Just finished a write up... my clock is finally up and running. No cheating with PICs, all 6502 here!

http://www.hack.net/nixie

Thanks for the help with my questions here guys, I ended up going with the 6522 per your suggestions!

-Ryan Brooks

Ryan,

Great job!!!!

Daryl

Great project. I've added it to the Homebuilt Projects section on 6502.org.

Mike

_________________
- Mike Naberezny (mike@naberezny.com) http://6502.org

Cool. The schematics are *awfully* hard to read with those grid lines so dark though. Is there a way to lighten them up at least by 50% or remove them all-together?

Thanks.

Good work!

I'd love to build one of these but after some bad experiences with high voltages at uni involving a laser PSU, a hole in some insulation and my elbow (and the earthed desk) I'm too scared.

A workmate of mine showed me a battery driving one transistor and one coil (and a few other discretes) driving a nixie digit.

It was very low current, and you could touch the electrodes without feeling anything.

IIRC, the digits needed a high-ish voltage to strike but a lower voltage would then keep the digit glowing.

Certainly safer than driving them from the mains.

High frequency high voltage sources are painless to touch - the current travels over the surface of the skin and does not penetrate to the nerves. This does not mean it is safe - the current is painlessly cooking you as it passes through your body!

_________________
Shift to the left,
Shift to the right,
Mask in, Mask Out,
BYTE! BYTE! BYTE!

We have a friend who regularly stands barefoot on his million-volt lightning generator for a science demonstration. We've seen him do it many times.

The 1x4" piece of wood in one hand was lit on fire by the sparks a couple of feet long coming out of it. He purposely holds it so the top of it above his head, so that after 30 years of doing this, he still has more hair than I. He turns the frequency up high enough that it doesn't hurt him, although he has said that when he puts his hand out to show a little current jumping out from his fingers as in the picture, the heat can hurt if he does it for long. He keeps his hand lower than the top of the wood too. He's about twice as old now as he was when this picture was taken.

http://www.wondersofscience.org/sfs/MILLION.HTM

From when I was working with AM broadcast transmitters in the early 1980's however, I do remember what it feels like to touch a non-grounded cable or wire that's right next to an antenna tower putting out anywhere from 5,000 to 50,000 watts at a little under a MHz.