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4hv.org :: Forums :: General Science and Electronics
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advice on building a nixie tube calculator

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nzoomed
Wed Aug 24 2016, 04:12AM Print
nzoomed Registered Member #54503 Joined: Sun Feb 22 2015, 10:35PM
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 288
Im fascinated with Nixie clocks and am looking at doing something a little different by building a calculator using nixie tubes instead of a regular LED segment display or VFD etc.

I was looking at using a single chip module such as a TMS-0103 or the likes.

One question, can this chip easily be adapted to using nixie tubes rather than a segment display?

Im not sure what kind of encoding is used for the digits, and whether or not the outputs could be fed straight into a nixie driver or not.

Thanks for any info

If there are better chips out there im interested to know, i dont want to use a raspberry pi, as thats fairly complex and i have to wait for it to boot.

Could an arduino work perhaps?

TIA
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Mads Barnkob
Wed Aug 24 2016, 07:12AM
Mads Barnkob Registered Member #1403 Joined: Tue Mar 18 2008, 06:05PM
Location: Denmark, Odense C
Posts: 1968
You need some high volatge transistors to interface between the ICs and nixie tubes, like the widely used MPSA42.

Maybe you can find some inspiration in my nixie tube clock: Link2
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nzoomed
Wed Aug 24 2016, 07:25AM
nzoomed Registered Member #54503 Joined: Sun Feb 22 2015, 10:35PM
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 288
Mads Barnkob wrote ...

You need some high volatge transistors to interface between the ICs and nixie tubes, like the widely used MPSA42.

Maybe you can find some inspiration in my nixie tube clock: Link2

Thanks will take a look.
Ive got a whole bunch of 5870 nixie's and plan to do a clock that can fit in a spare 5.25 bay of my computer.
I hope i can make it all fit.

A calculator should be easy with a good single chip module, but as you mention you need high voltage transistors between the IC's and drivers, although i believe the IC's designed as nixie drivers do not need this.

I see some people take shortcuts and only use one driver IC and multiplex it to all the tubes, i dont know what way is the best option, if each nixie is driven, they are supposed to be alot more brighter.
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johnf
Thu Aug 25 2016, 06:56PM
johnf Registered Member #230 Joined: Tue Feb 21 2006, 08:01PM
Location: Gracefield lower Hutt
Posts: 284
You could try the correct TTL chip to drive the tubes 74141N BCD to high voltage decimal drive
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nzoomed
Fri Aug 26 2016, 09:01PM
nzoomed Registered Member #54503 Joined: Sun Feb 22 2015, 10:35PM
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 288
johnf wrote ...

You could try the correct TTL chip to drive the tubes 74141N BCD to high voltage decimal drive


Yes was looking at that, only problem is that the calculator IC i was looking at using is designed to use a multiplexed BCD display.
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Hazmatt_(The Underdog)
Fri Aug 26 2016, 09:25PM
Hazmatt_(The Underdog) Registered Member #135 Joined: Sat Feb 11 2006, 12:06AM
Location: Anywhere is fine
Posts: 1735
just use an arduino... sheesh.
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nzoomed
Sun Aug 28 2016, 09:02PM
nzoomed Registered Member #54503 Joined: Sun Feb 22 2015, 10:35PM
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 288
Hazmatt_(The Underdog) wrote ...

just use an arduino... sheesh.

Im looking at that option, but dont know anything about coding them...
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Hazmatt_(The Underdog)
Tue Aug 30 2016, 01:48AM
Hazmatt_(The Underdog) Registered Member #135 Joined: Sat Feb 11 2006, 12:06AM
Location: Anywhere is fine
Posts: 1735
its all C code. That and use the serial to parallel conversion to make a huge data bus.

You will be using many shift registers, one per tube, and a shift left operation or lookup table conversion to change the bits.
So 0 would still be 0 on the shift register, but if you want to light the digit 1 it becomes binary 2, and 2 is binary 4.. and so on.. since the tubes are segmented you have to make your own conversion.
Or you could use the BCD to decimal converters like mentioned before and cut down on the shift registers, either way it doesn't really matter. The BCD converters would allow you to use one shift register for two BCD and two tubes, the software method is more computer 'sciency'.
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