[HN Gopher] IoT Nixie Tubes ___________________________________________________________________ IoT Nixie Tubes Author : todsacerdoti Score : 93 points Date : 2021-11-16 18:13 UTC (4 hours ago) (HTM) web link (bert.org) (TXT) w3m dump (bert.org) | DoingIsLearning wrote: | Numitron tubes are way cheaper, way lower voltage, and much | easier to drive than Nixie tubes. They are still visually very | similar in terms of the retro steampunky look. | | For anyone who wants to try to build something similar you can | easily buy Numitron tubes on ebay from eastern europe suppliers. | | P.S.A. Please do stay away from Nixie tube drivers if you are not | confident/knowledgeable about HV circuitry | Hamuko wrote: | > _They are still visually very similar in terms of the retro | steampunky look._ | | That's not exactly what I'd call "very similar". | tofof wrote: | Yeah. Numitrons are like, "how about the disadvantages of a | segmented display AND a nixie tube at once!" | | Admittedly not the high voltage requirement, but the bulky | glass housing and pinout etc. | jabbany wrote: | It's not _that_ bad... | | I've accidentally touched the HV side of (more modern) nixie | tube drivers. You can get certainly get zapped but the drivers | can't supply enough current for it to be particularly | dangerous. | DoingIsLearning wrote: | As with most things it depends, a driver that is current | limited and drawing 50 mA is probably gonna hurt you but you | have much beffier drivers. Typically nixie drivers will have | large reservoir caps on the output side for ripple, someone | less aware can easily get hurt. | [deleted] | daneel_w wrote: | I'd settle for push-buttons on the back of the case, to keep | things sane and simple, and to keep down the pointless material | waste. Though it's definitely among the neater Internet-Of-Shit | things I've seen lately. | MarkMarine wrote: | I hope that wasn't your actual wifi SSID and password. | jrockway wrote: | What if it is? You can drive to that person's house, park | outside, and steal some Wifi? | | (With the combination of SSID/password that is in the document, | though, that's kind of like saying "I hope example@example.com | isn't your real email address." Well no, it's an example.) | open-paren wrote: | "hunter2" is an old internet joke that started on IRC | | https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/hunter2 | Arnavion wrote: | Original link: http://bash.org/?244321 | lmilcin wrote: | Maybe not as sexy-looking, but I still prefer VFD displays. The | voltage is less threatening. And if you are lazy you can buy them | with serial interface. Also you can buy them really cheap. | blutack wrote: | Awesome job! | | I built something similar based on a Lasermad PS85 clock kit (1), | although with an MQTT based API rather than HTTP. The built in | firmware was a bit annoying so I ended up borging an ESP32 in | place of the PIC onto the supplied PCB. Now it supports NTP & | MQTT commands for power on/off of the nixie tube HV supply, as | well as brightness/animations/custom blinks etc. Keep meaning to | write a blog post on it. | | Something to bear in mind if you're using it a reasonable amount | is nixie poisoning [2]. My clock firmware runs all the tubes | through each digit in rapid succession for a minute at the top of | the hour. | | Also that white connector on your power board is an "enable". You | could just connect that to a GPIO on your ESP32, and then ditch | the tasmota and let the ESP32 control whether the tube is on or | not. Would simplify your cabling and software. | | If you really want to go overboard, expose it as a MQTT device | with HomeAssistant autodiscovery support. It shows up | automatically and you can then use any HA integrations to drive | it, such as the sunset or presence sensors... | | 1: http://www.lasermad.com/shop/product/5-tube-nixie- | clock-v3-d... | | 2: http://www.tube- | tester.com/sites/nixie/different/cathode%20p... | jareklupinski wrote: | Excellent writeup, love the detail behind all the choices and how | they relate to reality, not just theory or aesthetic choices. | | I used less expensive russian tubes to afford 4 digits in my | build, but had to buy 6 to get 4 working ones :( | https://github.com/jareklupinski/nixienet | anfractuosity wrote: | The Dalibor Farny nixies look amazing, I really like the video of | them making them too. | | I bought an interesting display recently that I only found out | about recently, called something like - IGG1-64x64M. The type I | got is an r,g,b matrix. It requires a voltage higher than nixies | apparently. | | Some handy links on them: | | https://hackaday.io/project/46302-1-64x64m-adventure | | https://archive.org/details/1-64x64mDatasheetenglishTranslat... | | I'm planning on trying to drive mine using an FPGA hopefully. | | I'm curious if anyone knows more about them, someone suggested to | me it's possibly neon based with filters. | jhgb wrote: | > One day I asked him, what's the deal with the crappy LED clock | in the living room and he proudly told me that he had built it | himself, from a kit | | Heh. Just like my dad, then, except there were no "kits" in | pre-1989 Czechoslovakia. | petro_vodopyan wrote: | Be careful with Nixie tubes - they are a real addiction. I | started with a hobby project and shortly it turned into a small | business. If you are looking for a clock - will be happy to see | you at my https://nixieshop.com/ | blutack wrote: | They look like beautiful hardware. Have you considered using an | ESP or NRF etc as the control processor to (optionally) enable | WiFi and therefore NTP automatic clock setting and daylight | savings? It seems like something none of the commercial Nixie | clocks have, and I don't really understand why? Maybe there's a | commercial aspect I'm not appreciating. For me personally I | like the idea of a clock always being dead on without needing | manual sync. | | I'd be happy to write the firmware for you for free clocks :) | stavros wrote: | Wait, how would you do automatic DST? I've made a small alarm | clock for myself but DST is always a pain, and I'm not super | jazzed about writing the entire logic myself. | petro_vodopyan wrote: | Thanks! yeah, I'm currently working on migration to ESP32. It | has reasonable price and is feature-rich. Apart from the | automatic NTP sync I like the idea of creating web or BLE app | for managing setting etc (bye bye ugly IR remote and buttons) | - everything in your phone now. And thanks for your offer - | that would be great ;) | | By the way there is a Google forum with many other Nixie | enthusiasts here https://groups.google.com/g/neonixie-l/ | [deleted] | Daniel_sk wrote: | Nice to hear that someone is still producing these tubes! What is | the life expectancy of such a tube if switched on constantly? | jareklupinski wrote: | i have been running a 4-digit nixie clock off NOS russian tubes | non-stop for a few years now. | | two of the number tubes burned out in that time, one shortly | after turning it on, one a year later. | | they were socketed and I bought spares so replacing wasn't a | big deal, and the 4 tubes socketed in now have been working for | years, but ymmv with anything that old tho spares are cheap to | carry for such a nice piece :) | blutack wrote: | Depends on the tube and if you account for cathode poisoning. | My clock is still going strong after 3 years, coming on | automatically at sunset and goes off at midnight. | KennyBlanken wrote: | It also depends on the voltages you drive them at. | Slartie wrote: | I have built two six-digit Nixie clocks with Z5660M tubes, | which I bought as "new old stock" - likely unused - for about | 50EUR per piece over 10 years ago. Both of these clocks have | been running non-stop since then, and they are still going | strong after more than 86.000 hours of operation, with | negligible loss of brightness. They are still readable in | anything but direct, full-brightness sunlight, and illuminate | the room nicely by night. | | I guess the flash memory of the Atmel microcontroller running | the clock logic will lose its contents before the tubes | eventually wear out. | jkingsman wrote: | Tangentially, this is a beautiful (with no music or narration; | text notes only) high quality video of modern artisanal (i.e. | all by hand) nixie tube manufacturing. | | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxL4ElboiuA | dylan604 wrote: | This guy deserves every dime he gets from these. What a | tremendous amount of effort to make them. | Slartie wrote: | I love the glass working parts especially. And the creative | use of Ikea-sourced "lab equipment". | omnicognate wrote: | "I needed more room so I moved from the garden shed to a | local castle." | | What a guy. | rx_tx wrote: | This is the actual manufacturer of the tube from the article! | A modern nixie tube manufacture, they have had to (re)learn | the processes and tooling again, from old books, and | acquiring old tools like that awesome glass lathe. Their | youtube channel is great to watch, they explain a lot of | their steps. | | https://www.daliborfarny.com/ ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2021-11-16 23:00 UTC)