Here at Freetronics we're always interested in clock projects of various types, and Nixie tube clocks are no exception. Although a bygone technology the glow and challenges of working with these tubes are quite satisfying, and an example of this has been documented by enthusiast Tom Cousins with his latest project.
Tom has built a six-digit clock using IN-12 nixie tubes, an Arduino-compatible circuit and controls the 74141 Nixie drivers with shift registers - an overall classic design that has been tried an tested. To make life simpler the HV power supply for the tubes is a prebuild unit, which can be safer and save a lot of time. Furthermore Tom runs through the clock in his latest video below:
Finally Tom has been awesome and shared everything you need to know in order to reproduce the clock, including schematics and the Arduino sketch - so visit his project page for build information and links to the required files. And for more, we're on facebook, twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.
If you're wanting to make your own Arduino-compatible devices such as the clock above, you'll need an ATmega328P MCU with Arduino Uno bootloader:
This is the same Atmel AVR ATmega328P microcontroller used in the official Arduino Uno, as well as our Eleven, EtherTen, USBDroid, and other boards. Perfect for building your own Arduino-compatible project directly on a breadboard or on a custom PCB, or for replacing the MCU in an existing board. Comes with the Arduino Uno bootloader pre-installed. Better still, it even has a special label stuck on top with details of the pinout, so you don't even need to look up the datasheet when connecting it up in your project! For more information and to order, click here!
