/Nixie_Board

Arduino Nano firmware for Nixie_PCB

Primary LanguageC

Nixie_SW

Arduino Nano firmware for Nixie_PCB

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Front view of a working Nixie clock

Based on an idea from Martijn and Ronald, a Nixie PCB has been made. This project contains the firmware for it and uses an Arduino Nano. It consists of the following:

  • A Nixie base-board containing the Arduino Nano, a DS3231 RTC, an IR-receiver, a BME280 and a dedicated high-voltage circuit to generate 170 Volts.
  • A separate IN-12 board that connects to the base-board and can be equiped with 6 IN-12 Nixie-Tubes and 6 WS2812 24-bit color LEDs.
  • Separate IN-1 boards, one for each IN-1. This is done because an IN-1 nixie is quite large.
  • A separate boards for IN-14 Nixies (work in progress)

The Nixie-boards are connected through standard 2x7 pins female connectors to the base-board.

The firmware contains the following features: UART (via USB) interrupt-driven communication, command-interpreter, infrared communication, I2C communication and a task-scheduler (non pre-emptive).

Use with Atmel Studio v6 or higher.

User Guide

When a terminal is connected to the USB port (38400,N,8,1), the following commands are possible:

  • D0: Set Date, e.g. "D0 15-12-2016"

  • D1: Set Time, e.g. "D1 7:32:48"

  • D2: Get Date and Time

  • D3: Get DS3231 Temperature

  • D4: Set Start-Time for blanking Nixies Tubes at night, e.g. "D4 11:30". Value is stored in EEPROM.

  • D5: Set End-Time for blanking Nixies Tubes at night, e.g. "D5 7:30". Value is stored in EEPROM.

  • Lx: set LED colour, with x any number between 0 and 7.

  • S0: Show revision number

  • S1: List all connected I2C devices

  • S2: List all software tasks

  • S3: Test all Nixie Tubes

  • V0: Set high-voltage relay manually to off

  • V1: Set high-voltage relay manually to on

  • V2: Set relay to auto-mode (firmware determines on or off position)

Hardware boards

The following boards have been made with the Eagle PCB Software:

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Schematics of the Nixie base-board, version 021

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PCB design of the Nixie base-board, version 021

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Schematics of the Nixie IN-12 board

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PCB design of the Nixie IN-12 board

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Schematics of the Nixie IN-1 board

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PCB design of the Nixie IN-1 board