Description
The Arduino Nixie Clock is a beautiful mix of old and new, resulting in a high accuracy, low
power clock which will be a talking point in your home.
The clock has the following features:
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Latest technology, highly reliable and accurate.
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Tried and tested design, with many hundreds of clocks sold.
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Based on the Arduino micro-controller: Easy to program an well documented.
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Low power consumption.
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Long tube life:
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Anti Cathode Poisoning (ACP) and configurable blanking makes sure that the tubes
will stay healthy for many years with no intervention from you.
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Automatic blanking using a PIR (Passive InfraRed sensor) so that the tubes are
turned off when no one is in the same room as the clock.
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The multiplexed display and automatic dimming used in this design extends the life
of the tubes indefinitely. Some other designs run the tubes too “hard”, and this
causes a rapid degradation in the useful life of the tube.
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All settings are stored in non-volatile memory. Once they are set, they are remembered
forever, or until you change them again.
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RGB back lighting allows you to set the the color of the back lighting to practically any
color you desire.
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Ambient light sensing, with automatic tube dimming, which sets the tube and LED
brightness according to the light conditions. This also increases tube life.
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Absolutely silent operation. Some Nixie clocks emit an irritating “buzz” or “hiss” which is
especially annoying if you keep the clock in a bedroom.
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Automatic week day or weekend blanking, extends the life of tubes even further
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Automatic time of day blanking, can blank between a start hour and an end hour, on
week days, weekends or every day
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Configurable suppression of Anti Cathode Poisoning when the clock is fully dimmed. In
the middle of the night, all the digits lighting up at full brightness could be disturbing.
You can choose to stop ACP when the clock is fully dimmed
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The High Voltage Generator auto-calibrates itself to match your tubes and power supply,
meaning that the power consumption is the lowest possible. (Usually 2W when fully
bright, 0.4W when blanked).
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Highly accurate when using RTC module:
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Battery backed, temperature compensated, high accuracy clock. The accuracy is
Accuracy ±2ppm from 0°C to +40°C. (Maximum 1 minute per year).
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The battery life should be 3 years in normal use.
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Retains the date and time even when turned off (not just for a few minutes, but
for as long as the battery lasts)
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Leap Year Compensation Valid Up to the year 2100
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Extremely accurate when using the on-board Wifi module:
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The time never drifts, is always right to within 1 second.
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Automatically compensates for Daylight Savings Time changes, leap years and
seconds.
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The controller can be programmed without removing it from the board, due to the ICSP
port on the board.
