4 ms·
Nixie Tubes (2015)
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- poochkoishi728 2y agoIconic time clock used in the time-travel anime 'Steins;Gate'. Wikipedia says it is "considered one of the best anime series of all time by critics and fans alike.". [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steins;Gate_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steins;Gate_(TV_series)]
- andreapaiola 2y agoIn the anime is for display the "distance" of the "current world line" from the "original" timeline in a multipath universe. A "divergence meter". Yes, one of the best anime. The original, not the sequels.
- J05ephu5M13r 2y ago[dead]
- gmueckl 2y agoThere is still a small company building new tubes: https://www.daliborfarny.com/ https://www.daliborfarny.com/
- tasuki 2y agoCurious, the article author is Czech, and so is this Dalibor Farny. Is Czech Republic a nixie tube superpower?
- the_mitsuhiko 2y agoThere was a Nixie manufacturer there called “Tesla”. But I think volume wise other countries produced more. Many you can find in old stock are from the former Soviet Union countries.
- tux1968 2y agoTheir youtube channel is well worth checking out: https://www.youtube.com/@daliborfarny/videos https://www.youtube.com/@daliborfarny/videos
- xanderlewis 2y agoA website that gives off an instant impression of care and attention to detail.
- hulitu 2y agoThey are very expensive.
- asddubs 2y agoThey are highly specialized items under a small production run, not too surprising
- butterknife 2y agoLove to see Diode Gone Wild here! One of the best YouTube electronics channels MORE SALT? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB62AfXLEHY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB62AfXLEHY
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- rjh29 2y agoI wanted a nixie clock and there are three options: 1) Build yourself, using second-hand tubes (typically 'new old stock' which means Soviet-era but unused) and your own PCB or a kit. Lots of these kits online, but be warned it involves high voltages, so not a good beginner project. IN-12 tubes are small and easy to find, larger tubes are more expensive. 2) Pay someone else to make a hand-made one - very expensive 3) Buy a Chinese one. Some of these use real nixie tubes (add 'IN-12' to your search) and cost $50-ish. There are many products titled nixie tube that actually use LCD screens and look terrible. I settled on the PV electronics QTC kit and some tubes from eBay that were pre-soldered to QTC mounts. They can literally just be plugged into the kit and replaced easily if they fail.
- tecleandor 2y agoI finally took a different path and did it with VFD. No high voltage, they're cheaper, and one could say VFDs and Nixies are family :p I took the open source project Flora-ESP8266 [0] in the IV-22 size, changed a couple things in the BOM that weren't available, and ordered a bunch of pcbs. Now I have a bunch of extra PCBs that I could use to build extra clocks :-) I would have loved to change the PCB to use an ESP32 instead, because that project uses ESP8285 (something like an 8266 but a bit more powerful) and those are harder to come by today. 0: https://github.com/mcer12/Flora-ESP8266
- adrian_b 2y agoVFDs are also nice, but for decorative purposes I like more the sight of gas tubes with cathodic light, like Nixies, where you see the light being generated in an apparently empty space, instead of coming from inside a solid, like in VFDs, CRTs, LEDs, incandescent lamps or fluorescent lamps.
- asddubs 2y agoSome VFDs do fit that bill https://www.tube-tester.com/sites/nixie/different/futura/futura-front-det.jpg https://www.tube-tester.com/sites/nixie/different/futura/fut...
- nxnxhxnxhz 2y ago[flagged]
- the_alchemist 2y agoI love how Petzold's Code went over the details of switching segments for a clock using these tubes.
- echoangle 2y agoDoes anyone know the significance of the letters for the symbol tubes? > All symbols of Tesla ZM1047 (T S F N Z Y G H M X). Are those letters particularly useful?
- msarnoff 2y agoNot sure what equipment these were used in, but X, Y, Z for a digital readout on a CNC machine M, G, T are SI prefixes S, F, N, H are units It’s also likely that they have meanings in German or another language I’m not familiar with. Large tubes like these have been used in elevators, so they could be floor designations.
- GuB-42 2y agoApparently that's for CNC machines, so I am guessing G-code. Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_vacuum_tubes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_vacuum_tubes https://tormach.com/g-code-formatting-reference https://tormach.com/g-code-formatting-reference
- telecuda 2y agoThe Nixie Tube Watch I received from Kickstarter is as wonderful as it looks: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1944794242/timeless-elegance-meets-retro-tech-the-btf-nixie-watch?ref=profile_backed&category_id=337 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1944794242/timeless-ele...
- ape4 2y agoThey wildly exceeded their funding goal
- elromulous 2y agoVery cool. Any idea if it contains mercury?
- asddubs 2y agoyes, IN-16 contain mercury. You want nixie tubes with mercury, especially for a clock, since it significantly prolongs their lifespan
- jaymzcampbell 2y agoObligatory shout out for the Techmoan Youtube channel, he loves these things and has had a bit of quest over the years [1] for new and interesting ones (and lesser alternatives). All of his latest ones come via a Ukrainian company, Millclock [2]. [1] https://www.youtube.com/@Techmoan/search?query=nixie https://www.youtube.com/@Techmoan/search?query=nixie [2] https://millclock.com/about-us https://millclock.com/about-us
- coggs 2y agoThere are very active technical discussions of nixies going on here https://groups.google.com/g/neonixie-l https://groups.google.com/g/neonixie-l
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- wimagguc 2y agoTechnology Connections' Alex has a great video on the subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGT1EvmDJh4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGT1EvmDJh4
- asddubs 2y agothose are numitrons, they use tungsten filament, whereas nixie tubes work by neon glow discharge
- peteforde 2y agoJust to offer a potentially interesting anecdotal data point (or depending on your interpretation, three data points) I have had three IN-18 tubes running pretty much 24/7 on the same three digits since 2008. My friends and I put it together in a box as a street address sign. It contains the minimum viable circuitry; there's no logic or surge protection of any kind. It lives plugged into an AC outlet and glows 342 from my bookshelf. It looks awesome. IN-18 tubes are one of the biggest available. If you're going to use Nixie Tubes, my $0.02 is that you should always go for the most impressive ones available because you only live once. The location is long gone, but every passing year I am more impressed with the longevity of these tubes. If there's a takeaway from this story, it's that in my lived experience, cycling the digits to increase longevity is almost certainly more mythology than necessity.
- msarnoff 2y agoAgreed. I bought a set of IN-18s for 30USD each back in 2009, now they go for over $100. I finally designed and built a clock for them about 3 years ago, and it sits right under my main monitor. They are captivating. I added “tasteful” (IMHO) digit cycling effects and a PIR sensor to turn off the display when no one is around to prolong the lifetime of the tubes, but your experience with the longevity of your IN-18s is remarkable. I’ve always wondered what equipment they were originally designed for, given their size. Most likely military I imagine, or maybe public signage?
- rex_lupi 2y agoThe author has a great youtube channel - DiodeGoneWild. His teardowns of vintage (eg. soviet RF tubes) and contemporary (eg. various products of chinese ingenuity) are worth checking out.