Nixie Clock – Part 1

For over a year, I’ve been looking into making my own Nicix Clock, after seeing one on hackaday. Since then, I have been working in my free time to build one. Nixie tubes were used in the 1950’s and 1960’s to display numbers before seven segment and LCD displays became common. Nixie tubes have a wire-mesh anode and many cathodes, each repredenting a digit. A 74141 binary to BCD decoder is commonly used to convert a binary number to BCD which the nixie tube will display.

My first attempt was to use basic logic gates such as flip flops to control the time, but this was very complicated, especially when using a prototype board. After searching the internet for better ways to drive the clock, i came accross a pre-programed microcontroler that can drive nixie/binary clocks. Eventually, I plan on programing my own chip, but for now, this works.

The next step is to create a Printed Circuit Board. I have never designed a printed circuit board before so I first needed software and to learn how to use it. Cadsoft EAGLE is heavily supported in the DIY community and there are many tutorials that help when you are learning to use the software. As of now, I have designed my first board and am going to have it looked over and then printed.

This is just version 0.1 of my Nixie clock. For my next clock, I plan on programing my own chip which will reduce the cost and allow me to implement more features, such as Atomic Clock sync. I also would like to use PADS Design for the PCB design because appears to be supported by professionals. Stay tuned for Nixie Clock – Part 2, coming soon.