So every Wednesday I man my buddies store http://reuseum.com and hang out for a few hours. Last week I saw on the shelf an old multimeter that had 5 nixie tubes and a 29.99 price tag(would not power up of course, parts repair). By the end of the day it was still there and so I decided that it needed a new purpose and home. I ripped out the 5 tubes and the 4 74141's and did some research on the interwebs. Today I received my power supply and decided to start figuring out how to run one of these things!
After one minor shock@180vdc and a blown 74141 I have this
The code I slapped together is simple, I found the datasheet for the tubes (Burroughs 5750-S) and from there began to test. Tomorrow I hope to get 2 tubes going with a 4017 between my RBBB and the 74141's. That means ShiftOut() I think....Not sure yet.
In the shop there are GPS units (they just did a workshop a few months ago) and that is what I am hoping to use for an accurate time source for this project. The case that I would like is here, and the size of the tubes.
int aPin = 9;
int bPin = 10;
int cPin = 11;
int dPin = 12;
void setup() {
pinMode(aPin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(bPin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(cPin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(dPin, OUTPUT);
}
void loop()
{
zero();
blank();
one();
blank();
two();
blank();
three();
blank();
four();
blank();
five();
blank();
six();
blank();
seven();
blank();
eight();
blank();
nine();
blank();
}
void blank()
{
digitalWrite(aPin, HIGH);
digitalWrite(bPin, HIGH);
digitalWrite(cPin, HIGH);
digitalWrite(dPin, HIGH);
delay (500);
}
void zero(){
digitalWrite(aPin, LOW);
digitalWrite(bPin, LOW);
digitalWrite(cPin, LOW);
digitalWrite(dPin, LOW);
delay (1000);
}
void one(){
digitalWrite(aPin, HIGH);
digitalWrite(bPin, LOW);
digitalWrite(cPin, LOW);
digitalWrite(dPin, LOW);
delay (1000);
}
void two(){
digitalWrite(aPin, LOW);
digitalWrite(bPin, HIGH);
digitalWrite(cPin, LOW);
digitalWrite(dPin, LOW);
delay (1000);
}
void three(){
digitalWrite(aPin, HIGH);
digitalWrite(bPin, HIGH);
digitalWrite(cPin, LOW);
digitalWrite(dPin, LOW);
delay (1000);
}
void four(){
digitalWrite(aPin, LOW);
digitalWrite(bPin, LOW);
digitalWrite(cPin, HIGH);
digitalWrite(dPin, LOW);
delay (1000);
}
void five(){
digitalWrite(aPin, HIGH);
digitalWrite(bPin, LOW);
digitalWrite(cPin, HIGH);
digitalWrite(dPin, LOW);
delay (1000);
}
void six(){
digitalWrite(aPin, LOW);
digitalWrite(bPin, HIGH);
digitalWrite(cPin, HIGH);
digitalWrite(dPin, LOW);
delay (1000);
}
void seven(){
digitalWrite(aPin, HIGH);
digitalWrite(bPin, HIGH);
digitalWrite(cPin, HIGH);
digitalWrite(dPin, LOW);
delay (1000);
}
void eight(){
digitalWrite(aPin, LOW);
digitalWrite(bPin, LOW);
digitalWrite(cPin, LOW);
digitalWrite(dPin, HIGH);
delay (1000);
}
void nine(){
digitalWrite(aPin, HIGH);
digitalWrite(bPin, LOW);
digitalWrite(cPin, LOW);
digitalWrite(dPin, HIGH);
delay (1000);
}