes but they are mainly suitable for dedicated applications and the lack of. Initially, after we had access to almost inexhaustible supply of excellent quality soviet nixie tubes in12, in14 and in18, there was going to make a. The boards can be daisychained to create nixie tube chains of any size. Here is some pic code to make a mm5369 chip emulator.
I built this just to test my in1 nixie i will post a schematics. I built this just to test my in1 nixie i will post a schematics later showing exactly how to driver tube and display numbers. Each of these chips is a decoder featuring a fourline binary ttllevel input and ten outputs especially designed to directly drive nixie tube cathodes. Niksee, or cold cathode display, is an electronic device for displaying numerals or other information using glow discharge.
Head over to his website to see a number of his other stunning nixie case designs, which he is selling as a limited release. Main logic board serves as arduino nano shield and breakout board. I am hoping to use theses tubes in a project for my art a level so you really would be saving my life if you helped. Windell of evil mad scientist laboratories took an ancient nixie tube based frequency counter and converted it into a clock. The glass tube contains a wiremesh anode and multiple cathodes, shaped like numerals or other symbols. To create the wiring easy and to prevent wrong connections, it is preferable to label the ends of the wires.
The coming of leds put a big crimp in their business, but at that time 70s leds werent bright enough to replace them. Nov 18, 2019 the first in this series of posts described building a socket and driver board for a dalibor farny rz568m nixie tube and driving the tube using a power supply and particle photon from another nixie project. Pin 10 of each chip is connected to the cathodes of protection diodes wired to each output pin. Note carefully to orient the nixie driver printed circuit board with the component placement information facing up. There are a number of schematics to illustrate various usages. Driving in9 neon displays russian in9 neon bargraph indicator tubes are readily available on ebay and from a number of commercial sources. Building arduino powered nixie clock mono software. It is used for displaying numbers or other symbols.
This circuit can deliver close to 45ma 180v out, with 12v in. I use the toshiba td62083afn in my nixie watch as a cathode driver. Probably the most popular nixie driver transistor is the mpsa42. Dieters nixie tube data archive this file is a part of dieters nixie and display tubes data archive if you have more datasheets, articles, books, pictures or other information about nixie tubes or other display devices please let me know. Unfortunately, these drivers have their technical limitations for modern projects. The value of these should be calculated according to tube rating and drive voltage. A collection of nixie clocks, based both on my design and many others. However, there seem to be no detailed characteristics or circuits for driving this tube published on web. This is the side that will receive all of the supplied. The data sheet for the signetics 8t01 nixie driver chip. Most nixie tube drivers require the obsolete and hard to find 7441 or 74141 ttl decoder driver ics, or else high voltage driver transistors. Jul 27, 2019 in the event the wiring is a hazard, you have a couple alternatives. Its a simple, handy device for testing nixie tubes.
A lot of discrete components, though, for a single digit. Arduino shield ncs314 nixie tubes clock in14 arduino. In this tutorial, you will learn how to control a nixie tube with an arduino. They look great, however the tubes are way expensive, and some are supposedly not meant to be that great. Proceed with care and youll have a working circuit in no time.
If you have any nixie tube devices or drivers just gathering dust that youd like to get rid of, please send me an email and we can work something out. The nixie tubes are driven by the two chips u3 and u4, which are toshiba td62083afn octal darlington driver chips. This time the driver has 22 outputs so you can control two nixie tubes. We sell our clocks via etsy, and amazon shops only, which means that it is safe to buy with us. Nov 09, 2019 most nixie tube drivers require the obsolete and hard to find 7441 or 74141 ttl decoder driver ics, or else high voltage driver transistors. The last component of this project involves the case or enclosure around the bottom half of the nixie tube clock.
Jun 08, 2018 doayee is raising funds for nixie tube driver on kickstarter. This repository contains the code, and schematics for driving a nixie tube clock with a nodemcu 1. Haydu made a beam switching tube to count pulses back in the 1950s. Since in last years nixies displays attracted my attention so much that i bought many of them, i finally managed to design a good power supply and my nixie clock is on the way. Expander board holds the shift registers and connects to the main logic board, as well as two driver boards. In this example, the anode output channel is sending 180 volts through the 10k resistor to the anode pin of the nixie tube. November072003 finished back to dieters nixie tube page email to dieter as i have dozens of old. Nixie tube driver ics keep dying electrical engineering stack. The case you see pictured above is one he created for me. Nixie tubes displaying multiple number simultaneously.