Adrian, I am so glad that you brought up the complexities of digital
design. Decoupling caps. Hefty grounds.
These things should not ever be overlooked in ANY well designed circuit.
I am not ready to give this young man the go-ahead
for the processor operated clock until he builds at least a few from
discrete logic first! Of course it is up to him how he wishes to spend
his time.
How many of you guys on here have designed and built nixie clocks that run
on discrete logic and function properly for 25+ years without any trouble?
Because I have done so. Many different versions. I speak from
experience. But maybe that is of no value now. We just grab a raspberry
pi and act cool
about it and hope it works.
On Monday, September 22, 2025 at 5:46:00 PM UTC-4 Leroy Jones wrote:
> David Pye: You are missing the point of what I am trying to convey
> here. My point is that trying to design and build a microproceeor
> controlled nixie tube
> clock from scratch is an ambitious project even for experienced people.
> Ambitious for an experienced man. Impossible for a beginner. That is my
> point.
> It is about the same as someone who has never flown an airplane nor been
> involved with aviation in any way, suddenly thinks they can design and
> build a working
> helicopter from scratch and have it work flawlessly the first time without
> having any prior experience of any kind.
>
> The only way to do it is to learn each small thing in small steps.
> Building a working nixie clock from scratch is a massive undertaking. No
> way around that.
>
> I am attempting to give guidance to this young man so that he might learn.
>
> Got to crawl before walking. Got to walk before running. Folks today
> seem to want everything to have a processor in it.
> And made on a PCB. Lots of luck with that as a first-off effort!
>
> Get a solderless breadboard. Get some #24 gauge solid tinned jumper
> wires. Get a nixie tube. Get a 170 volt DC power supply.
> Get a 5 volt DC power supply. Connect both supplies so they share a
> common ground. Use a 15k anode resistor for the nixie tube.
> Get a 74141 nixie driver IC. Get a 74LS160 decade counter. Learn how
> to operate the counter using a 555 timer IC running in astable mode.
> Connect the counter to the nixie driver IC. Turn it on and watch it
> count. For detailed explanation and study, get these two books:
> 1) The TTL Cookbook by Don Lancaster.
> 2) The CMOS Cookbook by Don Lancaster.
>
> How the hell can anyone expect a newbie to understand what the processor
> is actually accomplishing without having him
> first deal personally with each binary bit?
>
> Or are we now in such an age where fundamental understanding has been
> relegated to the dustbin, because it is "Too Hard, and Too Much Work" ?
>
> Flatten out the learning curve? Nope sorry. Not buying it. ("flatten
> the curve".......hmmm......where have we heard THIS before?)
>
> Chuck
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Monday, September 22, 2025 at 5:08:27 PM UTC-4 David Pye wrote:
>
>> While I agree with some of this, I don't necessarily agree entirely.
>>
>> There are lots of things about the PCB that could be improved (eg using
>> ground planes/fills) and simple starting experiments - eg a trial
>> single-digit-nixie is a good place to start, to work out where the gaps in
>> your understanding are, and you can then incorporate what you learn into
>> the clock.
>>
>> What I don't necessarily agree with is starting by a clock using discrete
>> ICs and not a microcontroller. *IF* you come from the generation where
>> arduino/rPi Pico are more familiar to you than large numbers of chained
>> 74-series ICs (like me), then you might well find it easier to use an MCU
>> to drive your clock. If you're 'old school' and MCUs are also new to you,
>> then sticking to that should flatten out the learning curve a bit.
>>
>> David
>>
>> On Mon, 22 Sept 2025 at 20:38, Leroy Jones <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>> For a 21 year old guy with no previous electronics experience, in my
>>> humble opinion, you are jumping in far far deeper
>>> than your present skill level is capable of producing any meaningful
>>> results.
>>>
>>> First of all, you have NEVER even fired up a nixie tube yet. Nor have
>>> you studied and worked with logic gates.
>>> If you want success, the first thing to do is get a nixie tube and a 170
>>> volt DC power supply and a 15k anode resistor, then start
>>> experimenting lighting the tube digits. Next, get a 74141 or a 7441
>>> nixie driver IC, and connect it up to an appropriate 4-bit switch of come
>>> sort
>>> so that you can feed it binary bits at the 5 volt level, and light the
>>> tube digits. Next thing then is to switch those bits using a counter such
>>> as 74LS160.
>>>
>>> As for a nixie clock, I would strongly suggest making one that uses no
>>> processor of any sort. Use TTL or CMOS logic to run counters that drive
>>> the 74141 nixie driver ICs. A very nice nixie clock can be made using
>>> about 16 to 20 ICs.
>>>
>>> Learning electronics and learning to use digital ICs and nixie tubes
>>> requires many, many practical tests and experiments.
>>> Jumping right in cold, with no prior experience right away thinking that
>>> a complex PCB can be designed and a clock made to operate
>>> without doing any experiments to prove the fundamental concepts is THE
>>> classic recipe for failure.
>>>
>>> I can help with book recommendations, parts lists to experiment with,
>>> and experiments to do.
>>> Take it slow. Stay down at the level of reality.
>>>
>>> -Chuck
>>>
>>> On Monday, September 22, 2025 at 3:02:23 PM UTC-4 Adrian Godwin wrote:
>>>
>>>> Also, put 100n capacitors between supply (5v or 3v3) and gnd near
>>>> each and every IC.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Mon, Sep 22, 2025 at 8:00 PM Adrian Godwin <[email protected]>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Thanks for the pdf. Yes, the schematic wasn't usable.
>>>>>
>>>>> The first problem I've found is that SCLK and SDATA are connected to
>>>>> 3v3 and then have resistors in line. I'm pretty sure you had the right
>>>>> idea
>>>>> but made an error on the wiring, but if it's not obvious the resistors
>>>>> should be between 3v3 and the clk/data lines.
>>>>>
>>>>> You will likely need a pullup resistor on the light sensor., unless
>>>>> the Pi has one internally that can be enabled on analog inputs. They
>>>>> normally just measure voltages and you want to measure resistance.
>>>>>
>>>>> Overall, it's pretty good for a first try !
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Mon, Sep 22, 2025 at 7:48 PM Mac Doktor <[email protected]>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Sep 22, 2025, at 2:43 PM, Florian van der Dussen <
>>>>>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Current schematic:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The schematic is too small to read. Please share a larger copy.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Terry Bowman, KA4HJH
>>>>>> "The Mac Doctor"
>>>>>>
>>>>>> https://www.astarcloseup.com
>>>>>>
>>>>>> "If only you could see what I've seen with your eyes."—Roy Batty, *Blade
>>>>>> Runner*
>>>>>>
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