Singing Potatoes
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Monday, 7 January 2008
Dangerous fun
Electro Shock!

A little package arrived from Russia this afternoon, containing a dozen ИН-16 "Nixie tubes":

Twelve cathodes of joy, one anode of anticipation

Now I need to find a decent electronic components shop (since Radio Shack decided it was no longer worth their while), and build a transformer to convert wall power to 180VDC. And then build a tester to make sure all the tubes work.

And THEN I need to learn enough electronics to build a computer interface to drive the little buggers via a serial port (or even USB, if I can manage it).


Posted by godfrey (link)
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Comments
Is this one of those Everest moments ("Because it's there")?
Posted by Zach on 8 Jan 2008 11:22
Well...

I've always liked the Nixie tube. I've wanted a Nixie clock for quite a while, but never really overcame my basic inertia to actually try to build one.

But a while back, I had a plan to build a MAME arcade cabinet. Which also went nowhere due to my amazing abilities of procrastination.

But Karen's become enamored of steampunk, and has ordered me to build a steampunk arcade machine. Nixie tubes are really post-gaslight technology by a few decades, but still... I can't think of many other things which evoke the feeling of vintage electronic equipment.

Except maybe a "Jacob's ladder" spark gap, but somehow I'm uncomfortable with the thought of working with more than 10,000V without actually knowing what I'm doing...

Posted by Godfrey on 8 Jan 2008 16:56
Ordered? I didn't hear any complaints!
:)
Posted by Mrs. Godfrey on 17 Jan 2008 11:59