Looking for an artistic way to build circuits? Don’t want to design a PCB? The Lethal Nixie Tube Clock is a free form circuit that gives you the time one digit at a time. It uses a IN-1 Nixie tube to display the digits. This is driven by ten MPSA42 high voltage transistors. A IRF520 N-FET, inductor, and a diode are used as a switching power supply that generates the high voltage needed to drive the Nixie tube. It’s probably not lethal, but there are exposed high voltages in the cube. You’d definitely regret touching it.
An ATMega8 is used to control the clock. It drives the various digits of the Nixie tube, and generates a PWM output to switch the high voltage supply. Unfortunately, the schematic has been lost. If you’re interested in the switching supply, it’s likely similar to the one explained here.
Check out a video of the clock after the break.
I love it, all of it!
really cool, takes art to a new level…..kinda makes me want to wet my finger and blindly poke at it…don’t know why..
I wouldn’t do that :) Those tubes require ~200V… not much current, but still a nasty shock, I’m sure.
I want to take it for a swim, or to a houseful of children and set it on a low table. <c:<
I’ve never seen a nixie project I didn’t like.
Such a work of art. The live wires are nothing a transparent cube enclosure couldn’t solve.
fantastic
One of the best circuit p0rn I have seen lately…
Hey! I really didn’t expect this to end up at both the Makeblog as well as Hackaday and having so many people saying that it is gorgeous art. It was just a fun project to solder up during two evenings 6-7 years ago.
But thanks anyways :-)
If you enjoyed this you might also like my recent tiny SMD freeform clone of the Little Wire project…
http://dangerousprototypes.com/2012/10/08/little-wire-dead-bug-art/
It’s a pretty nice hack, and a very unique clock, so I’m not surprised that people are impressed. That LittleWire project looks pretty nifty too.
I hope I guessed right about the switching supply. I saw that you didn’t have the schematics, so I did some guessing.
I liked the LittleWire project for sure, saw that the other day. But this is just totally beautiful. And like all good things beautiful, if you touch it, it may kill you.
i love your “freefloat” style of soldering,
truly amazing for display pieces.
The term commonly employed is hanging garden circuit building technique.
its not pretty-happy-joyjoy
its not garden beauty pampering
and
its not flowers and daisys
its DEAD BUG!
i dont care how “icy” or “gross” it sounds, its still beautiful!
Fantastic, really nicely put together! I’m currently sketching out an airwired VFD-based clock, being a wuss, but glad to see someone went the whole hog & did a nixie version. :-)
I wonder if this still counts as a sceleton clock?
I thibk it is a thing of beauty either way (:
It really is a gorgeous little project. It almost looks like it’s half way to being a stained glass box, too. That would be a very pretty combination, AND reduce the risk of electro shock therapy for the curious.
I love free from electronics. Nice job.
High voltage, bare wire, nixie tubes…
<3
Doesn't get better
It’s not dead bug style, it’s spiderweb style with the nixie as the spider.
Really fantastic!! But I don’t like the 5 or 6 seconds you have to wait to see the time. That is also making me sick, when I’m sitting in the bus starring at the damn LED display to get the time while it’s showing me for 10 seconds a 5 letter word before it switches back to time. Should be faster, I think, but nevertheless a beautiful piece of art and electronics!
Yea, I agree. The delay between the sequences are far too long, but I’ve since long lost both the schematics and the firmware source code so I can’t do anything about it…
considering the life span of a nixie tube clock, it’s prolly best left at 5-6 second delay. This would ensure maximum brightness over many decades.