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NixieNeon Nixie Tube Clock |
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Clockstop now has it's very own clock!By blending my love for clocks, electronics and computers, I have finally designed a clock of my own. Over the years, I have wanted to build a Nixie Tube clock. I've always loved the way their digits looked like they were on fire. I didn't want to build just another nixie clock where a small processor tracked the time and drove the nixie tubes. I wanted a clock where I could watch the time being tracked.You can read more about the internals of the clock as well as purchase a kit or assemble clock over here @ http://www.nixieneon.com. After several years of thinking about it, I decided to build one. Not just any old Nixie Tube clock with yet another single chip prcessor, but a Nixie clock which used older technology. After some searching on the web I found a clock made by Pieter-Tjerk de Boer @ http://wwwhome.cs.utwente.nl/~ptdeboer/ham/neonclock/. He built a clock using neon bulds as the only active components. With that I found the inspiration for my clock. 
Click Image to Enlarge The processor has a few purposes. It's most obvious function is to provide eye candy. It drives the green or blue neon lamps which mark the quarter hour positions on the clock. They now provide a sort of visual pendulum. The processor also makes up for the occasional hiccups which occur when a ring mis-counts. To do this it resets the clock correct time periodically. The processor tracks the time by counting the cycles of the wall current like the neon rings do. 
Click Image to Enlarge As a side benifit, the processor also alows the clock to run in European nations where the wall current cycles at 50hz and not 60. If it detects 50hz wall current, it tics the "one second" ring every 50 cycles. |
