标签: Tube

Just to make sure we're all tap dancing to the same drum beat, let's remind ourselves that, sometime ago, I ran across some mega-cool Nixie tube constructions and I was so excited by what I saw that I decided to build one of my very own.   The key players in this drama are Paul Parry of Bad Dog Designs (Paul made the original clocks), Pete Virica of PV Electronics (not surprisingly, Pete supplies the electronics), Andy and Mandy Blackett of Engraving Studios (they fabricate the brass panels), and Dalibor Farny (he hand-crafts the uber-large R|Z568M tubes I'll be featuring in my Nixie clock masterpiece).   As an aside, Andy and Mandy recently made some brass plaques for me to attach to my various projects, but we digress...   Now, I really love the clocks Paul has created -- especially the ones with the Steampunk look-and-feel. One that caught my eye even has a small steam engine on top, but I can’t just go around copying someone else's work -- I have an uncontrollable urge to express my own insanity individuality.   Whilst pondering this poser, I leaned back in the supreme commander's chair in my office, glanced around the room, and spotted some antique relays sitting on one of the shelves.   (Source: Max Maxfield / Embedded.com)   "Hmmm," I thought to myself, "these really are rather tasty." I've been waiting for an appropriate project to come along for these little rascals, and I think this may well be it. You have to admit that these little beauties are really rather special.   (Source: Max Maxfield / Embedded.com)   (Source: Max Maxfield / Embedded.com)   I have a really cunning plan for the role these relays have to play in this enterprise, but we'll leave that for a future column. Now, before I plunge headlong into the fray with a project of this type, I typically start by constructing a paper and cardboard mockup as illustrated below.   (Source: Max Maxfield / Embedded.com)   In the fullness of time, the cabinet for this clock will be made out of wood. I want this to look antiquated and sumptuous and splendiferous -- possibly a dark cherry-red-brown color with some intricate carving. In the image above we can see where the relays will be positioned on the front panel. On top we see the location of the brass plaque that will surround the Nixie tubes (the paper versions of these tubes are seen lying flat on the table waiting to be cut out).   Observe the donut-shaped representation on the end of the cabinet. The dark ring will be brass, while the white center will be glass. Behind this glass will be slowly-turning metal-looking gears from a clock that was fortuitously to be found on another shelf in my office (I tell you, it's like an "Aladdin's Cave" in here).   (Source: Max Maxfield / Embedded.com)   What? Yes, of course there will be lighting effects. I'm surprised you even thought to ask. In the case of this geared mechanism, I'd originally consider having two white lights at opposite sides from each other racing round and round the circle (I will be using NeoPixels for all of this). I'd also considered having a steady dull red glow, or perhaps a "breathing" effect with red light.   However, based on the success of the camp fire effect we're using in our Caveman Diorama project, I'm certainly going to incorporate this effect into the clock. In reality, I'll probably go with all of these modes -- and more -- and select the effect du jour as the mood takes me.   OK, let's pause for a moment and take a look at this video showing the mockup in its early stages (observe the gears from the clock slowly rotating and imagine seeing these through a flickering furnace lighting effect).   I only took the above video a short time ago, but things have moved on, as they do. Take a look at the more recent photograph below. In particular, note the three reclaimed telephone switches I'll be using and their intended location on the bottom row, just to the right of the left-most relay.   (Source: Max Maxfield / Embedded.com)   Also observe the five 3/4" diameter circles associated with each relay (also the three circles under the switches). The ones with the dark centers will host wires, while the ones with the light centers will hold LEDs. More specifically, I'll be using antique-looking cloth-covered wires, and plastic (mother-of-pearl style) "dots" in front of the LEDs. Furthermore, I'm not going to use rubber grommets for the surrounding circles; instead, I'm planning on using hand-carved wood rings (creating these will be a problem for the future).   Of course, the pièce de résistance of this whole thing will be the hand-crafted Nixie tubes created by Dalibor Farny, whose R|Z568M creations are pin-compatible with the legendary Z568Ms.   (Source: Dalibor Farny) Dalibor kindly sent a non-functional tube for me to play with as shown in the picture below. The base is aluminum and the anode cage inside is some sort of steel (I think). You can just see the wires forming the numbers inside the tube, but I have no idea what these are made of.   (Source: Max Maxfield)   The really exciting thing is that Dalibor is currently creating a custom set of tubes for me. These will have bronze bases and copper anodes and they will positively "ooze" Steampunk. I've also added a few more touches to the prototype as you'll see in this video .   Andy and Mandy are already working on the brass plaques, so the next step is for me to start working on the cabinet. Watch this space...

This is just a quick update with regard to my Vetinari Clock project . One rather tasty feature of the clock is an interestingly-shaped vacuum tube mounted on the top. Sitting just under this tube I have a 16-element NeoPixel Ring from Adafruit.     These things are great. Each element contains super-bright red, green, and blue LEDs, and each LED has an associated 8-bit pulse-width modulated (PWM) controller. The elements are daisy-chained together, and you can control the whole thing using a single pin from your microcotroller.   If you take a peek at this video , you'll see some of the lighting effects I've been playing with:   iframe width="400" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ls5OjYr8J-s?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen/iframe   Unfortunately, my camera really doesn’t do this justice, possibly because the LEDs are so bright. The problems with the camera give you an appreciation for the tremendous range of brightness that can be accommodated by the human eye.   We start with a simple "breathing" effect in which all of the pixels fade up and down together. I'm currently using 20 steps from fully off to fully on, and vice versa. Also I'm using linear increments between steps, with a 0.1 second pause in the middle of the cycle (fully on) and again at the end of the cycle (fully off). If I decide to use this effect, I'll time it such that it takes exactly one second to perform a complete cycle, but at the moment I'm just approximating things.   As I say, I'm currently using a linear ramp as depicted by trace (a) in the illustration below. I've been wondering if other waveform envelopes would look any better, such as the ones shown in (b) and (c) below. I'm sure a lot of research has been done in this area. If you have any thoughts on this, please share them in the comments below.   I really wish you could see this in real life. The effect with two white pixels chasing each other around on a red background (i.e., all the other pixels are red) is pretty impressive. I also tried two red pixels on a bright white (full on) background, but the red ones were washed out. However, this does look good if I dim the white background LEDs down to a dim glow.   Another effect that looks very tasty is having a bunch of four white LEDs racing round, with the lead LED being fully on and the other three of diminishing rightness fading to a dim pink background.   The way this ring is positioned, there are two LEDs either side of the 3 O'clock, 6 O'clock, 9 O'clock, and 12 O'clock positions (with 6 O'clock being the one closest to the observer at the front of the clock.   As you'll see in the video, one effect starts with two white LEDs at the 6 O'clock position, then we illuminate additional LEDs to the left and right (clockwise and anticlockwise) until we reach the 12 O'clock position, then we turn them back off again until we end up back at our 6 O'clock starting point.   I also tried stating with two LEDs lighted either side of the 3 O'clock and 9 O'clock positions, and then turning additional LEDs on until we reach the 6 O'clock and 12 O'clock positions, but we would really need more LEDs to make this look effective.   So, that's the current state of play. As I say, this looks pretty awesome in the real world; I only wish I could capture a better video. I will certainly try to do so. In the meantime, can you think of any other effects I should try?

I'm now cursing myself for being a fool. I have let chances and opportunities slip between my fingers. I deserve to be berated soundly. But what is the cause of this gnashing of teeth and rending of garb? Well, let me explain …   As you may recall, my Inamorata Prognostication Engine is to be mounted in an antique (circa 1929) wooden radio cabinet. On top of this will be a box containing my Ultra-Macho Prognostication Engine . And on top of this will be an array of vacuum tubes.     The five tubes I've decided to use are incredibly tasty and rather large as these things go. They currently reside in a box on the floor of my office as shown below. Just to provide a sense of scale, the largest tube in the upper left-hand corner is about 12" (30 cm) tall.     In the fullness of time, I will be lighting these tubes using tri-colored LEDs. Do you recall this video showing me holding the large tube in my hands while a band of Adafruit's NeoPixels illuminate the tube from its base? I think you'll agree that the end result is rather spectacular. Now imagine all five of the above tubes lit up in the same fashion.   One of the problems I've left on the back-burner is how I'm going to attach these tubes to the brass panel that will be mounted on top of the Ultra-Macho Prognostication Engine. I knew at the back of my mind that there must once have been proper holders for the tubes, but I never really thought about it all that much. And, if I had thought about it, I would probably have assumed that it would be difficult to find a bunch of different holders.   This is the point when I start to slap myself on the head, because I never really looked closely at the bases of my tubes. I'd assumed that they would all be different on the basis that the tubes themselves look so different. The end result is that I only just discovered that the bases of four of the tubes are identical -- only the little rascal shown in the upper right-hand corner of the box has an alternative configuration.   So how did I come to this realization? Well, while I was at the Huntsville Hamfest earlier this year, I picked up all sorts of interesting things. The photo below shows my treasures spread out across our dining table.     In particular, note the three tubes in the far right-hand corner. These little scamps are currently sitting on the book shelves in the Pleasure Dome (my office) awaiting a suitable project. Now, these tubes are smaller than the ones I'll be using for Ultra-Macho Prognostication Engine, so I'd not really given them much thought. However, I happened to glance at them the other day as I was ambling back to my desk with a cup of coffee, and my attention was caught by the ceramic mounts holding these tubes.       I realized the tubes were held in place by a sort of bayonet fitting. When I took one of the tubes out, I saw it had four pins on the bottom. As near as I can "eyeball it" here in the office, these pins are each 3/16" in diameter, and the main metal collar on the base has an internal diameter of 1 13/16".   When I peeked at the tubes I'm going to use for the Ultra-Macho Prognostication Engine, I realized they had the same four pins. "Could it be?" I thought to myself. Well, blow me down, all four of my big tubes work in this holder, so ideally I need four of these bases -- all identical. And then there's the final tube as shown below.       In this case we have four pins, each 5/16" diameter, arranged in a sort of diamond formation (with an additional glass protuberance in the middle). The frustrating thing is that -- now I know what I'm looking for -- I bet I could have picked these tube holders up at the Huntsville Hamfest.   If all else fails, I'll have to wait until our EETimes Road Trip to Hamvention, but that's not until May 2015 and I'm an impatient man. So, do you have any ideas where one can find these sorts of tube holders?

As you may have read in my previous blog , I was just perusing and pondering various projects in Kickstarter when I ran across an amazingly cool project that mixes two of my favourite things—Arduinos and Nixie Tubes. I think this smart Nixie Tube concept is a really great idea. So do a lot of other folks, apparently. This Kickstarter project is already funded to twice its original goal, and it still has 13 days to go at the time of this writing. I must admit that this project really interested me, so I reached out to its creator, Tyler Nehowig, to ask him more about it. He very kindly sent me a photo of himself holding a 10-digit display (I want one), and he explained how and why he instigated the project, as discussed below.   Max Maxfield: How did you come up with this concept? Tyler Nehowig: I came up with the idea after my first Kickstarter project, the open-source Nixie Tube Shield . I was getting a lot of questions regarding which Arduino board the shield was compatible with, etc. As a result, I set out to integrate the Arduino Uno hardware into the Nixie Tube design to reduce confusion on compatibility. In the middle of the design process, I thought it would be great to make this display modular, so that if you required only two digits, for example, then that's all you had to purchase. And if you subsequently decide that you need six digits, you can easily add four more. Lastly, I wanted to integrate RGB lighting, so users can easily change the accent lighting to suit their preferences. Max Maxfield: What were the design decisions you made, and why? Tyler Nehowig: One of the major design decisions I made was to stack the PCBs in order to keep the design compact. This allowed multiple digits to connect close together and, once enclosed, look like a single display. It also allowed an easy way to light the tube from below, as the RGB LED is directly under the Nixie Tube. The nice part about splitting the layout into two circuit boards is that all of the hardware required to control the Nixie Tube digits is on the top PCB, while all of the hardware to run the microcontroller is on the bottom PCB. This means that someone could design a new PCB for a completely different Nixie Tube series and be able to plug their board into the existing bottom PCB and immediately be running with zero firmware/software changes. Max Maxfield: What issues did you run into along the way? Tyler Nehowig: Luckily, I was able to glean a lot of experience from my open-source Nixie Tube Shield Kickstarter project and apply it towards this new project. The boost circuitry was already proven. In fact, with the help of some of the backers from the first Kickstarter, I was able to improve the efficiency of the boost. Creating the Arduino Uno section of the schematic was extremely easy, since there is so much great documentation out there from multiple vendors— Arduino.cc , Adafruit.com , SparkFun.com , etc. Obviously, there are a limited number of Nixie Tubes out there, so getting a hold of a large quantity is always a challenge. I proactively purchased a few hundred for this project to establish some key relationships with guys in Eastern Europe, so hopefully, if all goes well, I can purchase plenty more to fulfil as many smart Nixie Tubes as people are willing to buy. Also, price was a huge consideration for this project. I wanted to make it as affordable as possible for people while still making it worth my time to design the layout and procure the Nixie Tubes. The nature of modularity often comes at a price, and in this case it means having a microcontroller on every digit, which drives up the cost when compared to similar nonmodular displays. At the same time, I believe modularity is the smart Nixie Tubes' greatest strength. Well, I for one am very impressed with Nehowig's work. I wish I had his get up and go when I was his age (unfortunately, my get up and go got up and went years ago). I predict a bright future for him, and I will be watching with great interest for his future Kickstarter projects. What do you think about all this?

I previously wrote a blog about a Kickstarter project that excited me so. I think this smart Nixie Tube concept is a really great idea. So do a lot of other folks, apparently. This Kickstarter project is already funded to twice its original goal, and it still has 13 days to go at the time of this writing. I must admit that this project really interested me, so I reached out to its creator, Tyler Nehowig, to ask him more about it. He very kindly sent me a photo of himself holding a 10-digit display (I want one), and he explained how and why he instigated the project, as discussed below.   Max Maxfield: How did you come up with this concept? Tyler Nehowig: I came up with the idea after my first Kickstarter project, the open-source Nixie Tube Shield . I was getting a lot of questions regarding which Arduino board the shield was compatible with, etc. As a result, I set out to integrate the Arduino Uno hardware into the Nixie Tube design to reduce confusion on compatibility. In the middle of the design process, I thought it would be great to make this display modular, so that if you required only two digits, for example, then that's all you had to purchase. And if you subsequently decide that you need six digits, you can easily add four more. Lastly, I wanted to integrate RGB lighting, so users can easily change the accent lighting to suit their preferences. Max Maxfield: What were the design decisions you made, and why? Tyler Nehowig: One of the major design decisions I made was to stack the PCBs in order to keep the design compact. This allowed multiple digits to connect close together and, once enclosed, look like a single display. It also allowed an easy way to light the tube from below, as the RGB LED is directly under the Nixie Tube. The nice part about splitting the layout into two circuit boards is that all of the hardware required to control the Nixie Tube digits is on the top PCB, while all of the hardware to run the microcontroller is on the bottom PCB. This means that someone could design a new PCB for a completely different Nixie Tube series and be able to plug their board into the existing bottom PCB and immediately be running with zero firmware/software changes. Max Maxfield: What issues did you run into along the way? Tyler Nehowig: Luckily, I was able to glean a lot of experience from my open-source Nixie Tube Shield Kickstarter project and apply it towards this new project. The boost circuitry was already proven. In fact, with the help of some of the backers from the first Kickstarter, I was able to improve the efficiency of the boost. Creating the Arduino Uno section of the schematic was extremely easy, since there is so much great documentation out there from multiple vendors— Arduino.cc , Adafruit.com , SparkFun.com , etc. Obviously, there are a limited number of Nixie Tubes out there, so getting a hold of a large quantity is always a challenge. I proactively purchased a few hundred for this project to establish some key relationships with guys in Eastern Europe, so hopefully, if all goes well, I can purchase plenty more to fulfil as many smart Nixie Tubes as people are willing to buy. Also, price was a huge consideration for this project. I wanted to make it as affordable as possible for people while still making it worth my time to design the layout and procure the Nixie Tubes. The nature of modularity often comes at a price, and in this case it means having a microcontroller on every digit, which drives up the cost when compared to similar nonmodular displays. At the same time, I believe modularity is the smart Nixie Tubes' greatest strength. Well, I for one am very impressed with Nehowig's work. I wish I had his get up and go when I was his age (unfortunately, my get up and go got up and went years ago). I predict a bright future for him, and I will be watching with great interest for his future Kickstarter projects. What do you think about all this?