often the stars line up as well as we get two somewhat similar develops hitting the Hackaday idea line at the exact same time. Recently, the develop of note was clocks utilizing some kind of screen tube, so right here we go.
First up is [Pyrofer]’s VFD network time clock (pic, above). The develop started as a vacuum flourescent screen tube he salvaged from an old fruit maker – whatever that is. The VFD was a 16 character, 14 section display, all managed by means of serial input.
The primary manage board is, of course, an Arduino with a WizNet 5100 Ethernet board. The clock links to the Web by means of DHCP so there’s no requirement to set an IP address. when connected, the clock sets itself by means of network time as well as screens the present date, time, as well as temperature supplied by a Dallas 1-wire temperature probe.
Next up is [Andrew]’s beautiful Nixie clock with sufficient LEDs to satiate the wishes of even the most discerning technophile. The board is based on a photo microcontroller with two changing power supplies – one for the 170VDC for the Nixies, as well as 5V for the rest of the board.
A battery backed DS1307 is the real-time clock for this board, as well as two MCP23017 I/O expanders are utilized to run the old-school Nixie drivers
All this is quite common for a Nixie clock build, if a bit excessive. It wasn’t sufficient for [Andrew], though: he utilized the USB support on his photo to throw a USB port on his board as well as composed an remarkable bit of software application for his PC to set the time, publish new firmware, as well as set the color fade as well as speed. With this lots of LEDs, it’s not something you want in your bedroom with all the lights on full blast, so he implemented a ‘sleep’ mode to turn off a lot of of the lights as well as all the Nixie tubes. It’s a excellent piece of work that might quickly be effectively funded on Kickstarter.