Slave-Nixie-Clock

Software to control a "GRA & AFCH" NCM107 + NCT412 Nixie clock via a serial connection

What it does

This is an Arduino sketch to control a "GRA & AFCH" NCM107 + NCT412 Nixie clock via serial protocol, basically turning it into a computer display (While ignoring the RTC functionality).

One can send two different strings via serial connection to the clock:

A 14 byte long display string terminated with a newline:

• char 0-5: What to display on the nixies, anything else than a number (isDigit()) shows nothing.
• char 6: "1" to light the upper dots
• char 7: "1" to light the lower dots
• char 8-9: A hex value from 00 to FF representing the brightness of the red led's
• char 10-11: A hex value from 00 to FF representing the brightness of the green led's
• char 12-13: A hex value from 00 to FF representing the brightness of the blue led's

And a 2 byte long color cycling string terminated with a newline:

• char 0-1: A hex value from 00 to FF representing the speed of a LED color cycling animation between 133 and 0.52 seconds long, "00" turns it off

The color cycling animation overwrites the led color set by the display string.

When no serial string is received for longer than 60 seconds a 20 second cathode cleaning cycle starts and after that it turns the display "off" meaning no refresh is done anymore. when at some point a new serial string is received the display turns on again.

Installation

Download a release or clone this project with git.

Usage

Open "Slave_Nixie_Clock/Slave_Nixie_Clock.ino" in your Arduino IDE of choice and upload it to your clock.

In "/Examples" you will find an example Python script to control the Nixie Clock (It sends the computer time to the Nixie Clock). It comes without any guarantee (It was only tested under OS X), if you want to create your own scripts on top of it please don't ask me for support.

In "/45 degree Stands" you will find a printable 3D model for stands to angle the clock at 45°, which makes it much more readable when it is standing on your desk. Just print the .stl file on your 3D printer of choice. The stands on Thingiverse

For more information about the Nixie Clock itself see the GRA & AFCH Website and the afch/NixieClock GitHub Repo

Changelog

Changelog v0.4:

• Added reconnect functionality to Python example

Changelog v0.3:

• Added Stand 3D model

Changelog v0.2.1:

• Fixed example comments

Changelog v0.2:

• Fixed some small bugs
• Added example Python script

Changelog v0.1:

• Initial checkin