Think the swirling glow of a Decatron is cool but don’t want to deal with the voltage issues? [Osgeld] sidestepped the problem by developing a fake Decatron. Admiral Nelson (Captain Morgan’s cheaper cousin) provided the enclosure in the form of an airplane sized liquor bottle. The LEDs are common-something (not sure if it’s anode or cathode) so they end up being individually addressable through the mess of wires coming out the end. This will greatly simplify that kitchen timer we’ve been meaning to build. See the blinking lights go around and around after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fILZD6czgbI]
check the videos before posting maybe?
common cathode
Video blocked due to the mafiaa.
This might be cooler is the LEDs were at the base and extended up via (plexi)glass rods and frost the tips. Less mess, cleaner look, same effect. A beer bottle is a bit big, too – maybe a frosted film cap for a more authentic-ish tube size?
also the video is blocked for “copyright” issues? OK anyway here is a link of the video hosted on my site
http://www.cheesefactory.us/RC/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/PDR_0036_Original.avi
video got taken down.
Whoops, didn’t’ realize it was an airplane bottle!
looks like Common Anode to me, the flat sides are facing out, btu n the underside the inside pins are all connected.
And a single resistor for all those LEDs on the common?
hrmmm… Video blocked due to some copyrighting issues… Why can’t everybody just use Youtube instead of other dumb sites?
Either way, great build.
@Nick: this time the dumb site in question is Youtube.
This actually kind of pisses me off, who the heck is mahalo and why do they think my hand made object is their copyright
PS: I didnt post this on youtube, I hate those sites and that is why I just originally posted it on my own host
Welcome to the scammers who are mahalo.com
Yeah Mahalo is a scam site. The whole site is a huge heap of stolen content from other sites, and stuff to cheat search engines. They block newly popular videos very often to get people to know their name. Not the first time this happens to videos posted on hackaday.
Anyway, nice idea. This whole coolness of decatron tubes is that they are a gas discharge counter, however … :)
Actually it’s spelled Dekatron…
Nicely done.
I re-uploaded the video to YouTube. Mahalo.com can suck it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsI-WakaNeA
Osgeld: Please let me know if you have a problem with me posting this video. I attempted to link to your site properly.
no the link is cool but the mahalo.com is really a shit stain, I have left them about 2 dozen emails and 6 phone messages within the last hour or so and no one will even acknowledge I have
you may want to drop these scamming leaches from your answers section, there’s nothing there that a decent forum system cant do anyway
I suspect emailing mahalo.com is a waste of time, they already know they’re a scam site.
What you should do (if you care) is file a DMCA counter-notification with YouTube.
I’ve never done it, but YouTube has a help page here, http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?answer=59826
Cool project idea, are you going to follow it up with a fake Dekatron clock or timer?
Mahalo is just a troll that’s citing everyone for copyright infringement as “advertising” for their site.
reminds me of the windows 7 wait cursor :)
Osgeld, nice job replicating the look of the original tubes including the wires at the back, etc. Did you cut the bottle with a saw? I also like your “retro summer” idea.
ps: we know about the scammers, let’s stop mentioning their name and making them any more publicity.
yes I used a xacto razor saw, I suggest everyone have one (and they are cheap)
also the retrochallenge is not my idea, check my block there is a link off to the side with nearly 30 people participating with various projects, if your interested check them out
block heh I meant blog
All this does not change the fact that this hack is just flashing leds. It’s like Arduino 101.
@osgeld “who the heck is mahalo”
why don’t you mosey on over to answers.hackaday.com and scroll down to the bottom?
That said, I don’t like mahalo either
@all re:mahalo,
Mahalo is our parent company sortof. It is all just a mix up that should be remedied by the time I post this. Again, no giant conspiracy at play.
For those curious, Hack a Day is owned by Mahalo’s current CTO, Mark Jeffrey.
i’ve seen mahalo.com claim copyright infringement on the stupidest crap. who the hell are these people and wtf is youtube doing honoring these obviously ridiculous requests for removal?
Use the counter claim system, they are committing a crime by posting a false DMCA.
Anybody know why the last few days my youtubes have the fullscreen button disabled half the time? (no I don’t use an account and it was not those hackers that hacked youtube messing up my cookies, and yes I use a viruskiller)
I have flashcookies blocked but this is new.
And while I’m at it, what’s with those sites who now have their normal navigation menus hosted on googleapis.com? I mean really, that goes too far, I now HAVE to allow freaking google to track me to have basic functionality from normal sites, who signs up for that? Sometimes the internet really pisses me off -_-
@glagnar:
They are obliged to honour the request due to the stupidity of the DMCA’s notice and takedown system. It is illegal to submit a fraudulent request, but since Mahalo is probably offshore, there’s no chance anything will ever happen to them.
We can take them down, if everyone hops on the wagon of DDoS.
@osgeld: Nice build! As an aficionado of dekatrons, I definitely think you did an excellent solid state recreation. Anyone who says this isn’t a “hack” has likely never built a piece of hardware in their life and subsequently can’t appreciate the work involved in making something even relatively simple (a chain of LEDs) look neat and *professional*. You clearly took effort to get the details right: the size and shape of the “envelope” (mini-booze bottle was an inspired choice), the black Bakelite lookalike base, orangish-red LEDs to mimic neon, etc.
So I’m curious, did you realize you were making it a “duodecatron” (base 12) instead of decatron (base 10)? Obviously when just being used as a visual display it doesn’t matter, but people might be interested to learn that dekatrons actually *did* something useful (counting) rather than just spin and look cool… ;-)
@mjrippe: Dekatron is a specific brand name of decatrons, so yeah, you really have no idea what you’re talking about.
for the record mahalo’s address is in California
in fact
902 Colorado Avenue
Santa Monica, CA 90401
310-593-6160
and yes that number works though its only voicemail to a ignored box
please, let them know what you think :)
meanwhile about getting anything done, I dont know since the youtube video was not posted by me, hopefully there will be talk of this tomorrow @ hackAday HQ, and I hope they do not choose to continue supporting them in the answers section
@okay yea the led’s blink, what did you expect dancing? its not about making things blink its about building something out of garbage. (I cant believe I have to explain that on hack A day)
bullshit! they claimed I stole from them I better get a BIG ASS APOLOGY and if your in bed with these clowns I DEMAND my content to be removed
all of it, post’s articles and anything in answers, I will not be trampled on by some shit stain wordpress forum just cause someone wanted to gain free advertising from my work
oh yea and apparently claim full copyright of it too
@Osgeld, I support you. Here’s hoping that you get that apology!
I am more worried about the ownership of the IP for anyone posting here, right now it seems that mahalo assumes full ownership on submission, I wont have that, unless they want to start cutting checks (haha)
This is a cool hackery thing. It is better than many articles on hackaday.
The discussion below is stupid and full of angry fools. It is rather worse than an article should inspire.
Furthermore, the mix up is nothing more than mundane.
The implication of my statement is that anyone saying otherwise is either trying to make a ruckus or living in a fantasy. It is not a big deal.
@Caleb:
Understand your irritation, but a real apology would have been classy. Your apology was not.
@Dave,
You know what? youre right.
Osgeld, Sorry your video was temporarily taken down. I sent emails up the chain till it was resolved. It was a simple misunderstanding of an automated system. Pretty silly too, since I think it was filtering stuff that linked to hackaday (even though it was our official account).
Stay classy HackADay.
that is the point though, its my video, and none of mahalos business where I post MY video or who I give permission to
oops doesnt cover it
I want a formal apology in my email by “someone” representative of your parents company and a clear statement of what rights I reserve for using their services
where I stand now I was asked if it was OK to be posted on youtube by hack a day staff, nearly 2 hours before I responded it not only had been done but claimed copyright ownership by your parent company
forgive me for blowing the issue up, but thats a nice kick in the balls
Meanwhile, back at this mind-numbingly trivial build…
do better anarc, then post it here so that instant ownership of the entire thing is automatically assumed to be property of mahalo.com
till then stfu please
I’m surprised no one mentionned Osgeld-punk yet
pretty neat build
If you wanted to improve the dekatroness, I would fit one or two 74xx TTL gates in there to have a counter and a decoder inside it such that you only need to pulse a single guide “cathode” to have it count. One solution would need a divide by ten counter and a 4-to-16 decoder… Nice build, otherwise.
“Mahalo is our parent company sortof”
What do you mean by that exactly? I cannot find any link between hackaday.com and mahalo.com other than that answers.hackaday.com appears to be run by them.
A little digging turns up the Mahalo TOS http://www.mahalo.com/terms-of-service which notes that “By submitting any Content to the Site, you agree to grant Mahalo and its users permission to access and use your Content… you hereby grant to Mahalo a non-exclusive, worldwide, assignable, sub-licensable, royalty-free license to publish, use, reproduce, distribute, transmit, adapt, modify, create derivative of, provide user access to, publicly perform and publicly display, in every manner and medium now or hereafter known, any and all Content (in whole or in part) solely for the purpose for which such Content was submitted…”
Does this imply that any content we submit to hackaday.com is owned by Mahalo Inc?
I am also confused why Mahalo would go to the effort to file a DMCA takedown notice for a piece of material they do not claim exclusive ownership over (“…you hereby grant to Mahalo a non-exclusive…”). They have enough time to file a false DMCA takedown request but not to respond to e-mails or phone calls from the content producer?
i know next to nothing about dekatrons. that being said, this thing you made looks pretty bitchin’.
about the mahalo thing… no offense to anybody, but caleb didn’t exactly do anything that he should apologize for, did he? when he found out about the error, he did his part to rectify the situation. giving him shit for what his parent company did is like yelling at the best buy guy for a crappy sony product. sort of. totally agree that osgeld should be compensated for mahalo’s actions, though.
anyways, that dekatron thing is still purty to look at.
You know what would be cool? To make this 170V compatible :)
haha
I’d say that anything directed at caleb is because his parent company is hiding behind him by not engaging with the people who’s content they want rights to, so he’s the conduit for any communications with mahalo and shouldn’t take it personally as he is effectively acting as their reprasentative in at least this post.
and then hex/decatron looks cool.
I’ve apologized to Osgeld for the youtube filter shutting down the video for a short while. There isn’t anything else to do.
This isn’t going to keep being a flamewar about mahalo. Though we are connected through the owner of both, we operate fairly independently.
there was a mistake, it was remedied, I apologized.
(I reposted the video on YouTube)
@Osgeld: Just so there’s no misunderstanding, I am only a Hackaday reader, not staff. I just wanted you to be able to show your project, but if you can post it or don’t want it up on my account, I’ll take it down.
as per my email last night you have no terms of service here, therefore it defaults to mahalo tos which clearly states anything published on a mahalo network site becomes their property
99% sure and fairly independently mean nothing when it comes down to it, be sure, be independent, or post a TOS we can see and hold you to