Flock of Butterflies has just published their third post in a series about the ArduiNIX, an Arduino shield that drives Nixie tubes.We’ve featured Nixie tube projects such as a single tube clock, free-formed Nixie circuits, and tubes in a bottle. Now the hurdle of handling high voltage tubes while protecting low voltage logic circuitry has been taken care of for you. The shield can be purchased as a kit but the Eagle CAD files are also available, allowing you to etch your own circuit board.
Although this is meant for the Arduino there is nothing to keep you from using it as a driver with any microcontroller. The board listens for 5V logic levels to switch the multiplexed display of up to eight tubes. Get your hands on some Nixies and give this a try yourself.
Related: ArduiNIX Part 1, ArduiNIX Part 2
I can see it now… Arduino + nixies = lots of noobs getting electrocuted.
sigh
I’ve used one of these, they are great. My clock uses GPS time. The kit has some great assembly instructions.
lol @ mat
I love this project. The tubes are inexpensive and they add a level of retro-depth that an LCD just doesn’t have.
@Matt – maybe a little bit of a shock, but it isn’t that bad :) It just stings a little bit.
Hey guys!
@Brian, thanks, glad you like the project.
Yeah, it’s a bit of a zap, but nothing too bad.
haha matt, right on
electrocuted = death from electric shock.
electric shock is what most people refer to when saying they or someone they know was electrocuted, I got kicked out of 9th grade Science for pointing that out to my teacher and refusing to accept his incorrect usage. Good times.
Just thought I would point that out, cool shield by the way.
it’s a shocking experience
Nice shield, and I absolutely love nixies, but does it really need a full microcontroller under it just to emulate a 555?
How about just using, say, a 555 under it?
“Electrocuted”? The main risk in mixing silicon and high voltage is to the *silicon*.
Protip; don’t bypass the nixie anodes, the drivers don’t like it. :-/
And compared to what? May I also be so churlish as to point out the fucking strap-on FLAME THROWER up the page? Rail guns? Air cannons?
‘Sorry it took so long, but there’s another installment of the review series up on
http://flockofbutterflies.blogspot.com/2009/11/arduinix-part-4-multiplexing.html
This one finishes off the hardware discussion and starts going into software techniques.
Thanks!