NIXIE watch as a home decoration :)

Those lamps that make for colons, what markings do they have/where did you buy them?

INS-1, where you get it, you buy it there, I used to buy tubes a long time ago.

emil134679 wrote:

What do you think? I'm interested in your opinions.

The project was successful, but since it will be in a wooden housing, compactness was probably not that important.
Personally, I would choose a clock on vertical lamps, similar to this one, but with an enclosed bottom. link

Such a pretty tile that it's a shame to hide it.
How is the time set? Because it's the only inconvenience when we still have the summer/winter time change. DS3231 has a very small deviation. I have two of these and they have been shining for 14 years.

madart wrote:

Such a pretty tile that it's a shame to hide it.

That's right, you can make a transparent casing or (if the heat exchange allows) pour a transparent resin.

madart wrote:

I have two of these and they have been shining for 14 years

No lamp replacement? The technical data indicate that the guaranteed lifetime for the IN-1 is only 1000 h.

One has LC-516 link . I changed the tubes a few times so that the cathodes would detoxify and once two transistors died together with the CD4028
The advantage of the multiplex is that the lamps do not burn all the time, only about 1/6 of the time for 6 lamps, and I think it extends their life a bit.
The second one from 2009 is probably on the Z560M, the converter from 555 to the factory Chinese one was replaced after 9 years

vodiczka wrote:

emil134679 wrote:

What do you think? I'm interested in your opinions

The project was successful, but since it will be in a wooden housing, compactness was probably not that important.
Personally, I would choose a clock on vertical lamps, similar to this one, but with an enclosed bottom. link

It was important because the housing is neither deep nor wide, more or less I see it as if you wrapped the presented circuit around, leaving the tube lenses outside the housing. The colleague above showed something similar and I'm going in that direction, but I still want to reduce it.
Vertical lamps are not my taste at all, but everyone has their own taste ;)

madart wrote:

Such a pretty tile that it's a shame to hide it.
How is the time set? Because it's the only inconvenience when we still have the summer/winter time change. DS3231 has a very small deviation. I have two of these and they have been shining for 14 years.

PCB as PCB, the Chinese from JBC did a good job
I update the RTC if necessary by simply uploading the code.
The watch is still able to work with the Arduino IDE via USB.
Reports as UNO.
And I bought a nice USB C socket with a nut for the housing on a short cable.
I will make a round hole and install. I use the same socket to power the entire system and program it.

I have 3 free I/O released on goldpins, so you could add some "+" "-" and "ok" to the code to set it manually.
It's still a long way to October. Connecting the watch to the computer for 10 seconds is nothing terrible. That was my assumption.

vodiczka wrote:

madart wrote:

Such a pretty tile that it's a shame to hide it

That's right, you can make a transparent casing or (if the heat exchange allows) pour a transparent resin.

Transparent would be nice, but it won't match anything on my desk.
Flooding is not an option, because just like the whole thing does not heat up at all, the step-up already emits something there. I wouldn't want to risk it.

emil134679 wrote:

Vertical lamps are not my taste at all, but everyone has their own taste

My taste is probably due to the fact that I first had contact with displays on vertical lamps and I remained faithful to them.

Do you have any experience with a high voltage converter controlled directly from the uC?
At one time I wanted to make a simple PWM controlled one MOSFET transistor and a transformer from fluorescent lamps from the monitor and I don't know if it still makes sense. At least controlling the brightness would be simple.

chemik_16 wrote:

Do you have any experience with a high voltage converter controlled directly from the uC?

The new Atmel uCs are great for this.
https://sm6vfz.wordpress.com/2020/12/11/boost-regulator-with-attiny/
In practice, it can be even simpler - ATTINY212:

Great project (if there was a rating, of course there would be ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐), I could do it myself. Is it possible for you to send the board design, diagram and code?

@KarolJuszkiewicz I don't look on the electrode too often but yes, a matter of agreement. I still have the boards as well as the code and the tutorial left because I already had a few customers for the DIY kit .

I love the compact design and how you integrated the Arduino and other components so seamlessly. It's got a cool retro vibe with those IN-1 + INS-1 tubes. I’ve been fascinated by NIXIE tubes for a while now, and this design feels like a perfect balance of tech and vintage aesthetics.