Cool clock

[Chiefish]

[JAC]

[wepwawet]

Good points, thanks:-)

[doccybrown]

Does that mean this clock has no power adaptor?
In Germany unthinkable since we have 230V AC which
is rectified 320V direct current which is an enormous hazard.
So most safe clock designs use a power adaptor with 9-12V output
and the 100-200Volts DC for the tubes are generated by a
step-up converter, I fully agree with Jac.
The output current is low here and won`t kill somebody
at once if touching anything!

[Chiefish]

this clock is in a clear lexan case covering all sides of it, I just removed the top to take pics. And to be honest theres not a clock in my house , including all the ones bought from any store that have a power adapter to them, they all just plug right into the wall. I know we run 120vac here so maybe that makes some kind of difference, I am no electrical engineer or anything. It does have a fuse inside the housing of it, weather that makes any difference to the hazards or not I dont know. Jac thanks for responding in such a detailed way , and altho I may not quite understand all of it i do get the idea of what youre saying. And the kits that I have been looking at on the web all seem to have power adapters to them and actually look pretty easy to do. Some more complex than others, but I might just try a single tube clock and work my way up from there.

[JAC]

An equipment fuse sadly offers little or no protection against electric shock. A fuse with too high a rating is useless and might as well not be there. A fuse with too low a rating will blow and be replaced by the user for a fuse with a mugh higher rating rendering the fuse totally useless. Fuse design is actually pretty interesting.. worth reading if you cant sleep one night. Ratings include more than just the Amperage. Sadly fuses convey a false sense of security ...


Regarding the case... keep in mind "that hazardous parts or live parts that could become hazardous in the event of a single fault should only be accessible with the use of a tool."
....
That comes from compliance work I do. As I said before in a post a long time ago, that part of my work involves product compliance - that is all the testing and documentation that goes behind the CE marking on equipment. CE Marking is infact a small part of the compliance, for electrical products the important stuff is held in the LVD - Low Voltage Directive. To demonstrate compliance I use harmonised product safety standards adopted across Europe -. .. there are literally hundreds of product standards.. almost anything you can imagine now from battery chargers to kitchen equipment etc.. sadly not one for nixie clocks - and there never will be. You will also have a job to find nixie tubes that comply with the RoHS - restriction on hazardous substances directive.. I think there is plenty of lead and a dash of mercury in old nixies. So.. dont go buying a ton of nixie tubes and think you will make lots of clocks to sell.. because that would make you a business and business have to abide by regulations. *yawn* I know.

So if you want to know just exactly what constitutes sufficient insulation and how many mm you need to achieve sufficient isolation then check out EN60950 - all kinds of geeky stuff resides in there, from electrochemical potentials in the earth bond path to basic marking requirements. Highly recommended for anyone to read really.

There are lots of kits that look good out there, before purchasing I do recommend joining the Yahoo nixie group.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/neonixie-l/

Ask there for lots advice on kits - I havent built any, as you know I like to design my own.

I also been nagged to death about making my designs available. I will, hopefully over xmas, and I can sell key parts at cost to forum members here.

[smithy]

I use an isolation transformer when building/testing amplifiers...an extra level of safety

[Chiefish]

I know for a fact that what you are saying about the fuses being a false security, as I have been in the automotive field all my life and have seen hundreds of times where people have been blowing fuses for one reason or another and decide that they need a heavier fuse to stop it from blowing, It usually ends in disaster for any other electronic components in the car including and not limited to ECMs and the such. The worst I saw tho was some knucklehead used a finishing nail as a fuse and ended up burning up his whole car.
Thanks for the suggestion on the Yahoo group I will definatly check that out first and do alot more reading up on it before attempting to build one.....But I think I will build one.
And as a matter of fact Im going to make sure My home owners insurance is up to date as well LOL.

Really, thanks for an experts insight into some of this stuff, I really do appreciate it.

[D.8080]

Last posts are "pimp my nixie clock".


Great!

[MHz]

Hi,
What tubes have you used? They look like Z5730. I started to build my own nixie clock and hardware is ready, but now I do not have time to finish the software. The tubes I used are LC531.
Have you thought about joining the passion for CPUs and Nixies? It would be nice to build a clock with larger tubes like Z566 working with some CPU or rather MPU in white case, with for example motorola 74141 with gold legs and other chips in ceramic package.

MHz