RE: [neonixie-l] "Firmware" must-have's / nice to have's

[Jeff Walton]

Juergen uses code developed by Pete of PV Electronics.   Take a look at the 
clocks on the PV Electronics web site. 
Jeff

 Original message 
From: Alic <al...@gmx.net> 
Date: 11/15/16  5:41 PM  (GMT-06:00) 
To: neonixie-l <neonixie-l@googlegroups.com> 
Subject: [neonixie-l] "Firmware" must-have's / nice to have's 

Hi Jonathan,
Thanks for sharing!

Jürgen's clocks (nixiekits.eu) use scrolling to switch between time and date. I 
find it a nice feature since it uses the digits in the tubes more evenly in 
addition to the anti cathode poisoning routine.

I like clocks with 2 "dots" for each separator column. This way it's easy to 
see the difference between date and time.
Do you think it would be possible to implement some sort of PWM for the 
separators? When they fade in and out in 2 seconds each (4s for one "pulse") it 
is really beautiful!

An option to easily turn the LEDs always off would be nice : some people don't 
like it when they interfere with the beautiful orange glow of the nixies.

Do you plan to display the date only when a button is pushed? Or is it possible 
to add an option to choose for how long to display the date and how long the 
time?

I also think a motion detector is important for those clocks with rare nixies 
;-)

An independent arduino firmware is exactly what I need!
Nice project!

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[neonixie-l] "Firmware" must-have's / nice to have's

[Alic]

Hi Jonathan,
Thanks for sharing!

Jürgen's clocks (nixiekits.eu) use scrolling to switch between time and date. I 
find it a nice feature since it uses the digits in the tubes more evenly in 
addition to the anti cathode poisoning routine.

I like clocks with 2 "dots" for each separator column. This way it's easy to 
see the difference between date and time.
Do you think it would be possible to implement some sort of PWM for the 
separators? When they fade in and out in 2 seconds each (4s for one "pulse") it 
is really beautiful!

An option to easily turn the LEDs always off would be nice : some people don't 
like it when they interfere with the beautiful orange glow of the nixies.

Do you plan to display the date only when a button is pushed? Or is it possible 
to add an option to choose for how long to display the date and how long the 
time?

I also think a motion detector is important for those clocks with rare nixies 
;-)

An independent arduino firmware is exactly what I need!
Nice project!

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Re: [neonixie-l] "Firmware" must-have's / nice to have's

[SWISSNIXIE - Jonathan F.]

Am Dienstag, 15. November 2016 19:11:41 UTC+1 schrieb Paolo Cravero:
>
>
> While I grew up surrounded by RS232 cables, the serial setup sounds not 
> practical and user friendly.
>
> Maybe you would add a scrolling display of date-time? Again, it's a 
> programming exercise :) By the way, is any of the known clocks scrolling 
> the information?
>
> Paolo
>
>
The Board has usb, and i think its very easy to set the time, just plug in 
the usb, and then start my batch-programm, it will set the time :)
 My clock does switch automatically, the settings are just to set the day 
when the daylight saving time starts (Europe, US, and other countries have 
different start/ending dates.  

Very nice idea about the scrolling function, it will look into it! :)


Am Dienstag, 15. November 2016 20:34:57 UTC+1 schrieb gregebert:
>
> *Jonathan* - Are you running in an Arduino environment, or is the AT328 
> essentially standalone ?
>
> I'm planning to switch to Arduino for my current/future projects, so this 
> is definitely something I'm interested in.
>
>
Yes, its Arduino. I have chosen that, because if the boot loader is burned, 
the "user" does not need any special hardware, just a serial port, or in 
the case of the clock in my link a usb cable. And the IDE is free and there 
is alot of libary and example stuff!


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Re: [neonixie-l] "Firmware" must-have's / nice to have's

[David Forbes]

Andy,

I don't know about that. I find it takes less effort to set a clock than it 
takes to configure a network device. It also takes less effort to ensure that 
you haven't crete a spambot if it's not connected to the Internet.


That said, I do believe in ntp for setting the time on our university 
telescope's computers.



On 11/15/2016 12:43 PM, Andy Tefft wrote:

This is not completely a firmware feature but a clock for this day and age
should be able to connect to my wifi, and then use ntp for time setting.



--
David Forbes, Tucson, AZ

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Re: [neonixie-l] "Firmware" must-have's / nice to have's

[Andy Tefft]

This is not completely a firmware feature but a clock for this day and age
should be able to connect to my wifi, and then use ntp for time setting. A
challenge to make it easy for the user to set up since you have limited
display/input capability, but it could be as simple as allowing the user to
place the ssid and password in a file on a thumb drive that gets inserted
once to bootstrap the process.

On Tue, Nov 15, 2016 at 3:53 AM, SWISSNIXIE - Jonathan F. <
jfrech...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi
>
> I know a lot of people here have assembled kits or build there own clock.
> For driving nixies there are not too many different ways. Since im more
> "builder" than "programmer" i want to make a firmware thats really good,
> and use the same firmware for all my future clock projects, so i don't need
> to make a new code for each project and only need to change pin definitions
> or values! Of course, i want to share that firmware along with my
> schematic!  Link to my current board!
> 
>
> I just wanna ask what people would like to have in a firmware option!
>
> Imagine you have a nixie clock with 6 Tubes (each has 10 digits) and 2
> colon separators (each can be driven alone). For the settings there is a
> rotary encoder. The Anodes are fixed (no anode pwm).
>
>
>
>
>
> *What options would should there be?*List of current features:
>
>
>- Different Cycle (Anti-Poisioning-Routinge) choices (each minute,
>each 10minute, each hr, off)
>- Cycle speed (1-99%) 1%= cycling around 5 seconds (very long!)
>- Numbers of cycle (1-10)
>- AM/PM Mode ( 24hr, 12hr, 12hr with indication with the separators)
>- colon separator options (left on, right on, both on, both of, blink
>each second, overwrite AM/PM indication)
>- time-setting via Serial
>- LED brightness
>- LED colors (16 different)
>- Automatic Daylight Saving change* (on off) (and menu to set
>start/end date)
>This works by setting the time over serial, the date when the time was
>set, will be saved into eeprom. On reset, it will check if the date was in
>daylight saving time or not, and checks if today's date is in daylight
>saving time or not, and then will react by change the time by +1 or -1.
>- GPS sync (on/off) (if receiver connected).
>- Manual time setting (hh:mm, s = 00 when pressing save)
>- Date display by a single button push.
>
>
>
> Any ideas? :)
>
>
> Thanks
>
> - Jonathan
>
>
>
>
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Re: [neonixie-l] "Firmware" must-have's / nice to have's

[gregebert]

*Jonathan* - Are you running in an Arduino environment, or is the AT328 
essentially standalone ?

I'm planning to switch to Arduino for my current/future projects, so this 
is definitely something I'm interested in.

One thing I suggest is a 'scramble table' that allows you to handle 
arbitrary mapping of serially-transmitted bits to specific tubes or 
segments. The actual timekeeping software would be platform-independent, 
but a specific user would need to populate the scramble table to adapt to 
their tube-driver hardware. Basically, the table would be a set of pointers 
that informs the serialization routine where to get the next bit to send. 
So, if you had a 6-tube clock, each with 10 cathodes, your table would have 
60 entries for the tube data, and perhaps a few more for the colons. If you 
had eight b7971 tubes (15 segments), you would want at least 120 entries.

In my last project, I used an FPGA so the scrambling was done in verilog by 
re-assigning bits, so it took zero RAM/logic gates. Not true for software, 
though, but much easier to change.

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Re: [neonixie-l] "Firmware" must-have's / nice to have's

[Paolo Cravero]

Hello Jonathan.
First of all, thank you for sharing your work.

While I grew up surrounded by RS232 cables, the serial setup sounds not
practical and user friendly.

In a couple of my firmwares I hardcoded DST changeovers for 100 years (eats
up 100 bytes): you only need to reset the clock at a known point in
time when RTC battery backup is lost. Someone here mentioned a DST
button, which is pretty elegant (and easily implemented if you don't care
about the date). Another approach I collected on neonixie-l is to step
backwards 1 when setting hours, then going forward, so you don't have to
loop through. I think that automatic DST is a must if you have an alarm
function, otherwise it is a programming exercise :) "Cosmetics" a friend of
mine used to say.

I think your setup misses a motion detector.

Maybe you would add a scrolling display of date-time? Again, it's a
programming exercise :) By the way, is any of the known clocks scrolling
the information?

I like the idea of a rotary encoder, and it should be super easy to set
time with it (no more need for archaic serial).

A thought more hardware-wise: how about allowing for -optional- individual
anode current adjustment (I know it takes board space)?

In any case, a shared project is good by default. Keep up your work.
Paolo

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[neonixie-l] "Firmware" must-have's / nice to have's

[SWISSNIXIE - Jonathan F.]

Hi 

I know a lot of people here have assembled kits or build there own clock. 
For driving nixies there are not too many different ways. Since im more 
"builder" than "programmer" i want to make a firmware thats really good, 
and use the same firmware for all my future clock projects, so i don't need 
to make a new code for each project and only need to change pin definitions 
or values! Of course, i want to share that firmware along with my 
schematic!  Link to my current board! 


I just wanna ask what people would like to have in a firmware option! 

Imagine you have a nixie clock with 6 Tubes (each has 10 digits) and 2 
colon separators (each can be driven alone). For the settings there is a 
rotary encoder. The Anodes are fixed (no anode pwm). 





*What options would should there be?*List of current features:


   - Different Cycle (Anti-Poisioning-Routinge) choices (each minute, each 
   10minute, each hr, off)
   - Cycle speed (1-99%) 1%= cycling around 5 seconds (very long!)
   - Numbers of cycle (1-10)
   - AM/PM Mode ( 24hr, 12hr, 12hr with indication with the separators)
   - colon separator options (left on, right on, both on, both of, blink 
   each second, overwrite AM/PM indication)
   - time-setting via Serial
   - LED brightness
   - LED colors (16 different)
   - Automatic Daylight Saving change* (on off) (and menu to set start/end 
   date)
   This works by setting the time over serial, the date when the time was 
   set, will be saved into eeprom. On reset, it will check if the date was in 
   daylight saving time or not, and checks if today's date is in daylight 
   saving time or not, and then will react by change the time by +1 or -1.
   - GPS sync (on/off) (if receiver connected).
   - Manual time setting (hh:mm, s = 00 when pressing save)
   - Date display by a single button push.  
   


Any ideas? :) 


Thanks

- Jonathan 




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