How’s this for a first microcontroller project: a ticker that pulls messages from the Internet and scrolls them on a set of numitrons. [David Barton] built this using an mbed microcontroller. Tapping an ethernet library he got this to pull data from his server by connecting directly to the cat5 cables. The display consists of three numitrons which are incandescent 7-segment displays. In the video after the break you can see him sending messages to it from his iPod touch. This is just a PHP form that writes the submitted message to a file for the mbed to read. As [David] points out, there’s obvious Twittering applications here, but we just like the way it looks![flickr video=4345742755]
That is really clever. I love numitron clocks, but this is one of the few truly creative uses I’ve seen beyond simply showing time. Just don’t tell /b/ the address of the server.
The problem with numitrons is the really slow response time. Hard to scroll fast.
smoken cool
wouldn’t it be logical to reverse the order of the numitrons? or is it just me?
IP 192.168.0.1 – Not a public address – Most home routers use 192.168.0.254 and issue addresses in the range 192.168.0.xxx
@brian: Rules # 1 and 2 /B/ro!
the digital number version of nixie tubes, huh?
add a decatron(?sp?) to indicate incoming messages.
nice.
you could have done that with an arduino though…
haha.. seriously just trolling..
i think its pretty cool..
More numitrons would be more cooler.
@HIrudinea – more numitrons for sure!
@googfan – this seems like a good application for alphanumeric neon tubes – much faster refresh time:
http://www.tubeclockdb.com/nixie-tubes/73-burroughs-5971-alphanumeric.html
Love the old school look. You need a full line of them though. Then you could read an email line by line.
More numitrons would be more hotter, not cooler. Incandescent=hot