VA3TO - Nixie Tube Clock project using IN14 tubes

As a kid who was curious about all things technical, I remember being mesmerized by Nixie tubes like the ones used in early digital test equipment. For years I thought about building a clock using Nixie Tubes and I finally got around to it. I bought a bare circuit board from a seller off the internet, ordered some vintage Nixie tubes from Russia, programmed an Arduino microcontroller with the clock code and built it all up.

There's quite a variety of different styles and sizes of Nixie Tubes but I chose to use IN14's. They're just the right size, not too big or small and they capture the unique layered filament construction nicely. Notice how the 5 filament is an inverted 2. I've read that it was a measure to save on manufacturing costs during the cold war. This quirk, unique to the IN14 (& IN12) tube, appeals to the techie crowd. Apparently millions were made for the Russian military so there are still lots of New-Old-Stock and pulls available on the surplus market.

I swapped out the Real Time Clock module for an ESP8266 WiFi module that wirelessly connects to an internet NTP time server for perfect sync of the time and date... a nice mash up of old meets new technology. The digits cycle through all filaments every so often to help prevent cathode poisoning, improving the longevity of the tubes. Gotta love the fading colours of the bottom lit LEDs for a little bling ! :)

Видео VA3TO - Nixie Tube Clock project using IN14 tubes канала VA3TO