Resurrected NixiSat GPS clock...

[Yorkie]

Not all nixies are expensive, any more than all valves are. The demise of their use was quite sudden and the world is awash with millions - especially the Eastern Bloc, albeit it's true that some are rare and consequently highly sought after.

I mentioned in another thread on the forum some time back, which I can't find now, that I made two 4 tube nixie clocks on PCBs obtained from the States having spotted them on Mike Harrison's splendid 'Mike's Electric Stuff' website. (I'd been given a dozen GN6 nixie tubes and had search for a nixie clock design which wouldn't tax my brain too much!).

Details of the clock and PCB can be found here:

http://www.electricstuff.co.uk/nixclock.html

http://www.electricstuff.co.uk/nixclock.html#ready

I also bought a dozen XN3 clear glass nixie tubes for 50p each some time ago from I think J.N. Bull. (No idea what they cost these days). I then bought seven second-hand Mullard ZM1080 nixies at a radio rally for £1.00 the lot. I had in mind other projects such as nixie thermometers (one featured in Elektor), but often several components aren't easy to source so the projects got side-lined.

I built one nixie clock for myself in a plain grey ABS project box - nothing to look at, but a nice conversation piece! Later, I built one for my younger son in a rosewood box. A pic of the grey one is attached, together with a pic of my stock of nixies.

I've mentioned before that I've often fancied building a 'scope clock' which are also a nice conversation piece, if necessarily bulky. I have a 3BP 3" diam blue persistence scope tube, but it would take too much time that I don't have to build a clock, and wouldn't be cheap so it's another project destined never to materialise here at 'Bleak House'.

Mt first nixie tube project was in 1974 when I built a 200MHz frequency counter from a Radcom design. It's still going strong. I had to extend the 11 short leads on each of the five tubes, so that meant 110 soldered joints from the tubes to the veroboards on which they were mounted. A bit like sewing mailbags in prison! At the pic below the counter is displaying a 100mHz frequency from a Heathkit signal generator, alongside a pic of the nixie display boards inside the counter. The only mystery to me is how I found the time when I was so bust in mid career with a young family. Ah, that's it - mystery solved - no internet back then!

Hope that's of interest.