Nixie Watch Project

[norkimo]

Has anyone here experimented with building nixie watches before?  I have a bunch of B4998 nixie tubes specifically for this purpose but I haven't gotten around to beginning inverter and circuit design on it yet.

Before I did, I figured I'd see if anyone here had ever experimented, and if so, if they had any tips.

[sadman]

complete project publish in elektor

[norkimo]

complete project publish in elektor

What?  I'm not sure what you mean here.

[cup58]

norkimo, sadman means you need to see, for example, the May/June 2016 issue of Elektor (UK/USA edition).

[devfirat]

Come here. I'm designing one now. With 4 nixie (why 4; because Nixies are very hard to find) with RGB leds, ARM processor, USB and adapter input, RTC 2 buttons ext.

http://www.sonsivri.to/forum/index.php?topic=62957.0

[norkimo]

Come here. I'm designing one now. With 4 nixie (why 4; because Nixies are very hard to find) with RGB leds, ARM processor, USB and adapter input, RTC 2 buttons ext.

http://www.sonsivri.to/forum/index.php?topic=62957.0

Your project is super awesome!  I'm having trouble making the electronics smaller.  Maybe I will study your design and see if there are ways to adapt it.  Amazing work!

[Cyberrat]

Watch as in wristwatch? or clock?

I would have thought it would be a bit big for most peoples wrist

[devfirat]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9AvpmVQeco

[norkimo]

Watch as in wristwatch? or clock?

I would have thought it would be a bit big for most peoples wrist

Nope. Watch.  It will be chunky yes, but I believe it can be a functional show piece.  Some years ago I got very lucky and was able to get a cache of about 44 brand-new (old new stock) B4998 nixie tubes, which to my knowledge were the smallest ever produced.

[adamantium]

Doesn't Steve Wozniak wear a nixie watch? Something like this? http://www.cathodecorner.com/nwl/index.html , just a bit chunky but not as bad as I would've thought. Nothing like 150v on your wrist?

[Miss-Electro]

How much is the power consumption of a nixie watch with at least 4 nixie digits?
Someone who built one has done some measures?

Also, noticed some wearing and less luminousity after some time it's up & running?

[adamantium]

Well the watch doesn't keep them on all the time, and they've only used two.

What is the actual power consumption of nixie's? I've seen they run at around 170V and draw ~4mA. That's 680mW. With an 80% efficient driver that's 260mA @ 3.3V. On a 300mA battery that wouldn't last long, a bit over an hour to power one. Perhaps with some PWM and again, only turning them on intermittently you could extend that quite a lot.

If you have an interest in nixie's I recently watched a mesmerizing video about a guy who's started making them https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxL4ElboiuA

Come here. I'm designing one now. With 4 nixie (why 4; because Nixies are very hard to find) with RGB leds, ARM processor, USB and adapter input, RTC 2 buttons ext.

http://www.sonsivri.to/forum/index.php?topic=62957.0

I know devfirat has made some clocks using some old nixie's but I don't know if he ever did a watch?

[M@X77]

My experience is around clocks and not watchs.
But I tried to create one few years ago starting from a nixie clock, to save the battery power I used a button, the mcu power on for 5 second the hv booster and then turn it off again.

I tried some different battery, one is a lithium battery get from my daughter's drone (sigma x1), 3.7V 550mA.
I tried also 3 standard AAA format alkaline battery.

Unfortunately I abandoned the project because at the end the watch was comening too big.