Ian, may I ask why you've chosen to use LEDs for the colons with most of your clocks? I think neon looks so much better.
On Saturday, February 6, 2021 at 7:00:12 PM UTC+1 Ian Sparkes wrote: > Ah, that parsitic glow. The Zirrfa boards don't do something important > that they should: The drivers on my board are clamped with a Zener, which > stops them from breaking down when there is no load on undriven digits. The > unclamped voltage can range between 90 and 120V and that's just plain too > much for the ULN drivers, so I added a clamp. > > I use a DS3231 RTC chip (original Maxim - the Atmel is original as well - > this was very important to me and cost a few pennies extra) and that is > usually good for 1 second a month. However, if you go for the WiFi version, > you get NTP synchronisation, as well as a nice GUI to configure the clock > with. > > My firmware is not at all locked down. It's FOSS and is there for all to > see / modify / and hopefully contribute to. ;) > > On Saturday, 6 February 2021 at 14:48:09 UTC+1 Robert G. Schaffrath wrote: > >> On Friday, February 5, 2021 at 6:26:36 AM UTC-5 Ian Sparkes wrote: >> >>> So, it started like this: I liked the Zirffa style Chinese boards - I >>> thought the hardware was pretty good, but the firmware was really >>> primitive. I was going to set about re-writing the firmware for these >>> boards, but them came up with the idea of simply taking the hardware >>> approach and using my existing firmware on it. >>> >> >> I have two Zirffa style boards. One for IN-12's and the other for >> IN-14's. I agree that while the hardware is pretty good (more details >> follow) the firmware is really primitive. >> >> The IN-12 hardware is wonky in that if a digit is blanked, or the whole >> clock is off in night mode, there is a parasitic glow from various >> elements. As such, I have to leave all digits powered at all times. Also, I >> find it will drift a second or two over a week. >> >> Meanwhile I have an IN-14 board that I use with Rodan Gr-111Pa tubes. I >> replaced the anode resistors with 18K to give the tubes the needed 2mA to >> drive them properly. That board firmware is also primitive but I am stunned >> at the accuracy of the clock chip. It runs for weeks and stays on the >> second. No idea why that board should be so accurate. When the clock turns >> itself off at 10 PM, there is no parasitic glow. >> >> It is a shame the firmware on those boards is locked down. The hardware >> had such potential. >> >> > -- 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 view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/c6613088-6c84-4a3b-b082-b2b523be820dn%40googlegroups.com.
