I made this clock around 2002, and made the video around 2008. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM9TW6GcCQE

http://selectric.org/tubeclock/index.html

I probably need to update the web page! But anyways, the clock quit working 
not long after I made the video, and has just sat doing nothing. For some 
reason I brought it out into the light a couple days ago, and started 
messing with it. The counting was not working, it would sometimes show 
movement, other times just sit stuck. I poked and prodded and noticed it 
would sometimes start working for a little while if I wiggled one of the 
four tubes in the input circuit (which turns the sine wave of the line 
voltage into a 60 Hz pulse). I realized I could try substituting tubes, and 
see if it would make a difference. The third one I tried, did the trick. 
The 6U8A seemed to want to be replaced, it started counting just fine. 

Then I decided to see if I could fix the setting issue. When I was working 
on the clock originally, I decided to make it into a tall obelisk case, but 
never got around to actually building the case. To make it fit, I extended 
the wires from the main unit to the Hour/Minute display unit, and it has 
always been finicky about setting time since I did that. I decided that 
maybe it could fit in a smaller case now, so I shortened the wires, and now 
it works great. I can set the time easily.

It's been running for a day and a half, keeping good time. But it sure does 
get warm, with 31 vacuum tubes!

Anyways, hope all of you are doing well, and enjoy my little blast from the 
past

Jim

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