Re: [neonixie-l] Re: Seven digit nixie clock

Hi Carl, Mitch, A couple of thoughts in decreasing order of ease of implementation: 1) Software only: As a first step I'd bypass the digitalWrite() and control the port directly. I agree that assembler is probably too much for the first round of improvement. I see that your "dataPin" is a

Re: [neonixie-l] Re: Seven digit nixie clock

Thanks again for the comments, Ian. #1 - Yesterday I removed the pin numbers that were passed as parameters. I'll work on removing digitalWrite() by Monday or Tuesday. #2 - Easily done at the same time. It's probably best to remove the 'vibrate' code that is more of a kluge than good

[neonixie-l] Re: Seven digit nixie clock

Once I finish the clock (a few months from now, I hope...) and post a video, I'll probably give copies of my design report to people in this forum who request it. Each of my display boards has two HV5530 devices that are connected in series, but I have separate clock signals in order to

Re: [neonixie-l] Re: Seven digit nixie clock

Thanks for the advice. I checked the Mod 6 and looking closely, there is no flicker whatsoever. Hopefully I can get to 4ms updates or close, by writing directly to the port, bypassing digitalWrite(), and optimizing the code. Assembly language is not an option. Last time I did that was in

Re: [neonixie-l] Re: Seven digit nixie clock

On Tue, Sep 1, 2015 at 1:34 PM, Mitch wrote: > > And I have a question - For the IN-18 version, would it be better to > connect all three HV5530s to the processor using separate data, latch, and > clock lines? The processor does have enough spare pins and the code changes >

[neonixie-l] Re: Seven digit nixie clock

Greg, I'd like to understand this so I can do the same for the IN-18 design and the next, fifteen digit clock that will use five, HV5530s. Please let me know if this is correct: Latch, blanking, and data, are connected in parallel, on each of your boards. Each clock line is connected to a

[neonixie-l] Re: Seven digit nixie clock

The 1284P runs at 5v, and I use a CD4504 level shifter. Someone here suggested that, and even though none of the commercial clocks I'm familiar with use one they are cheap and easy to include. That will also make it easy to go to a 3.3v chip in the future, with only some adjusted resistor

[neonixie-l] Re: Seven digit nixie clock

You can certainly connect the HV5530's "in-parallel" to the CPU. I would be more concerned about signal-levels, because the HV5530 is intended to run with 12V logic levels and your CPU is probably 3.3V. I'm using a level-shifter IC in my design, along with an FPGA. BTW, I'm putting the

[neonixie-l] Re: Seven digit nixie clock

Mitch - Do you run any simulations on your design before fabbing boards ? As a rule, I run a lot of spice simulations on the analog, particularly the power supplies. My second clock had a subtle wiring error that caused spice not to converge, and if I had not fixed the error it would have

[neonixie-l] Re: Seven digit nixie clock

Hi Ian, Thanks for your comments. I do use three, HV5530s to control all seven nixies and six neons. The lower right most neon is the decimal for 1/10 seconds, and the upper right neon represents degrees for the temperature display. All four indicator LEDs and seven 2N3904s to turn each RGB

[neonixie-l] Re: Seven digit nixie clock

Hey Mitch I did a smooth fading on a AVR, and the code is up there on GitHub already: https://github.com/isparkes/ArdunixNix6 I do it a different way than I think you will want to, because I use an old fashioned K155,and use 6 I/O pins to control the anodes. I have an inner loop of 1000

[neonixie-l] Re: Seven digit nixie clock

Thanks, Dave. Everything will be included, Diptrace schematic, pc layout, Arduino sketch, and operations manual. I have no intention of commercializing the project in any way. This was my first experience with pc board design, and I'm hoping that someone here with good hardware experience will

[neonixie-l] Re: Seven digit nixie clock

Mitch, This is very nice work indeed ! Thanks for sharing. When you post to github, will it be the code and the diptrace files? I deeply appreciate your willingness to share your work. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups neonixie-l group. To

[neonixie-l] Re: Seven digit nixie clock

I don't see a way to dim just one digit. With multiplexing, as each digit is selected the PWM rate could be set differently, but I don't see how to do it with direct drive. Dimming individual digits is possible with hardware control, but probably not with software. The idea is to resend

[neonixie-l] Re: Seven digit nixie clock

I tried doing something similar, and that's how I came up with the vibration effect, which is really just a failed attempt at cross fading. I'm not sure whether the limitation is with the hardware or software, probably both. Writing to registers rather than using digitalWrite() may speed it up

[neonixie-l] Re: Seven digit nixie clock

I forgot to mention that as hard as I've tried, I have not been able to figure out smooth, digit cross fading. For now the clock uses a 'vibration' effect that you can see in the video, or a no effects digit change. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google

[neonixie-l] Re: Seven digit nixie clock

David, I will put everything on Github when the new boards arrive. The schematic and board were done with Diptrace. Greg, the 1/10th second digit won't fade or use effects because it changes so quickly. The 'vibrate' effect works only on the other six digits. A level shifter is used, and all

Re: [neonixie-l] Re: Seven digit nixie clock

Mitch, Are you willing to share your code? There are many pairs of sharp eyes here that could help you figure that out. On 8/18/2015 1:27 PM, Mitch wrote: I forgot to mention that as hard as I've tried, I have not been able to figure out smooth, digit cross fading. For now the clock uses a

[neonixie-l] Re: Seven digit nixie clock

Regarding fading, I've seen clocks that gradually make 1 digit dimmer as the next digit becomes brighter (with overlap), and it looks more like a blurry mess. You may want to use PWM to dim the changing digit in a 100-200 msec, before you gradually turn-on the next value. It might be annoying