[HN Gopher] IoT Nixie Tubes
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IoT Nixie Tubes
Author : todsacerdoti
Score : 93 points
Date : 2021-11-16 18:13 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (bert.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (bert.org)
| DoingIsLearning wrote:
| Numitron tubes are way cheaper, way lower voltage, and much
| easier to drive than Nixie tubes. They are still visually very
| similar in terms of the retro steampunky look.
|
| For anyone who wants to try to build something similar you can
| easily buy Numitron tubes on ebay from eastern europe suppliers.
|
| P.S.A. Please do stay away from Nixie tube drivers if you are not
| confident/knowledgeable about HV circuitry
| Hamuko wrote:
| > _They are still visually very similar in terms of the retro
| steampunky look._
|
| That's not exactly what I'd call "very similar".
| tofof wrote:
| Yeah. Numitrons are like, "how about the disadvantages of a
| segmented display AND a nixie tube at once!"
|
| Admittedly not the high voltage requirement, but the bulky
| glass housing and pinout etc.
| jabbany wrote:
| It's not _that_ bad...
|
| I've accidentally touched the HV side of (more modern) nixie
| tube drivers. You can get certainly get zapped but the drivers
| can't supply enough current for it to be particularly
| dangerous.
| DoingIsLearning wrote:
| As with most things it depends, a driver that is current
| limited and drawing 50 mA is probably gonna hurt you but you
| have much beffier drivers. Typically nixie drivers will have
| large reservoir caps on the output side for ripple, someone
| less aware can easily get hurt.
| [deleted]
| daneel_w wrote:
| I'd settle for push-buttons on the back of the case, to keep
| things sane and simple, and to keep down the pointless material
| waste. Though it's definitely among the neater Internet-Of-Shit
| things I've seen lately.
| MarkMarine wrote:
| I hope that wasn't your actual wifi SSID and password.
| jrockway wrote:
| What if it is? You can drive to that person's house, park
| outside, and steal some Wifi?
|
| (With the combination of SSID/password that is in the document,
| though, that's kind of like saying "I hope example@example.com
| isn't your real email address." Well no, it's an example.)
| open-paren wrote:
| "hunter2" is an old internet joke that started on IRC
|
| https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/hunter2
| Arnavion wrote:
| Original link: http://bash.org/?244321
| lmilcin wrote:
| Maybe not as sexy-looking, but I still prefer VFD displays. The
| voltage is less threatening. And if you are lazy you can buy them
| with serial interface. Also you can buy them really cheap.
| blutack wrote:
| Awesome job!
|
| I built something similar based on a Lasermad PS85 clock kit (1),
| although with an MQTT based API rather than HTTP. The built in
| firmware was a bit annoying so I ended up borging an ESP32 in
| place of the PIC onto the supplied PCB. Now it supports NTP &
| MQTT commands for power on/off of the nixie tube HV supply, as
| well as brightness/animations/custom blinks etc. Keep meaning to
| write a blog post on it.
|
| Something to bear in mind if you're using it a reasonable amount
| is nixie poisoning [2]. My clock firmware runs all the tubes
| through each digit in rapid succession for a minute at the top of
| the hour.
|
| Also that white connector on your power board is an "enable". You
| could just connect that to a GPIO on your ESP32, and then ditch
| the tasmota and let the ESP32 control whether the tube is on or
| not. Would simplify your cabling and software.
|
| If you really want to go overboard, expose it as a MQTT device
| with HomeAssistant autodiscovery support. It shows up
| automatically and you can then use any HA integrations to drive
| it, such as the sunset or presence sensors...
|
| 1: http://www.lasermad.com/shop/product/5-tube-nixie-
| clock-v3-d...
|
| 2: http://www.tube-
| tester.com/sites/nixie/different/cathode%20p...
| jareklupinski wrote:
| Excellent writeup, love the detail behind all the choices and how
| they relate to reality, not just theory or aesthetic choices.
|
| I used less expensive russian tubes to afford 4 digits in my
| build, but had to buy 6 to get 4 working ones :(
| https://github.com/jareklupinski/nixienet
| anfractuosity wrote:
| The Dalibor Farny nixies look amazing, I really like the video of
| them making them too.
|
| I bought an interesting display recently that I only found out
| about recently, called something like - IGG1-64x64M. The type I
| got is an r,g,b matrix. It requires a voltage higher than nixies
| apparently.
|
| Some handy links on them:
|
| https://hackaday.io/project/46302-1-64x64m-adventure
|
| https://archive.org/details/1-64x64mDatasheetenglishTranslat...
|
| I'm planning on trying to drive mine using an FPGA hopefully.
|
| I'm curious if anyone knows more about them, someone suggested to
| me it's possibly neon based with filters.
| jhgb wrote:
| > One day I asked him, what's the deal with the crappy LED clock
| in the living room and he proudly told me that he had built it
| himself, from a kit
|
| Heh. Just like my dad, then, except there were no "kits" in
| pre-1989 Czechoslovakia.
| petro_vodopyan wrote:
| Be careful with Nixie tubes - they are a real addiction. I
| started with a hobby project and shortly it turned into a small
| business. If you are looking for a clock - will be happy to see
| you at my https://nixieshop.com/
| blutack wrote:
| They look like beautiful hardware. Have you considered using an
| ESP or NRF etc as the control processor to (optionally) enable
| WiFi and therefore NTP automatic clock setting and daylight
| savings? It seems like something none of the commercial Nixie
| clocks have, and I don't really understand why? Maybe there's a
| commercial aspect I'm not appreciating. For me personally I
| like the idea of a clock always being dead on without needing
| manual sync.
|
| I'd be happy to write the firmware for you for free clocks :)
| stavros wrote:
| Wait, how would you do automatic DST? I've made a small alarm
| clock for myself but DST is always a pain, and I'm not super
| jazzed about writing the entire logic myself.
| petro_vodopyan wrote:
| Thanks! yeah, I'm currently working on migration to ESP32. It
| has reasonable price and is feature-rich. Apart from the
| automatic NTP sync I like the idea of creating web or BLE app
| for managing setting etc (bye bye ugly IR remote and buttons)
| - everything in your phone now. And thanks for your offer -
| that would be great ;)
|
| By the way there is a Google forum with many other Nixie
| enthusiasts here https://groups.google.com/g/neonixie-l/
| [deleted]
| Daniel_sk wrote:
| Nice to hear that someone is still producing these tubes! What is
| the life expectancy of such a tube if switched on constantly?
| jareklupinski wrote:
| i have been running a 4-digit nixie clock off NOS russian tubes
| non-stop for a few years now.
|
| two of the number tubes burned out in that time, one shortly
| after turning it on, one a year later.
|
| they were socketed and I bought spares so replacing wasn't a
| big deal, and the 4 tubes socketed in now have been working for
| years, but ymmv with anything that old tho spares are cheap to
| carry for such a nice piece :)
| blutack wrote:
| Depends on the tube and if you account for cathode poisoning.
| My clock is still going strong after 3 years, coming on
| automatically at sunset and goes off at midnight.
| KennyBlanken wrote:
| It also depends on the voltages you drive them at.
| Slartie wrote:
| I have built two six-digit Nixie clocks with Z5660M tubes,
| which I bought as "new old stock" - likely unused - for about
| 50EUR per piece over 10 years ago. Both of these clocks have
| been running non-stop since then, and they are still going
| strong after more than 86.000 hours of operation, with
| negligible loss of brightness. They are still readable in
| anything but direct, full-brightness sunlight, and illuminate
| the room nicely by night.
|
| I guess the flash memory of the Atmel microcontroller running
| the clock logic will lose its contents before the tubes
| eventually wear out.
| jkingsman wrote:
| Tangentially, this is a beautiful (with no music or narration;
| text notes only) high quality video of modern artisanal (i.e.
| all by hand) nixie tube manufacturing.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxL4ElboiuA
| dylan604 wrote:
| This guy deserves every dime he gets from these. What a
| tremendous amount of effort to make them.
| Slartie wrote:
| I love the glass working parts especially. And the creative
| use of Ikea-sourced "lab equipment".
| omnicognate wrote:
| "I needed more room so I moved from the garden shed to a
| local castle."
|
| What a guy.
| rx_tx wrote:
| This is the actual manufacturer of the tube from the article!
| A modern nixie tube manufacture, they have had to (re)learn
| the processes and tooling again, from old books, and
| acquiring old tools like that awesome glass lathe. Their
| youtube channel is great to watch, they explain a lot of
| their steps.
|
| https://www.daliborfarny.com/
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