Who makes good Nixie Clock kits?

[aphex]

Been browsing Tubehobby lately, they have a nice IN-14 kit for $99. LINK

To those who have built a nixie clock, which kit (if any) did you use?

 

[IGBT]

..I built a HeathKit nixie clock that now seems like a lifetime ago. It looked great. It used "FlatPak" nixie tubes that had a nice orange glow to them. But the darn things would get gassy form leakage and burn out elements. I recall seeing the same flatpak nixies in cash registers back in that era. And they had the same problem. Burnt out segments.

 

[Loreena]

Originally posted by: IGBT
..I built a HeathKit nixie clock that now seems like a lifetime ago. It looked great. It used "FlatPak" nixie tubes that had a nice orange glow to them. But the darn things would get gassy form leakage and burn out elements. I recall seeing the same flatpak nixies in cash registers back in that era. And they had the same problem. Burnt out segments.

Those weren't true nixies. More like plasma neon cousins to fluorescent displays. Heath made a digital thermometer based on them and yes the electrodes would get dim/uneven. I remember the data systems' registers with 'em too. Those had the "asterisk" digits with slanted elements.

Nixies are neat but staring at a fast changing display like a frequency counter with the constant in and out movement of the glowing numerals was practically hypnotic!

 

[IGBT]

Originally posted by: Loreena

Originally posted by: IGBT
..I built a HeathKit nixie clock that now seems like a lifetime ago. It looked great. It used "FlatPak" nixie tubes that had a nice orange glow to them. But the darn things would get gassy form leakage and burn out elements. I recall seeing the same flatpak nixies in cash registers back in that era. And they had the same problem. Burnt out segments.

Those weren't true nixies. More like plasma neon cousins to fluorescent displays. Heath made a digital thermometer based on them and yes the electrodes would get dim/uneven. I remember the data systems' registers with 'em too. Those had the "asterisk" digits with slanted elements.

Nixies are neat but staring at a fast changing display like a frequency counter with the constant in and out movement of the glowing numerals was practically hypnotic!

..Sperry made the flatpak display. they did look more like neon.

 

[Loreena]

Yes they are filled with neon but have discretely fireable segments like a modern LED/LCD whereas a nixie has individual electrodes shaped like numerals.

Here's a pic of the ID-1390 thermometer:

http://www.maxipub.com/electro...s/heatkit_id1390ae.jpg

I have one in the attic somewhere and now I feel like digging it out. LOL

 

[aphex]

Found this guy in germany as well. http://www.nixieclocks.de/

Tubehobby is $99 + shipping (includes six IN-14 tubes)
Nixieclock is $78 + shipping (includes no nixies, but its compatible with IN-14, IN-8-2, CD66, CD61, GN6, ZM1080, ZM1170, ZM1172, ZM1174, ZM1230, ZM1232, ZM1175, XN3, Z573M, Z574M)

Six IN-14's are around $25 shipped from eBay so the Nixieclocks.de ends up being about a wash, though its supposedly compatible with more tubes.

CD66 tubes look great - http://www.tube-tester.com/sites/nixie/data/cd66.htm , but seem to be kinda hard to find

 

[IGBT]

Originally posted by: Loreena
Yes they are filled with neon but have discretely fireable segments like a modern LED/LCD whereas a nixie has individual electrodes shaped like numerals.

Here's a pic of the ID-1390 thermometer:

http://www.maxipub.com/electro...s/heatkit_id1390ae.jpg

I have one in the attic somewhere and now I feel like digging it out. LOL

..the clock I built looked very similar. nearly the same plastic housing with smoked plastic window in the front.

 

[aphex]

Ok, here are the two variants of the kits. The Nixieclocks.de kit has fading digits while the Tubehobby kits have other effects...

Nixieclocks.de (Fading) - http://www.nixieclocks.de/engl...ownloads/in18dcf77.wmv
Nixieclocks.de (Date) - http://www.nixieclocks.de/engl...oads/date5910dec05.avi

Tubehobby (Effects) - http://tubehobby.com/datasheets/NCV21_IN14.avi

 

[Demon-Xanth]

I built one by tubehobby, works well.

 

[aphex]

Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
I built one by tubehobby, works well.

Cool, any pics?

 

[Demon-Xanth]

http://tubehobby.com/show_det.php?det=42 <-- that one

 

[aphex]

Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
http://tubehobby.com/show_det.php?det=42 <-- that one

Thanks, yea thats the one i've been looking at. I dunno, I think I might just go for the Nixieclocks.de one as I like the fading digits.

 

[IGBT]

..any flat pak nixie's for temp/barometric monitors? Really not interested in building kits anymore. Would like a good to go syst.

 

[aphex]

So i decided to go with the tubyhobby kit afterall. According to the manual it can crossfade the digits just like the Nixieclocks.de model.

Also, the Tubyhobby has a built in battery backup and has a PS/2 port for GPS hookup ($40 Holux GPS works fine apparently). The Nixieclocks.de model requires a special GPS converter module that runs well over $100, and has no battery backup.

Guess its an easy decision now

 

[Simon Templar]

......
Also, the Tubyhobby has a built in battery backup and has a PS/2 port for GPS hookup ($40 Holux GPS works fine apparently). .......

Sorry to dredge up ancient threads, but doing so in this instance will just save us all time.

I am doing the Nixie Clock thing. Can anyone point me toward the appropriate Holux unit for this? Of the ones Ive dug up in searches, none seem to obviously be a good choice.


Many thanks,

.....sT