Luke, No dilemma - have your clock and meter too:
1) Keep the beautiful voltmeter exactly as is, with no changes. 2) Turn it into a unique clock by making a little microcontroller-PWM-DAC project that outputs 00.00 to 23.59 Volts, incrementing each minute as appropriate. If you want AM/PM time instead, output negative (AM) or positive (PM) 1.00 to 12.59 Volts. /tvb > On Feb 21, 2015, at 1:23 PM, Luke <luke.mor...@nordnet.fr> wrote: > > I recently acquired an old nixie voltmeter with the view to giving it a new > lease of life by transforming it into a nixie clock. This would, not only, > ensure practical daily usage, but would also be admired for its aesthetical > vintage beauty. It's a French made Rochar from 1964. > However, After plugging it into the mains for the first time, I was surprised > how well it worked. All the nixie tubes lit up with no cathode poisoning. The > voltage scale selector and auto scaling worked as if brand new. The decimal > point neon jumps across nicely to the next when I increase the voltage on my > homemade regulator. > The Dilemma is clear. Do I continue my original plan and carry on with the > conversion or do I keep it as it is ? In which case, it will gather dust, > probably only be powered up once or twice a year and then end up in the > garage with my other vintage stuff. But If I do convert it, will I regret > that decision in ten or twenty years time when these beautiful old lab > instruments have become even more scarce. > I have thought about trying to retain its integrity and keep it as a > voltmeter with all its original components but incorporating a clock circuit > and a switch which can toggle between the two. I have, in the passed > converted a TTL based frequency counter into a clock by rewiring the decade > counters but that would not be possible in this case. > Any advice will be appreciated. > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "neonixie-l" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to neonixie-l+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to neonixie-l@googlegroups.com. > To view this discussion on the web, visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/be18f1b0-3b1c-40a9-9007-8a9ad62233c4%40googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > <rochar.jpg> > <rochar2.jpg> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to neonixie-l+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send an email to neonixie-l@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/D55CA5D5-C1D7-4D73-B682-08127591F663%40leapsecond.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
