From Rolf Dubbeld (The Netherlands)
From Dieter Laues (Germany) : Hello Mike, inspired from your famousnixie clock gallery, I build a nixieclock for myself, called 'RTC1', the'Real Tube Clock No.1'. The housing of the clock has the design of a very bigtube - maybe the biggest tube in the world. And the Nixies are tubes in the tube... Inside the round 'socket' there is the main-transformer. The tube-contacts arefixed in a transparent acryl-plate. The electronic-parts are divided into 3 round pcbs: inthe bottom the microcontroller with voltage-regulator, in the middle the nixies with herdriver (74141), and on the top the high-voltage-generator.
From Dean Mansfield (UK)
From John Smout (UK) : I used some half silvered glass in front anda mirror on the back to give an infinity effect. This looks great when you move past theclock and see the parallax on the receding reflections. Better in real life - it'shard to photo. I put the tubes on clear pedestals and these each have a neon inside thatflicks across each second.
From Steve Brown (UK) The basis for this was the Cyclox IIsingle-digit IN-18 clock designed by Laurence Wilkins. I bought a kit from Laurence withthe original mahogany base (pictures also attached) and designed a new aluminium base forit, and added the spring-piston support rods. 99% of the credit must go to Laurence - hisoriginal Cyclox is a beautifully conceived and designed piece of kit.
From René van den Endenafter (Holland) : having seen your website, I decided to buildmy own Nixie clock. It has 12 nixie tubes and one dekatron. Since I already had experiencewith the Intel 8048 microcontroller from the Philips Videopac game computer (from 1980),I've used this microcontroller for my clock. To display the time, I've used the beautifulZM 1040 tubes.
Features: subtle tick sound every second, cuckoo sound every hour, twobuttons at the back to set the clock, a switch at the back to turn off the high voltage,dekatron is used during setting to indicate which digits are being set, nixie tubetest mode, 1 Hz and 10 Hz pulse outputs. Automatic features: fully automatic switch to andfrom daylight saving time, automatic adjustment of the number of days of February during aleap year, automatic brightness control with photo-diode (manual setting also possible),automatic calculation of the day of the week (7 neon bulbs), automatic switch off of thesound effects during the night.
From Jouhn Carpenter (USA) : I built it to look like candles usingRussian IN-14 tubes. I used Honda PCV valve grommets to hold tubes in place. It flashesHours, then Minutes, and then pauses using chip by Ivan Siy.
From Joseph Strelchuk (USA) : The clock is made using BurroughsB-5092 tubes, the housing is made from solid red oak.
From Leigh Aitken (Australia)This clock is CNC machined out of solid redgum on ourhome-made CNC router. It uses 4 IN8-2 Russian nixie tubes and generates the high voltageonboard using a switch mode converter. The bottom plate is machined from brass plate. Moreinformation is available at www.cnccreations.com.au.
From Colin Arrowsmith Constructed in industrial Bakelite pulseclock cases, with 60 neon lamps around the periphery, displaying seconds. These aremultiplexed, using 22 NPN and 6 PNP transistors, in groups of 6 x 10 seconds which are fedfrom the outputs of the seconds and 10s of seconds 4017 dividers.
From Morris Odell (Melbourne, Australia) : Here are some pics of myelectromechanical nixie clock. The timebase uses two vacuum tubes, a dekatron and athyratron to pulse a relay at 1 Hz, derived from the 50 hz mains frequency. This steps theuniselectors which control six ZM1040 nixies. A blue LED flashes with each'kerchunk' to remind us of what will happen if someone touches the high voltageterminal :-)
From Matt Cass (Australia) : I did not use any integrated circuitsin the design. I designed it myself from shift registers, it has 171 transistors and 110silicon diodes. It keeps good time on 50 cycles mains 24 hours clock and is easy to set.
Ronald Dekker, Henk, Jacco, Eugene (Holland)
From Markus Siegenthaler and Niklaus Burren (Switzerland)
We are students at the University of Applied Sciences HTI in Burgdorf. in Switzerland. This term we had to design an electrical device in a project work. We decided tobuild a radio controlled clock (from DCF77 Atomic-Clock Frankfurt/Germany). But we wantedto have a special display for our clock. So we choose the Russian nixie-tube IN-18.We implemented the tube supply with a step up converter (MC34063) which converts a 12V DCvoltage to a 160V DC voltage. So you can use a normal ac adapter (12V DC, 1A) to supplyour clock. The radio controlled clock is realized with the PIC microcontroller PIC16F877from Microchip. The clock shows the time and the date, when you press the date button. Itis also possible to set the clock manually for the case that you have no radio contact.For the chassis we used perspex and wood of a nut-tree.
From Jeff Thomas 'I used part of your pcb as the heart of aclock that I made six copies of as gifts to my relatives. I had a herd of NL-84X typenixies, but they wouldn't mount directly to your pcb design. I sawed off the driver andtube portions of the board, and fabbed a bunch of replacement driver pcb's that includedsockets for seconds output. That pcb is connected to your design via a simple header andsome ribbon cable to support the seconds output. The base is walnut, and the cover is madeof five leaded crystal panels glued together with a special UV curing glass adhesive.'
From Gerrit Gerritsen and Wim Wevers.(Switzerland)
The nixies used are Siemens ZM1040, from an old milling machine. Theclock is connected to the Frankfurt Radio Time Signal. Behind the round lens you can seethe 'caesium source' lighting up bluish.. Because there was plenty memoryavailable we can show: hours and minutes. seconds, year, software version, software issuedate, time signal decoding And there was still memory left so we can also show pi up to18000 decimals. You choose with the bakelite selector switches. Old voltmeter indicates kWand shows seconds... The wood is cherry wood.
From Robin Oudhaarlem (Holland)
Here is a picture of a nixie clock I build about ten years ago. As applies for mostnowadays nixie clocks, this one has a microprocessor inside too. I used a 8051 withoutbattery backed up RTC. The old Matsushita CD72 nixies are from an old desktop calculator.
From Tim O'Brien (New Zealand)
The heart is an Atmel 161 processor with RTC. Drive is non-multiplexed switching ofhalf wave rectified mains. The nixies are of unknown type, possibly computer origin. Glassonly envelope with 17 pin base, dual anodes. 1.25' dia. Colon is two 5 mm dia. neons.Case is Perspex. Clock functions are 12/24 hour clock and stop watch (minutes andseconds). Inspired by IEEE Spectrum article.
From Katsushi Matsubayashi (Japan).
The nixie tube I used is NEC LD-955A. My nixie clock is controlled by H8microcomputer. H8 CPU receives clock data from GPS receiver, namely SONY IPS-5000;therefore, my clock is always correct. In addition, by pushing push switches, my nixieclock can show date, longitude, latitude, altitude, speed, bearing and the number ofsatellite that GPS receiver is using for calculation.
From Tom Struzik (USA)
I wanted to keep with the 'old future' look. clock body is an old Seth Thomas that I foundon e-bay for $30!, innards replaced with microprocessor and circuit to drive the nixietubes. It also's got an electronic chime simulating the original ringer in the clockactually a voice recorder chip with 60 seconds of sound recording into which I recordedchime sounds I found on the web. sounds like the real thing. With the microprocessorcontrol the clock can be configured to display 12/24hr time, date/time, time only, and thechime can be programmed to only play during certain hours so as to not wake up the wholehouse.
From Steven Rougier (UK) I used STC GNP-7 nixie tubes. The case ismade from hardwood moulding with mitred corners and a sheet of clear acrylic for the frontpanel and takes advantage of the low-profile transformerless design.
From Bill Richards (USA) I designed this clock to bring together thewonderful old nixies and today's surface mount components. The cathodes of the fourPhilips ZM1040 nixie tubes are driven by MPSA42 transistors each connected to an output ofa PIC16F871. Power is provided by a 12 volt dc wall transformer. The tube high voltage isderived from the 12 volts using the MAX1771 circuit by Chris Barron (thanks Chris !). Thebase, machined from aluminum, is 3' x 7' x 0.67' and has a clear plasticcover over the pc board.
Electromechanical time/date nixie clock from Geoff Tomlin (UK), built in1969. The only semiconductors used are diodes!
Time is counted by a synchronous motor and series of gears, operatingrotary switches. Day is counted by a uniselector driving a diode matrix decoder for theday nixies. Month is counted by a uniselector driving the month wheel, and anotheruniselector is used to determine the number of days in the month. A modified impulsecounter is used for the year. 12/24 hour display selectable via rotary switchtop-left.
Left picture - Top view. Time gears on left, diode matrix deciders onbrown tagboards centre. Days-in-month decoding uniselector bottom centre.
Right picture - Bottom view : From top-left : Month uniselector and display wheel, Centre: Synchronous motor and gearbox (white circle), to the right ofg this is the minutesrotary switch, with the 10mins switch above it, and 24-way hours switch to the right. Yearcounter is top-right.
From Jeff Thomas
I had an idea to build a nixie project as small as I possibly could;using standardized components. The final design was so small, I was able to enclose it inan injection-molded transparent case; complete with a wrist band!
The outside case dimensions are 2.75' L x 1.5' W x 1.13' H Standard surfacemount CMOS counter logic, and HV driver transistors are copied from your Nixie Clockdesign. The reference is divided from a 32khz crystal. Nixie tube drive of 240v isgenerated by a trigger coil running from a 1.5v AA battery. Pushing a button in front ofthe colon indicator illuminates the nixies. Two lithium coin cells power the logicsection.
From Ryan Kerr (USA) : I completed a clock based on your schematic, and it has keptperfect time since. I bought the four Hivac XN11 tubes on e-bay from Nic Wilsher and used220K resistors. That's bigger than your reco of 100K (for US 120VAC), but I couldn't seeany visual difference and hopefully it'll make the tubes last longer. I used bi-colorred/green leds for the flashing colon (so instead of on/off I have red/green). Thedispenser part still works, but it can't hold as many M&Ms because I had to run allthe wires through the candy holding section. The circuit board is mounted to the back andcovered by a plastic tupperware dish. The two time-set buttons are on the side of theLay-Z-Boy chair.
From Gerhard Scholz (Germany) : The housing is nickel plated steel(originally designed for transformers for light systems). The Nixies are ZM 1210. Theelectronic part was derived from the suggestions at your web site. It was a little bittricky to get the complete electronic into the vaulted housing. It ended up in 5 PCB´s(power supply, switches for setting, nixies, driver stage and the clock itself). Three ofthe PCB´s are stacked to use the limited space and to bring the Nixies in place. Thestacked PCB´s are connected with inline connectors, so every module can be easily changedfor future improvements.
From Roel Klijzing (Holland)
From Guido Mennen (Holland) : I came across some plexiglass tube andI just had to build a nixieclock in it. The first idea was to use topview nixie tubes andbuild the whole clock inside the tube but I couldn't get it to fit. So I used ZM1000 Enixies from Telefunken. I think it's a replacement tube for ZM1000 nixies, the tube isplaced on a piece of printed circuit board which has pins soldered onto it which match thepinout of the ZM1000. The digits are larger then the ZM1000. the original markings areremoved but there are some left on the nixie ( in blue ink ) but not enough to identifythe original tube.
Unblock V1 8 4 – Wonderful Clock For Your Desktop Computer
From Darren Coe (UK)
I used your circuit a a base but used a plug top 9v transformer anda small 3va for step up. I also used a 32khz xtal for a timebase. A wet cap keeps itrunning for 10 mins without mains. The nixies came out of a fluke DVM got from work. Theneon BC bulb used for seconds came out of an electric fence machine many years ago.
From Jürgen (Germany)
From Guido Mennen (Holland)
From Chris Barron (UK)
I created this clock for a friend who had just got a new PC. The tubes are B5991's andthe display is dual-rail multiplexed (2 tubes on at a time). They mount straight intoD-Sub pins fitted into drilled holes in the mahogany front panel. Controlled by a PIC16F84and anode switching is by 3 TLP627 optoisolators. All power comes from the PC's 12V supplyand a MAX771 circuit provides the HV. The battery backup systemis made up of 4 AA size rechargeable nicads which keeps the timekeeping side of thingsworking when the PC is switched off.
New version using different coloured LEDs behind each tube,which are
PWM'd at varying rates to create a different and smoothly changing coloured backlight.These LED's do a good job of lighting the base of side viewed tubes as well.
From Gerald Talmage (USA) : Nixie clock built into emptyordinary household light bulbs If you look at the unit hours bulb the number that isdisplayed is a '8' it's hard to see due to the color of the bulb which was a dark greenparty bulb, this has since been corrected by using a lighter blue bulb.
From Laszlo Gaspar (UK)
This clock uses the flat top National NL-5440A tubes, controlled by a PIC16F84Amicrocontroller via CD4017 counters and the usual MPSA42 driver transistors. The timebaseis derived from a 32.768 kHz crystal. The high voltage for the display tubes is generatedby a boost regulator, based on an MC34063 PWM controller.
From Bob Tavener, the case is Ferrero Rocher chocolate box sprayed onthe inside
From TatsuyaTakimoto (Japan)
Robert G. Schaffrath (N2JTX)
B-7971 Nixie clock that I built back in 1979 when I was a senior inHigh School. The circuit is based on a schematic that had been provided by the surplusparts vendor along with the three stock exchange ticker display cards that the tubes andsockets came from. The ticker card also had some high voltage switching transistors thatwere used in the construction of the clock. The clock uses a National Semiconductor MM5311clock chip and uses the 60Hz line frequency as its time base. Unfortunately, the originalcircuit was a very poor transformerless design and blew several capacitors, resistors andZener diodes during its initial test run (it was spectacular!). I wound up making my owndesign changes, including adding a transformer, and it has worked fine ever since. Overthe years, I have replaced some parts with newer smaller components but it still uses theoriginal clock chip and high voltage transistors that came from the stock exchange displaycard. Back in 1979, I was a cash strapped student and did not have the money to purchasethe best parts except for a rather hard to find 160V/10W Zener diode that I obtainedsurplus. I designed the PC board and wooden stand myself. I currently have eight sparebrand new B-7971 tubes that I purchased 15 years ago. However, after almost 20 years ofcontinuous operation (the clock took a break when I was away at college), the originaltubes are still working fine.
From: Simon Kainz
I just finished my 1st Nixie clock. I used 4 Rodan Elfin MG-17F which are 7 segmentdisplay tubes. They are about 4 cm tall, the digits display themselfes are about 1,8 cm.The whole thing is powered by an 8051 running at 4 Mhz. I also planned to use a receiverto sync the clock to atomic time, but there is not enough space inside the case and alsothe power supply is generating too much noise...
From Konrad Metzger (Germany)
HV is generated by a step-up-generator, - ultra stable clockgenerator (temperature compensated), Nixie Z566M (30mm character height), PICmicro-controller, measures: H:90mm W:188mm D:141mm
From Antti Panula (Finland):
With Mike's instructions I managed to build my own clock. The Burroughs B-5560 tubesare assembled to a separate adapter board, because they are mounted 'upsidedown'. These tubes were removed from an old HP counter. The second indicators are twoorange glow lamps and are perfect match to the tubes' glow. The clock's dimensions are100x100x50mm.
From Bert van Rijn (Holland), using large Z586M tubes
From Hannes Nordmann(Germany)
From Julio Vilarrubi (Spain)
From Rob Cameron (UK)
The clock is synchronised to the 60kHz MSF transmission from Rugby. The MSF receiveris a ready built module made by Galleon Systems and outputs raw MSF data. This is decodedby a PIC16F870 microcontroller running at 3.2768MHz. This clock frequency allows the PICto keep time in the absence of the MSF signal. The 28 pin PIC feeds six 74141 nixiedrivers directly, with no multiplexing (to reduce RFI). The clock runs from a 12V AC poweradapter, which is stepped up to provide an isolated 200V DC supply for the Hivac XN3nixies. The clock is housed in a Vero case 180 x 120 x 60 mm with a neutral density filterat the front. There is a switch on the back panel allowing the display of hh:mm:ss ordd:mm:yy.
From Russell Lait
This has six National NL6422/5991 tubes. It is built into a modifiedcherry wood picture frame from Habitat.
I replaced the glass with clear acrylic, sprayed black on the back.
From Jeff Kowalski
The clock circuitry is a simple hard-wired design deriving the timebase from line power, fed through TTL counters. Burroughs top-reading Nixies are drivenusing 7441's. Power circuitry is point-to-point; the logic board is wire-wrapped. Theenclosure is pear wood with brushed and mirrored aluminum plate. The 12-hour clockoperates in two modes: 'run' and 'set', with an accompanyingclock-rate-adjustment useful for rapidly advancing the counters to the correct time.
From Hans Summers, using large Z856 nixies.
I built a base for the clock from pine wood glued together. Theseconds, minutes and hours digit pairs are built in separate sections each screwed to woodsupports. I put red felt on the feet (similar to snooker table material). I obtained glasssheets for the cabinet from a local glass shop and glued them with silicone glass adhesive(this is VERY messy). The front panel is bezelled. I didn't use a PCB, I built in mycustomary construction style on plain matrix board. Like you, to set the time I used reedswitches mounted in front of the digit pairs for fast forward, slow forward and secondsfreeze. In the wooden base are two flat-headed screws which a small bar magnet sticks toready for use when needed.
Fron Chris Barron
It uses a pic16f84 to provide the clock generation signal and register loading foreach tube. Its multiplexed and only uses 2 other chips, a 74ls138
and a 74141, as well as 12 MPSA-42 transistors. It has a switchable 12/24 hour display,switchable 'on the run', has lead digit blanking in 12hr mode and performs a left to rightsweep-fadeout for the last 6 seconds of every hour. There was just enough memory left onthe chip to write a little lottery number generator too.
From Notker Christoffel (Germany)
From Marco Hirter (Switzerland)
From Stefan Westermann (Germany)
From Gary Bleads (UK)
(above) After some time considering various nixie clock designs, Idecided it would be fun to experiment with my own. I decided I wanted 6-digits (the nixieslook more interesting if they are moving forwards and back every second), and I needed analarm so I could use it as my bedroom clock. To reduce the number of components, I decidedto use a PIC16F84 microcontroler for all the timing and alarm. The power supply uses a 3VA2x18v mini-torroid transformer, with one winding for the 5 volt logic power supply, andboth windings in series, feeding a capacitor/diode voltage tripler to give 190V DC at10mA. The timing is by the PIC counting cycles of the 50Hz mains. It has a serial outputto 6 x CD4094B 8-bit shift registers, which drive the segments of the Nixies tubes via 45MPSA42 high-voltage transistors. The microprocessor also provides the 'bellsand whistles' - in this case a gentle tick sound, quarter-hourly chimes(automatically disabled at night), and a daily alarm (I'm still experimenting withdifferent alarm sounds - at the moment it sends my ham-radio callsign in Morse code)
From Phil Downen (USA)
I used an Intel 8751 microcontroller with assembly language internal workings. I was lucky enough to find old Signetics BCD decoder/driver chips(N8T01B) to drive the Nixie Tubes; 1 for each digit. The Nixie Tubes themselves are'National Electronics Inc. NL840s' which I found at a garage sale in middleMissouri. The grid on each tube is driven to +170 volts DC, which is conveniently derivedfrom our North American line voltage (120 VAC - 170 peak) via a full-wave rectifiercircuit and filter cap. Each N8T01B (six total) decodes a 4-bit number from the 8751parallel port and converts it into a 0~9 digit selection. This selection takes place via agrounded open collector output (1 of 10) which are wired to the 10 wire numerals within atube. This is a non-multiplexed design. The time base is derived from our 60Hz linefrequency and serves a 1 Hz interrupt to the microcontroller which increments the timecount. This is very reliable over the long haul since many of the clocks in the US usesynchronous 60 Hz motors and rely upon the power companies maintaining proper count of thecycles, again over the long haul.
From Peter H. Wendt (Germany)
The most odd thing I'd done and just finished yesterday (except for building an appropriate case) is a 'Nixiefied' 1979 radio alarmclock. After fiddling around with the Nixies I found the LED 7-segments a bit too boring .... Now it got 4 Hivac GR10M/U 15mm top viewed Nixies, using four 27C256 Eproms I'd abused for that purpose. More info Here
From Bill Wagner (USA)
These pics are of a clock that still works that I built in early1970!. That was when the TTL IC's were about $10 ea.! I used a NASA surplus 2.048000 Mhzoscillator and it's precision power supply and divided it to 1 hz (with taps at 10khz,100hz and 4 hz and a hold switch to set it. I calibrated it with an old Beckman counter,whose time base I beat to WWV and it was off about 2 sec/month. I tweaked it and over thenext 10 months got it to less than 1 sec per month error with WWV time. I used Nicads toback up the PS. It was a very fun project! I recently checked the osc. with my HP5328Ahigh stability counter and they agreed to more than 9 places!
From Berend van den Berg (Holland)
Limited edition Karlsson nixie clock. Dimensions: 190 mm x 70 mm x 38 mm(+ 25 mm tubes, * 18 mm).
From Tuomo Auer (Finland)
I have build two of these nixie clocks, one for my brother and onefor myself. I was surprised when I found out from this site that other people have alsobuild nixie clocks and that the design of Peter van der Jagt's is lookalike. The heart ofmy clock is FPGA from Altera and type of nixies are CD81 from Hitachi. Enclosure is madeof solid aluminum with milling cutter and then polished. More pictures here
From George Grammenos, (Greece)
Unblock V1 8 4 – Wonderful Clock For Your Desktop Wallpaper
From Bill Buzbee. Above : nixie clock, with dekatron spinner on left.Below : Combo Nixie/Dekatron tube clock. The Dekatrons spin at 50, 10 and 1 Hz, andevery 30 seconds reverse directions. The clock design is fairly simple - a microcontrollertalking to a handful of serial->parallel shift registers which drive MPSA42 transistorsfor the Dekatron guides and 74141's for the Nixies. The time base is supplied by a 1 Mhzoscillator divided down to 100 Hz with 4017s. The switches allow for 12/24 hour operation,daylight savings time and setting both the time and a time correction delta to be appliedevery 1000 minutes to compensate for crystal error. I've also got battery backup in there.
From Ludo Baranovic (Slovakia)
From Andrew Parsons (New Zealand)
From Kimmo Kauvo (Finland), using an old Sony tuner case.
From Michael Stevenson (UK)
From Matt Fitz-Gibbon (UK)
From Mark Cumpstey (UK)
From Kurt Vogel
From Robert Hansen
The tubes are Z568M; 50mm (1.97') digits. A Microchip PIC16C84keeps the time, using the power line as a timing reference. It sends BCD data out to aseries of shift registers (74HC595), which in turn send their parallel output to the 7441decoder/drivers' inputs. I thought about a multiplex arrangement, but in that mode, thesetubes would require more current than a 7441 could handle: The tubes are running on 3mA,four tubes multiplexed would require about 12mA, but the 7441 has a maximum of 7mA.Thesets of transistors (MPSA42 and MPSA92) switch the plate supply to each tube (alsocontrolled by 'HC595 outputs), to facilitate leading-zero blanking of the hours count.Also, when setting the time, they flash the digit being adjusted; essentially a cursor.(The 7441 doesn't blank the display for non-BCD input, so that 'trick' isn'tavailable)
Unblock V1 8 4 – Wonderful Clock For Your Desktop Backgrounds
From Ralf Spettel (germany)
With your help I designed my own Nixie-clock. You can find it at:
here It shows time and dateon twelve ZM1000 tubes, and is radio controlled
(from DCF77 Atomic-Clock Frankfurt/Germany).
My Nixie Car Clock More info here
My huge clock using B7971 alphanumeric tubes. More info here
My clock using huge East German Z856 nixies. More info here
