Elektor New Precise Nixie Clock Revisited An engineering bulletin for enthusiastic users new and old

摘要

Back in May 2016 Elektor Labs magazine published the New Precise Nixie Clock [1] and since then many readers either purchased the complete kit or just the bare PCBs, and bought their own components to build the project. In fact, judging from the number of views as well as tech-interested followers on the Elektor Labs website [2] it’s one of the most popular designs of the past years. In the wake of the May 2016 publication, we received requests and suggestions to enhance and extend the clock, especially the software. That job was finally seen to by one of the staunchest followers on Labs, Andy Leitch. Andy completely rewrote the software originally produced in assembler, to ‘C’ and adapted the hardware enabling the clock to also display the date and act as an alarm clock, among other things. To fully exploit the functionality of the new firmware now available [3], the circuit boards require minor adaptations. However, if you are satisfied with adding date display and preventing/limiting tube cathode poisoning (more about that later), then replacing or reprogramming the microcontroller will suffice.