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[quote="donutty"][quote="JAC"]From looking at the first proto I'd call it.... spaghetti Smile [/quote] Yeah I know mate... I made a simple HH:MM clock using just TTL and it looked like I'd been to my local italian restaurant! :)[/quote]
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donutty
Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2009 3:43 pm
Post subject:
JAC wrote:
From looking at the first proto I'd call it.... spaghetti Smile
Yeah I know mate... I made a simple HH:MM clock using just TTL and it looked like I'd been to my local italian restaurant!
JAC
Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2009 12:30 pm
Post subject:
kosmokrator wrote:
what use for timer/clock count?
mcu? or other solution? fpga? or all is on custom ttl logic ?
nice output btw...keeep it up!
Thank you.
A Microchip PIC is at the heart of the clock. Totally overkill on the PIC, but it was a free sample from Microchip ( they stopped free samples a while ago).
The time signal receiver and ferrite I took from a very cheap radio controlled clock.
A Dallas RTC with backup battery keeping time. The RTC provides the timebase on interrupt. Most of the time my software is just waiting for interrupt to increment next count.
The tube slave boards are microchip port expanders on SPI bus. So 5 lines of output from the PIC gives me control over 16 tubes, with the possibility of driving 16 segments on each slave board. ( 5 lines of output to 128 individual outputs is a good deal) ( I mentioned earlier I designed the boards to work with other tubes.. I had in mind the alphanumeric tubes, some of them need individual current drive to each segment). With an additional extra output I can uniquely drive another 64 outputs, so the design is totally scaleable.
Every segment is direct drive. No multiplexing. ( So no multiplexing problems with driving large numbers of tubes and also the individual segment drive requirements)
donutty wrote:
From looking at the first proto I'd call it.... spaghetti
To be fair that was not the original, they were circuit fragments left over from the very first design. .. still.. after a while breadboard does become spaghetti. It is the way of things, like the sun rising tomorrow.
donutty wrote:
Ever thought about fitting a relay (and transistor of course) to the 1hz pulse so you get that good old 'tick tock' sound?
A tick-tock sound is an option. . I have plenty of code space, all I need to use is one output to drive a speaker and make my own sounds. I am a little away from being able to use SD cards and playing MP3.
donutty wrote:
You gotta call it something grand, like an old ocean liner or a fighter jet. Just look up some greek gods
I am looking at all names, thank you to everyone with all the suggestions..... I think I'll know the one that fits when I have it in the case.. I'll draft up some artwork and see what works.
Neon wrote:
Well I like your first option. Less is often more, but if you need to give it a name, how about, "Now:"
at least it wouldn't take you long to label it.
“ NOW “ … is a very good idea. I have to check it doesn’t mean something like
“ I like to eat goat testicles”
in another language.
johnorun
Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2009 4:33 pm
Post subject:
How about "Nix - the clock" ?
Neon
Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2009 3:49 pm
Post subject:
Well I like your first option. Less is often more, but if you need to give it a name, how about, "Now:"
-- at least it wouldn't take you long to label it.
donutty
Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2009 3:04 pm
Post subject:
kosmokrator wrote:
donutty wrote:
You gotta call it something grand, like an old ocean liner or a fighter jet. Just look up some greek gods
Chronos (obvious)
Aeon (you can joke that it took aeons to build)
Nyx (goddess of the night, a take on 'nixie')
You get the idea...
i like the Greek ancients Gods story-Names...
how i dint thought this?
donutty u are Greek ancient history lover?
Nah, not really.. but they got all the cool names
kosmokrator
Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2009 12:50 pm
Post subject:
donutty wrote:
You gotta call it something grand, like an old ocean liner or a fighter jet. Just look up some greek gods
Chronos (obvious)
Aeon (you can joke that it took aeons to build)
Nyx (goddess of the night, a take on 'nixie')
You get the idea...
i like the Greek ancients Gods story-Names...
how i dint thought this?
donutty u are Greek ancient history lover?
donutty
Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2009 12:45 pm
Post subject:
From looking at the first proto I'd call it.... spaghetti
Ever thought about fitting a relay (and transistor of course) to the 1hz pulse so you get that good old 'tick tock' sound?
You gotta call it something grand, like an old ocean liner or a fighter jet. Just look up some greek gods
Chronos (obvious)
Aeon (you can joke that it took aeons to build)
Nyx (goddess of the night, a take on 'nixie')
You get the idea...
kosmokrator
Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2009 12:34 pm
Post subject:
what use for timer/clock count?
mcu? or other solution? fpga? or all is on custom ttl logic ?
nice output btw...keeep it up!
JAC
Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2009 12:15 pm
Post subject:
wepwawet wrote:
looks much better than in the first video:-)
How many hours did you work on it?
It looks about 100x better in front of you. When it is completely finished in the case I'll do another video with something better than a small pocket recorder.
I spent many .. many.. many hours. As a starting point, the very first work was started about 5 years ago. First with decoding the time signal ( I like clocks to maintain their own time). This is actually the 2nd generation. I had another clock I almost finished, but didnt like the tube interface, so I did it all over again. Long periods of time went by when I didnt do anything on the clock... overall I would say I have spent about 3-4 weeks on it, but that includes time spent getting to grips with learning more programming and experimenting with various chips and ideas.
I chose the 16 tube idea because I could use the posts in the tube as colons, and I havent seen another clock like it. Lots of generic simple clock circuits out there. Yah its ok to "assemble" a kit you buy, but much more fun to totally build it up from nothing. I have plenty of code space to put a ton of stuff in there to keep the tubes busy. The circuit is actually massive overkill for simple numeral nixie tubes. I designed it to work with multisegment tubes/led arrays/vfd's etc.. they offer more options.
wepwawet
Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2009 8:40 am
Post subject:
looks much better than in the first video:-)
How many hours did you work on it?
JAC
Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2009 7:53 am
Post subject:
Thanks for the name suggestions.
Here is a very short clip of all 16 nixie tubes running.
HH:MM:SS
DDMMYYY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZ8ZqDz6g7U
andamus
Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 1:38 pm
Post subject:
From you nickname :
Just-A-Clock
gshv
Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 9:30 am
Post subject:
YouTube ... scratch it, it's taken
YouClock
or better, yet -
YouNix
Gennadiy
wepwawet
Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 9:19 am
Post subject:
......
n
ovel
.....v
i
ntage
...mi
x
ed
......t
i
me
.......
e
xpressor
JAC
Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 8:15 am
Post subject:
Some good names. Thanks. Once its finally assembled into the case, there will be a piece of artwork trim to go on the front panel. I'll put a name there.
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