From the comments on our earlier HV Nixie DC-DC switching power supply post, here’s a Nixie HV switching PSU by Nick De Smith: It is probably beyond the scope of this simple document to describe the operation of switch-mode power supplies (SMPSs) – suffice to say the technique relies on the voltage pulse you get from rapidly collapsing […]
Tag Archives: Nixie
HV Nixie DC-DC switching power supply
Michail Papadimitriou over at Electronics Lab designed a simple DC-DC switching regulator capable of powering most of Nixie tubes: The module is based on the MAX1771 Step-Up DC-DC Controller. This controller works up to 300kHz switching frequency and that allows the usage of miniature surface mount components. It accepts an input voltage from 2 to 16.5V […]
Make your own Nixie tube socket tutorial
Electronics Lab brings us a tutorial on how to build sockets for IN-14 Nixies. The idea is simple. Use the spacer that comes with the Nixie, and insert female pinheaders into it. All that’s left is to shorten the leads coming from the Nixie, and you got a Nixie socket.
Hack a Day interviews Ian at the World Maker Faire
Ian talks about the massive Nixie tube thing and the standard PCBs to Hack a Day. The goal of our standard PCB format is to make it super simple to design a project that fits in a bunch of different cool, open source cases. Grab our Eagle library or KiCAD board templates to use Sick […]
Another nixie tube hoard
In response to our Workshop Update in which we displayed our Nixie Tube collection Buzzdavidson writes: Hoarding…Yup. Nice to know that I’m not alone in my insanity. Here’s “My collection”. To be fair, there are some VFDs and Dekatrons in there as well. I’ve salvaged most of my nixies (side view in the plastic flip […]
The Akafugu nixie clock
Here is another open source Nixie clock. It’s built with 3 boards stacked on top of each other. One for the high voltage power-supply, one for the control, and one to hold the nixies in place. Uses an Atmega328P microcontroller with Arduino bootloader and firmware preloaded. The firmware is written in Arduino, and is fully […]
Three Nixie tube modules
After days of soldering off and on, 14 nixie thing modules are good to go.
Completed Nixie module
Completed Nixie module. The wiring was a huge pain. Only 14 more to go.
App note: Nixie tube data archive
Dieter’s nixie tube data archive contains loads of information about nixies. Theory of operation, control circuits, power supplies, and reference tables for common nixies – it’s all there.
Nixie clock sets time from internet, encased in concrete
Chankster built a Nixie clock that uses the NTP protocol to set the time over an internet connection. For a final touch, it was encased in concrete. Time is synchronized using the network time protocol. An ATmega keeps the time, controls the nixie tubes, and connects to the internet via the popular ENC28J60 Ethernet IC. […]
Testing the efficiency of Nixie power supplies
Gelbanana tested 3 HV SMPS Nixie power supplies for their efficiency. The tested ICs were the always popular NE555 timer, the MC34063 buck/boost controller, and the MAX1771 boost controller. The MAX1771 was the most efficient, but it also costs 10x more than the other two ICs tested. Table with the results of the test can […]
Eagle Parts: IN-12 Nixie and IV-22 VFD tube sockets
Added IN-12 Nixie socket (pictured above) and the IV-22 VFD socket (picture below) to our Eagle parts library. As you may have noticed from our recent updates, we’ve been playing around with Nixies and VFDs a bit lately…
Workshop Update for September 6th, 2012
We received a box of goodies and shared them on the blog. We also got our order from Mouser, and got to test fit the ATX Breakout Board Sick of Beige case pre-production version. Video editing ate up a huge chunk of our time, but we did get to test out the power supply for […]
Magnificent Nixie tube thing PCBs arrive
Look great. Socket hole is a little too short and needs to be filed down. Not bad though.
Nixie hoard or collection, you decide
Like many, we’ve amassed a bunch of nixie tubes but never use them for much. Matseng shared his hoard collection: Top left to right: 10 pcs alphanumeric ZM1350, 5 boxes @ 20 each of the tiny IN17, 8 pcs of the huge B7971. Left middle: A box with about 100 random nixies with 16 pcs […]
RTC and port expander for an Arduino nixie clock
Luca is designing a nixie clock that will be run from an Arduino. In the latest development he shows to to implement a real time clock source and a port expander to drive the nixies. In this third blog post, I’m going to show you the logical view of my Nixie clock and two of […]
Nixie clock HV power supply
Luca is building a Nixie clock, and in this post he covers the high voltage power supply section. Nixie tubes are digit displays that use ~170V between the digit wire and a wire mash, to agitate the gas inside the tube. This surrounds the digit wire with a orange glow and it becomes visible through […]