3 ms·

Nixie-clock using neon lamps as logic elements (2007)

65 points by jacquesm 9mo ago

tomhow 9mo ago
Nixie-clock using neon lamps as logic elements (2007) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27956488 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27956488 - July 2021 (2 comments) Nixie-clock using neon lamps as logic elements (2007) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16549144 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16549144 - March 2018 (16 comments)
- jacquesm 9mo ago
  Hah, good one, I should have known it probably had been posted before.
wdfx 9mo ago
I believe this is operating a similar or same architecture as this historically significant quartz clock time standard: https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-79394 https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-79394 Believe it or not this piece was rescued from being scrapped by my father, who had unique interest in both horology and was a professional electronics engineer. This clock was expertly restored on our family dining table at home - including the build of a new solid state power supply for it. I think the museum still powers up this clock for display, and you can watch the large neon decade dividers doing their thing. EDIT: appears to have been removed from display according to the linked archive page.
JKCalhoun 9mo ago
None bulbs are kind of fascinating— in part due to their ability to act as relaxation oscillators [1]. I found an old electronics hobbyist magazine going into details [2] (Man, I love the linked site, BTW, so many awesome old electronic projects to pore over.) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relaxation_oscillator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relaxation_oscillator [2] (Starts page 21—as printed in the corners of the pages) https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Elementary-Electronics/1960/Elementary-Electronics-1965-Fall.pdf https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Elementary-Electro...
Aardwolf 9mo ago
Includes link to a 2020 one that's still operational by the same person in the addendum at the bottom!
jacquesm 9mo ago
I came across this while looking at all kinds of clocks and the origins of operational amplifiers. I've used these but never realized that you could use the hysteresis to make counters. I originally found this link: https://www.pa3fwm.nl/projects/sdr/ https://www.pa3fwm.nl/projects/sdr/ About a completely home-grown software defined radio that is on the web as well at http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/ http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/ , you can use it to listen to all kinds of interesting signals, for instance an atomic clock, DCF77 at 77.5 KHz CW. That project is absolutely mind-blowingly complex and the fact that it works at all has me amazed.
- bb88 9mo ago
  These days I really like the kiwiSDR. http://kiwisdr.com/.public/ http://kiwisdr.com/.public/ The WEB SDR interface has grown up quite a bit in the past 15 years.
  - jacquesm 9mo ago
    Great stuff!
- Levitating 9mo ago
  That SDRs antenna is actually visible at the top of one of our university buildings. The author, pa3fwm was my bachelor thesis supervisor.
  - jacquesm 9mo ago
    Oh super cool. What's interesting is that to my eye it looks horrific at first glance but the longer you look the more you realize how advanced this whole thing is.
permenant 9mo ago
I assume nixie tubes were introduced to a new generation of nerds via their appearance in Portal 2, at one of the lowest (=oldest) layers of Aperture Science. What a cool ancestor to the comparatively boring post-1970s 7 segment display!
- jacquesm 9mo ago
  There is a guy that makes new ones: https://www.daliborfarny.com/ https://www.daliborfarny.com/
Animats 9mo ago
Neon counting was compressed down to a single tube in the Dekatron.[1] One Dekatron could count from 0 to 9, so only one Decatron per decimal digit was needed. Can be see in "Hot Rod Girl" at 00:25, as part of a racetrack timer.[2] [1] https://display-tubes.org/dekatron/ https://display-tubes.org/dekatron/ [2] https://archive.org/details/hot_rod_girl_1956 https://archive.org/details/hot_rod_girl_1956

65 points by jacquesm 9mo ago

Nixie-clock using neon lamps as logic elements (2007) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27956488 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27956488 - July 2021 (2 comments) Nixie-clock using neon lamps as logic elements (2007) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16549144 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16549144 - March 2018 (16 comments)

jacquesm 9mo ago
Hah, good one, I should have known it probably had been posted before.

wdfx 9mo ago

I believe this is operating a similar or same architecture as this historically significant quartz clock time standard: https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-79394 https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-79394 Believe it or not this piece was rescued from being scrapped by my father, who had unique interest in both horology and was a professional electronics engineer. This clock was expertly restored on our family dining table at home - including the build of a new solid state power supply for it. I think the museum still powers up this clock for display, and you can watch the large neon decade dividers doing their thing. EDIT: appears to have been removed from display according to the linked archive page.

JKCalhoun 9mo ago

None bulbs are kind of fascinating— in part due to their ability to act as relaxation oscillators [1]. I found an old electronics hobbyist magazine going into details [2] (Man, I love the linked site, BTW, so many awesome old electronic projects to pore over.) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relaxation_oscillator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relaxation_oscillator [2] (Starts page 21—as printed in the corners of the pages) https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Elementary-Electronics/1960/Elementary-Electronics-1965-Fall.pdf https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Elementary-Electro...

Aardwolf 9mo ago

Includes link to a 2020 one that's still operational by the same person in the addendum at the bottom!

jacquesm 9mo ago

I came across this while looking at all kinds of clocks and the origins of operational amplifiers. I've used these but never realized that you could use the hysteresis to make counters. I originally found this link: https://www.pa3fwm.nl/projects/sdr/ https://www.pa3fwm.nl/projects/sdr/ About a completely home-grown software defined radio that is on the web as well at http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/ http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/ , you can use it to listen to all kinds of interesting signals, for instance an atomic clock, DCF77 at 77.5 KHz CW. That project is absolutely mind-blowingly complex and the fact that it works at all has me amazed.

bb88 9mo ago
These days I really like the kiwiSDR. http://kiwisdr.com/.public/ http://kiwisdr.com/.public/ The WEB SDR interface has grown up quite a bit in the past 15 years.
- jacquesm 9mo ago
  Great stuff!
Levitating 9mo ago
That SDRs antenna is actually visible at the top of one of our university buildings. The author, pa3fwm was my bachelor thesis supervisor.
- jacquesm 9mo ago
  Oh super cool. What's interesting is that to my eye it looks horrific at first glance but the longer you look the more you realize how advanced this whole thing is.

permenant 9mo ago

I assume nixie tubes were introduced to a new generation of nerds via their appearance in Portal 2, at one of the lowest (=oldest) layers of Aperture Science. What a cool ancestor to the comparatively boring post-1970s 7 segment display!

jacquesm 9mo ago
There is a guy that makes new ones: https://www.daliborfarny.com/ https://www.daliborfarny.com/

Animats 9mo ago

Neon counting was compressed down to a single tube in the Dekatron.[1] One Dekatron could count from 0 to 9, so only one Decatron per decimal digit was needed. Can be see in "Hot Rod Girl" at 00:25, as part of a racetrack timer.[2] [1] https://display-tubes.org/dekatron/ https://display-tubes.org/dekatron/ [2] https://archive.org/details/hot_rod_girl_1956 https://archive.org/details/hot_rod_girl_1956