Try as he might, [Localroger] can’t seem to throw away a certain board that started life in one of the first digital industrial scales, the NCI DigiFlex model 5775. He recently gave it a third career as a nixie clock with an alarm.
[Localroger] says the board dates to about 1975. It’s all TTL, no microprocessor anywhere. He was headed to the Dumpster with it in the mid-1980s, but realized that he could hack it into something useful. Since the display wasn’t multiplexed, it would be fairly easy. He used it as a BCD tester for about 10 years until the method fell out of fashion.
After a decade on the shelf, [Localroger] started off for the Dumpster once more with the board. The nixie tube display cried out for another chance to glow, so he decided to repurpose it into a remote-controlled bedside clock with an alarm. He installed a Parallax Propeller Protoboard with headers for easy removal and subsequent servicing of the 5775 board. He added a few things to the protoboard: a piezo element for the alarm, a SparkFun RTC module, an IR receiver, and vertically-oriented header so the PropPlug can be plugged in from the top. But that’s not all. [Localroger] designed a custom melamine-finished MDF enclosure and laser cut it, giving the edges a nice contrast. It’s so tough, he can put his ceramic lamp on top of it to save space on the nightstand.
Nixie tubes are becoming more scarce all the time. If you can’t find any, we humbly suggest rolling your own.
[Thanks Localroger!]
Nice going partner! Yes I do know of his work. I participate in the Parallax forums, mostly with their Basic Stamp products, but sometimes the Prop. He provides good advice, and writes excellent posts to the forum.
Way to go LR!
More scarce? If anything they are cheaper than ever, there are more new old stock nixies sitting in ex-USSR than the hobby market will ever use.
Now if you are talking about American made ones like Burroughs, that’s a different story.