I love Cold War chic like [ryan brooks]’s great looking nixie tube clock. There have been other microcontroller based nixie tube clocks so Ryan decided to base his on the venerable MOS Technology 6502. The 6502 is the same 8-bit processor used in the Apple II and Commodore 64. He’s got a couple interesting notes from the construction:
Be very organized with your digit wiring; use lots of cable ties or something. 6 digits is 120 solder joints on 60 wires.
Don’t be afraid to make your own Nixie sockets. I stood my tubes up on my flatbed scanner, arranged them with a ruler and then scanned. Imported to Photoshop, did a levels to make the pins contrasty and printed the output 1:1. Glued the paper onto my plexi, drilled all the holes, dropped in pin-sockets w/CA glue and bam! Instant Nixie Tube Clock Socket!