I also have a Blue Dream with IN-18. As you say, it is very nicely proportioned. Also, the colon fade and digit fade are among the nicest out there. It is a beautiful clock with lots of features.
It's a bit of a pain to program and I have to pull out the manual and relearn it every time I want to do something and have to make notes to remember the settings. Eventually it becomes clear. The documentation with example settings helps a lot. While I have not had any issues with the clock itself, I have lost a couple tubes (originally supplied with Blue Dream) where the tube seals failed and tube went dark. I do blame the pin socket arrangement for applying too much stress but it is certainly an elegant design and layout. In ~2.5 years, I have "refreshed" a couple tubes on the Blue Dream that began to cathode poison, beginning with the "8". My night mode was originally set to dim to 20% and I think that might be too low and hasten poisoning the cathodes if the clock sees any amount of hours, so I increased the dim setting to 40% and have not seen any poisoning for awhile. I do have a motion sensor outlet that powers the clock fully off after 10 minutes of no motion activity, so I think it will help the overall tube life. The internal battery that holds the time and settings is supposed to be good for ~10 years and this is OK to do per Dieter and the latest manual. It does change the start time that date and cathode poisoning prevention occur. The counters for the display functions start when the power is reapplied. So by cycling the full power, on one cycle, the date may show at the top of the hour and on the next motion cycle, it will be different. On mine, the date will show 55 seconds after power turn on time if you set a 55 sec time, 5 sec date display ratio. If you power on and off as I do, you also need to set the cathode poisoning cycle to occur at a frequency that is shorter than the external motion timer or it will not count up long enough to ever digit cycle if the clock doesn't stay on long enough. One thing that would be helpful for repair is if anyone has a Blue Dream schematic that we could keep for troubleshooting. The brains of the clock are in the firmware (protects the design) so it would be nice to at least have an electrical schematic in case parts ever fail and need troubleshooting/replacing. The assembly documentation is very nice but contains no schematic except for a breakout of the DIN connector for using an AUX output. I asked Nocrotec for one some time ago but never got a response. I'd love to add a PIR to the clock instead of the motion sensor outlet to keep the display timers alive. Anyone ever see a schematic of the IN-18 Blue Dream to share? Hopefully, they bring the Blue Dream back because it is really a great looking clock! Jeff -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Alic Sent: Thursday, March 23, 2017 12:27 AM To: neonixie-l Subject: Re: [neonixie-l] Re: IN18 Blue Dream out-of-production until 2019 It's a pity. It's still my favorite IN-18 clock because it is compact and I like the proportions (the tubes are on the axis of the board). I was also secretly hoping that the black'n'wood would become available again. Maybe things have changed since. Also, I don't know what others expect from someone who sells nixie DIY clock kits as a hobby, but on the rare occasions when I had a question or a problem with Claus' and Dieter's clocks, I always received good advice on how to repair it myself. The board of the Blue dream isn't expensive enough to be sent back (especially from the USA) and spend hours on a repair. I never had problems with gas leaks with the nixies I bought from Dieter with the clocks. One set is from '92 as well. I did have problems with tubes off eBay where the pins were not straight. -- 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 [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/fab14382-e7ac-4d2c-898b-155dff7f5600%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- 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 [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/58d36aa9.dd896b0a.71c4b.8c7f%40mx.google.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
