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Registered Member #3766
Joined: Sun Mar 20 2011, 05:39AM
Location:
Posts: 624
Alright, I'm seriously considering seling nixie clocks, both kits and fully assembled, but I was wondering, 1. Would anyone one here be willing to buy one, and, 2. Whats yalls opinions on a good price?
It's gonna cost about $150 to have 20 boards made, the only other large cost is the tubes and then the labor, (plexi glass, wood, painting, etc.)
Registered Member #1334
Joined: Tue Feb 19 2008, 04:37PM
Location: Nr. London, UK
Posts: 615
There's a bazillion people selling them on eBay, several for under USD 100 sometimes including tubes, e.g.
Several others sell via their own web sites - you are a member of neonixie-l, so you'd see that all the time.
So, assuming your clock is richly-featured (including GPS option, battery back-up, TXCO timebase etc.) and well made (hopefully not using tubes with the upside-down "2" for a "5"!), around the USD 100 mark is about par. i.e. margins are low.
There are some really good designs out there from great engineers and competition is pretty fierce. There are also some truly bad designs...
I don't sell (and never have sold) nixie clocks though I've designed and built an awful lot of them - my suggestion would be to differentiate yourself from the opposition in some way and push for the "different Christmas present" market. The "slab of wood with some tubes sticking out of it and a box on top" approach has been done to death - go for something different - be innovative - think outside the box (literally!!) - go small, go quirky, go round rather than oblong, go USB-powered, add unexpected features (FLW or similar if your tubes can take it), make an "approximate" clock, make the PCB "artistic", have a friend with an "design eye" look at it for you, be gentle with the volume of material you use, less is more etc. etc. etc. Have a look at John Smout's site (he's a designer rather than engineer) for ideas of what can be done.
Registered Member #1334
Joined: Tue Feb 19 2008, 04:37PM
Location: Nr. London, UK
Posts: 615
Forty wrote ...
make something with one of these or add an hourly chime and a useless machine to flip it off
We play a lot with VFDs on neonixie-l too... my favourite use is the "approximate clock", first made, as far as I know, by John Smout with another by Grahame Marsh.
There's a lot of very nice nixie & VFD clocks & devices out there... some all tube - see Grahame's page for one of them.
Registered Member #3766
Joined: Sun Mar 20 2011, 05:39AM
Location:
Posts: 624
Forty wrote ...
make something with one of these
I actually have a few of those laying around that I got in a pile of junk, I might do something with them and an arduino in the future.
Avi wrote ...
Can we see a picture of one? Are they easily modified? eg. to add a GPS?
I don't actually have one completed yet, still working on the pcb, but I can upload a sketch if you want. Yes, it is very easily modified, it's all digital logic and no uc, the standard crystal oscillator and 4017 setup.
wrote ...
There's a bazillion people selling them on eBay, several for under USD 100 sometimes including tubes, e.g.
Several others sell via their own web sites - you are a member of neonixie-l, so you'd see that all the time.
Negatory there, not a member, but I do know that many people sell them.
wrote ... So, assuming your clock is richly-featured (including GPS option, battery back-up, TXCO timebase etc.) and well made (hopefully not using tubes with the upside-down "2" for a "5"!), around the USD 100 mark is about par. i.e. margins are low.
no gps option, but yes to the battery backup, it also has a settable alarm through rotary dials, something I've never seen before in a nixie clock. It will be well made, I personally love those tubes, but that a matter of personal preference, and $100-130 is about average for a kit, but most completed clocks I see about $200-$400, once you get off ebay.
wrote ... There are some really good designs out there from great engineers and competition is pretty fierce. There are also some truly bad designs...
I don't (and never have) sold nixie clocks though I've designed and built an awful lot of them - my suggestion would be to differentiate yourself from the opposition in some way and push for the "different Christmas present" market. The "slab of wood with some tubes sticking out of it and a box on top" approach has been done to death - go for something different - be innovative - think outside the box (literally!!) - go small, go quirky, go round rather than oblong, go USB-powered, add unexpected features (FLW or similar if your tubes can take it), make an "approximate" clock, make the PCB "artistic", have a friend with an "design eye" look at it for you, be gentle with the volume of material you use, less is more etc. etc. etc. Have a look at John Smout's site (he's a designer rather than engineer) for ideas of what can be done.
Well, I've never seen a clock with a hammered paint/vintage knob/plexiglass setup, so I'll see what happens.
Also, does anyone else out there rather like the look of wires running neatly between the ic's, or do most people prefer plain pcb's?
Registered Member #3766
Joined: Sun Mar 20 2011, 05:39AM
Location:
Posts: 624
Oh yea, forgot to mention, my dad said that if I made one that looks good enough to go in the living room, he'd pay for the cost to have the boards made, which cuts my overhead by about 85% (made that number up)
@ dr electrons, good to know, hopefully I'll be able to sell some in a few weeks. (hopefully not months, but with the way things go for me, it's not improbable)
Registered Member #3766
Joined: Sun Mar 20 2011, 05:39AM
Location:
Posts: 624
So, I hope that there are at least 20 people out there willing to buy this.
If so, I will be happy to make my money back and then some, and will put it towards a new variac or something, and move on.
And if I get flooded with too many requests, I might just set up shop and start cranking them out. Never hurts to be optimistic.
And, if no one buys any, I have some nice gifts to give out.
Plan of action- 1. Finish pcb 2. go over pcb approximately 9000 times with a fine toothed comb 3. dust off excel 4. order N pcb's, along with all the tubes and components that would be necessary to make N clocks 5. make a clock 6. post clock to see what you think of how it looks 7. probably modify design 8. $$$
Registered Member #1334
Joined: Tue Feb 19 2008, 04:37PM
Location: Nr. London, UK
Posts: 615
magnet18 wrote ...
So, I hope that there are at least 20 people out there willing to buy this.
If so, I will be happy to make my money back and then some, and will put it towards a new variac or something, and move on.
And if I get flooded with too many requests, I might just set up shop and start cranking them out. Never hurts to be optimistic.
And, if no one buys any, I have some nice gifts to give out.
Plan of action- 1. Finish pcb 2. go over pcb approximately 9000 times with a fine toothed comb 3. dust off excel 4. order N pcb's, along with all the tubes and components that would be necessary to make N clocks 5. make a clock 6. post clock to see what you think of how it looks 7. probably modify design 8. $$$
sound feasible?
Sounds great - What about having a prototype board made first before the run of 20? Normally the cost of that is reasonable (depending on size & features) and can save grief later. A run of 20 should sell... One of the things about nixie clocks is if you are using an SMPS, is keeping the switching currents away from the uP, i.e. ground plane management/earthing strategies become important. Are you using the uP to drive a FET for the SMPS, or a 555/dedicated SMPS chip to do it? You can also see significant noise on the LV side of the PSU which can find its way into the uP if you're not careful, both through Vcc & GND - decoupling is often not enough - layout is important - a prototype board and some time spent with a 'scope might be a good investment if you don't want random "weirdness" down the line - keeps your customers happy!
From what you say it seems you're going down a retro path, which is great. Some clocks use a rotary encoder with an integral push button for settings, others use just a few TACT switches. There are steampunk variants around, and somewhere I've seen an "art installation" that uses bakelite knobs to dial in words to a set of alphanumeric nixies (B7971s) which then display a "reply".
I agree for a complete clock with case & tubes, USD 150 is probably par for the course. Which tubes are you using?
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Selling Nixie Clocks
