[neonixie-l] Re: PV Electronics R568 Clock Project With Black R|Z568M Nixie Tubes

[Edward Van Belkom]

 

Thanks Greg

 

 All the parts are in a (ESD) bag and the PIC is in conductive foam. I have 
a wrist strap that I can connect to the pads for the power supply input on 
the PCB.


I should be able to get it all done tomorrow except for all the wiring 
going to the remote switches and LED's. I will solder and heat shrink the 
wiring to the switches and LED's and do the final terminations to the PCB 
after everything is installed in the stand.

 


>

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[neonixie-l] Re: PV Electronics R568 Clock Project With Black R|Z568M Nixie Tubes

[gregebert]

Good luck with the building. If you have a wrist-strap, shorting all of the 
power-supply connections, including gnd, together and tying this to your 
wrist-strap will usually keep you ESD-safe. If you dont have a wrist-strap, 
then be sure to touch the shorted connections with one hand, before you 
pickup/insert the MOSFETs with the other hand. Your body-resistance will 
equalize any charge between them. Once you've soldered them in-place, they 
are much safer; if you have a conductive (ESD) bag to store your board, 
even better.

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[neonixie-l] Re: Weird display (possibly OT)

[J Forbes]

interesting, the columns are pretty close together. 

I made a clock from a Beckman counter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM9TW6GcCQE

http://selectric.org/tubeclock/index.html


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[neonixie-l] Re: PV Electronics R568 Clock Project With Black R|Z568M Nixie Tubes

[Edward Van Belkom]

>
> Thanks Greg.
>

I brought everything to the shop today and got the last few items to start 
building. I will start bright and early tomorrow morning and hopefully have 
most of it completed that day.

So far I will be mounting the inductor, Resistor networks. Piezo sounder, 3 
MOSFET's, HV board and 2 way header on the bottom of the PCB to clean it up 
a bit.

I also got some 90% isopropanol alcohol to clean the rosin flux off the PC 
board while soldering.

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[neonixie-l] NixieChron's Haicom HI-204III GPS Receiver Pucks - Programming them to work with NixieChron

[Sonar Tech]

Hi, folks - 

I wanted to drop a quick note that might help someone in the future 
regarding the Haicom HI-204III GPS pucks that Jeff Thomas used with the 
NixieChron clocks.  I have 3 of these clocks.  As some of you may know, 
Jeff programmed the GPS receiver pucks to *only* output the NMEA $GPRMC 
string, so it wouldn't blow the buffer on the PIC with a bunch of messages 
he didn't care about.  Doing this also allowed for more reliable precision 
enabling him to trigger 1PPS off of the leading edge of the $GPRMC string.

Anyway, the pucks have a small 3V Li-ION battery inside that stores 
configuration data.  If you unplug the puck for several weeks, the battery 
will die and the programming and configuration will be lost, returning the 
puck to factory defaults.  I moved offices and boxed-up my clock for a 
couple of months.  When I tried to set it back up, all it would do is start 
counting up, from 00:00.  Additionally, the red LED light in GPS puck 
itself would never flash, even in the presence of known good GPS signals.  
If you have a HI-204III that isn't flashing anymore and won't work with 
your Nixichron, your puck may have fallen back to a factory default 
configuration which would prevent it from working with the NixieChron.

To fix the problem, you need to re-program the puck.  Unfortunately, this 
is a little tedious for people without the right tools, as it requires an 
RS232 serial dongle with a 5V power source to make the puck work while you 
re-program it.  You can't just use a FTDI UART cable; you need a RS232 
transceiver cable because you need the level shifter for RS232.

Lucky for me, I had a nice dialog with Jeff about this process when one of 
my pucks reset itself back in 2012, and Jeff was kind enough to supply me 
with enough details to figure out how to re-program the pucks myself if 
they ever misbehaved again.

Here's the thread I had with Jeff about this subject, provided here so that 
the Interwebs will never forget them:

*From: Jeff Thomas [mailto:jtho...@amug.org] *
*Sent: Saturday, February 18, 2012 5:24 AM*
*To: Sonartech*
*Subject: Re: Bad Nixichron MCU?*
  
*Hi Sonartech, SiRF Corporation produced a utility program for the peecee 
that functions as a test and programming environment. It's what I use.*
*The receivers can be configured with any NMEA setup, or the native SiRF 
protocol.*
*To effect a change to NMEA, the receiver must first be placed into SiRF 
protocol mode (via pulldown menu), then NMEA is selected again in the 
pulldown menu.*
*When NMEA is selected, a submenu appears, and you can edit the various 
NMEA strings being broadcast.*
*All strings are turned off, except for $GPRMC at once per second. *



* ...I hard wired a dongle from the mini DIN to a DB9, with a small 5v PS 
"tee'd" into the dongle wire for power. Your NixiChron schematic shows the 
connections to the mini DIN. You'll have to wire the DB9 as needed.*

*At the bottom of the page is a communication log, and it will show the 
serial data. Only the NMEA $GPRMC will show as being broadcast.*
  
*Here's a link to a site who has the SiRF demo program:*
*http://www.falcom.de/support/software-tools/sirf/* 

  
*Regards, Jeff*

 
Finally, here's a quick summary of what I did, based on Jeff's instructions 
above.

First, I purchased an FTDI RS232-to-USB cable from Digi-key, part number 
768-1074-ND.   
This will provide a USB-based COM port, the level shifter and the required 
5V supply all in 1 package.  Next, you need a 6-pin female mini-DIN 
connector.  I used Digi-Key P/N CP-2160-ND 
, 
but CP-2660-ND 
 
and CP-2860-ND 
 
are also good options.

I used Red, Black, Orange and Yellow 28 AWG stranded wire to make the 
connections.  You need +5VDC, GND, RX and TX.  I cut each color to a single 
4 inch piece and stripped & tinned each end.

Next, I dismantled the RS232-to-USB cable.  Using some Style 2A flat 
tweezers, I wedged-open the halves of the connector, top and bottom, 
revealing the circuit board.  There are no screws, only a tight press-fit 
between the two white plastic halves.  Try not to jam the tweezers into 
your hand - it kind of hurts and bleeds for a while.

Once inside, carefully remove the DB9 jack soldered to the PCB.  Take care 
not to lift the pads or overheat; it may make more sense for you to just 
cut the leads behind the jack body, then use a soldering iron to clean up 
the pads - less risk doing it this way.

Once the pads are clean, solder the red wire to the MD-60J Mini-DIN socket 
, pin #2 - +5VCC.  
Next, solder the black wire to MD-60J Mini-DIN socket, pin #1 - GND.  Then 

[neonixie-l] Re: Weird display (possibly OT)

[gregebert]

I've seen this type of display on a very old Berkeley universal counter; 
neon bulb behind each digit. It's very annoying to read because the digits 
bounce up-and-down; pre-dates nixie tubes. I salvaged one of these about 40 
years ago, and another a few years later; must have had about 50 vacuum 
tubes in it. Big, heavy, noisy, generated lots of heat. But I got a lot of 
neon bulbs from them. Wish I would have kept one of the plugin counter 
modules.

This one in the picture probably uses transistors, because the size is too 
small for vacuum tubes. Looks like it's in nice shape and was well-cared 
for.

If you want a unique-looking clock, here's your chance.

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[neonixie-l] Weird display (possibly OT)

[SWISSNIXIE - Jonathan F.]

Hi

As i'm interested in nuclear items, i follow a few searches on ebay

Today i spotted this
http://ebay.com/itm/132309322622

No intrest in the item, but look at the weird display they used!  Possibly 
there is a bulb behind each number, like a edge lit. Never seen one of these...

Its probably a pain to read out a number like 9251 or so...  :-)


Any info about these curious displays?

Regards
Jonathan

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[neonixie-l] Re: PV Electronics R568 Clock Project With Black R|Z568M Nixie Tubes

[gregebert]

I dont think that would eliminate the potential problem. Antistatic foam is 
not prone to charge-accumulation from friction; beyond that it has no 
magical properties.

If you are using this to hold ESD-sensitive thru-hole parts, you're 
probably better-off wearing a wriststrap and slightly bending the pins to 
hold the part in-place so you can turn the board over and solder it. As 
long as you, the board, and the part are at the same potential there is no 
possibility of an ESD event or damage. It's perfectly OK to touch the pins 
of the device under those circumstances.

Kinda like the total eclipse we had last week; when everything is in 
perfect alignment, you can take off your glasses and look directly at the 
sun.

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[neonixie-l] Re: PV Electronics R568 Clock Project With Black R|Z568M Nixie Tubes

[Edward Van Belkom]

How about add a piece of antistatic foam to the bottom of the foam?

On Monday, August 28, 2017 at 12:18:00 PM UTC-5, gregebert wrote:
>
> Be careful with any plastic contraptions; they can create ESD problems. As 
> long as no ESD-sensitive parts are on the board during handling, no worries.
>
> If you do have ESD-sensitive parts, it's probably best to mount them last. 
>

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[neonixie-l] Re: PV Electronics R568 Clock Project With Black R|Z568M Nixie Tubes

[gregebert]

Be careful with any plastic contraptions; they can create ESD problems. As 
long as no ESD-sensitive parts are on the board during handling, no worries.

If you do have ESD-sensitive parts, it's probably best to mount them last. 

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[neonixie-l] Re: PV Electronics R568 Clock Project With Black R|Z568M Nixie Tubes

[Edward Van Belkom]

I also added a parts holder so very easy to put part in, move foam pad over 
part , rotate board and solder;)




>

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[neonixie-l] Re: PV Electronics R568 Clock Project With Black R|Z568M Nixie Tubes

[Roddy Scott]

On Saturday, August 26, 2017 at 9:50:40 PM UTC+1, Edward Van Belkom wrote:
>
>
> I thought I would make a little jig to hold the board when soldering. Zero 
> cost and just a little time to make. Any more hints before I start on 
> Monday are welcome:)
>

I hijacked your idea, Edward, and made this for working on PV Electronics 
boards. It is adjustable for Spectrum 18, QTC, DINK, IN-8 and FunKlock 
boards. The left hand side has an O ring between two washers for friction 
and the right hand side is spring loaded to put some pressure on the board 
to hold it in place. The feet are just medium grommets held by wood screws 
to stop it slipping.






Behind the board is another one of my daft ideas for a clock using this 
Spectrum board that will be revealed eventually!

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Re: [neonixie-l] Re: PV Electronics R568 Clock Project With Black R|Z568M Nixie Tubes

[Nicholas Stock]

I bought one of these...

https://smile.amazon.com/Aven-17010-Adjustable-Circuit-Holder/dp/B00Q2TTQEE/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8=1503938056=8-13=panavise

Couldn't be bothered to make my own at the price...;-)

On Mon, Aug 28, 2017 at 9:34 AM, Terry S  wrote:

> I have a similar jig I made for working on radio chassis years ago --
> similar in theory but think about it scaled up about 8x.
>
> And I was inspired at the time by the guys over at rec.pinball who make
> similar jigs for working on pinball playfields.
>
> Terry
>
>
> On Saturday, August 26, 2017 at 3:50:40 PM UTC-5, Edward Van Belkom wrote:
>>
>>
>> I thought I would make a little jig to hold the board when soldering.
>> Zero cost and just a little time to make. Any more hints before I start on
>> Monday are welcome:)
>>
>>
>> 
>>
>>
>>> 
>>>
>>> --
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> 
> .
>
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>

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[neonixie-l] Re: PV Electronics R568 Clock Project With Black R|Z568M Nixie Tubes

[Terry S]

I have a similar jig I made for working on radio chassis years ago -- 
similar in theory but think about it scaled up about 8x.

And I was inspired at the time by the guys over at rec.pinball who make 
similar jigs for working on pinball playfields.

Terry


On Saturday, August 26, 2017 at 3:50:40 PM UTC-5, Edward Van Belkom wrote:
>
>
> I thought I would make a little jig to hold the board when soldering. Zero 
> cost and just a little time to make. Any more hints before I start on 
> Monday are welcome:)
>
>
> 
>
>
>> 
>>
>>

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[neonixie-l] Re: PV Electronics R568 Clock Project With Black R|Z568M Nixie Tubes

[Roddy Scott]

 Edward Van Belkom wrote:
>
>
> I thought I would make a little jig to hold the board when soldering. Zero 
> cost and just a little time to make. Any more hints before I start on 
> Monday are welcome:)
>

I hijacked your idea, Edward and made this for working on PV Electronics 
boards, adjustable for the ones that I use, Spectrum 10, QTC, IN-8, DINK 
and FunKlock.




 
The left hand side has an O ring between two washers to provide friction 
and the right hand side is spring loaded to put a bit of pressure on the 
board. It is just a case of moving the spring loaded side to the correct 
holes for the board under build. The feet are just simply grommets held in 
place by wood screws to stop it sliding about.

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[neonixie-l] Re: Looking for IN-8-2 fine grid Nixie tubes

['Yuriy Ovchinnikov' via neonixie-l]

Hi,
I have IN8-2 – 6 pcs. for $8. Write me at murman_mail...@mail.ru
Yuriy.


понедельник, 28 августа 2017 г., 3:17:28 UTC+3 пользователь meganie8 
написал:
>
> I'm looking for 6 new/NOS (matched) IN-8-2 fine grid Nixie tubes. I'm not 
> interested in normal grid or used ones!
> I want to stock them as a replacement set for my clock.
>

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RE: [neonixie-l] Looking for IN-8-2 fine grid Nixie tubes

[Jeff Walton]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/6-pcs-ULTRARARE-FINE-GRID-NIXIE-TUBES-IN-8-2-as-IN-14-Soviet-Neon-DIGITS-/112064302921

 

These are used but I have purchased these tubes from this dealer (reputable) 
and the envelopes were very clear and all worked nicely.  The leads varied from 
full to half of original length.  

 

You may want to reconsider the used vs NOS criteria as these tubes were last 
made 45-50 years ago.  While you may find some NOS, you may also be out of luck 
and not be able to get these later.  The fine grid is rather nice looking!

 

 

 

From: neonixie-l@googlegroups.com [mailto:neonixie-l@googlegroups.com] On 
Behalf Of meganie8
Sent: Sunday, August 27, 2017 7:17 PM
To: neonixie-l
Subject: [neonixie-l] Looking for IN-8-2 fine grid Nixie tubes

 

I'm looking for 6 new/NOS (matched) IN-8-2 fine grid Nixie tubes. I'm not 
interested in normal grid or used ones!
I want to stock them as a replacement set for my clock.

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[neonixie-l] Re: PV Electronics R568 Clock Project With Black R|Z568M Nixie Tubes

[Roddy Scott]

Edward,

now that is a nice and simple solution for builds! I have been using those 
ones with alligator clips for ages and you have to keep adjusting them. 
That idea of yours I am going to adapt for multiple board sizes. Nice one!

On Saturday, August 26, 2017 at 9:50:40 PM UTC+1, Edward Van Belkom wrote:
>
>
> I thought I would make a little jig to hold the board when soldering. Zero 
> cost and just a little time to make. Any more hints before I start on 
> Monday are welcome:)
>
>
> 
>
>
>> 
>>
>>

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