Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Single-digit Nixie tube micro clock

This single-digit Nixie clock is built on a piece of prototype board, as a ProMini shield, similar to two previous miniature clocks, the single-digit numitron clock and the 7-segment bubble clock. The shield holds the Nixie board and the high-voltage power source (both from Taylor Electronics). It also has a couple of buttons to set up the time and 4 LEDs to indicate the digit's position.



Like the single-digit numitron clock, time is displayed by showing each of the 4 digits (as in HH:MM). But for a "clearer picture", I added the above-mentioned 4 different color LEDs.
One of its nice features is that it works on the rechargeable 3.7V LiPo battery.


The clock does not have an on-board RTC (lack of space), relying instead on the time-measuring capabilities of ATmega328 directly. So this clock will keep time for as long as the battery is kept charged (through the USB power cable).

The photo below shows my "collection" of (un-synchronized) micro clocks. (Missing is the numitron clock, which requires a stand; I am still waiting for a part to build that).


The right-most one follows the same ProMini shield idea, using an I2C OLED display and running the Pong sketch (courtesy of miker).

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