Fortress Technologies An E1T Timepiece Manual Download

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Fortress - An E1T Timepiece

Six Miniature CRTs In Action

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Summary of Contents for An E1T Timepiece

Page 1: ...Fortress An E1T Timepiece Six Miniature CRTs In Action Page 1 Version 1 0 Copyright Grahame Marsh Nick Stock 2019...

Page 2: ...ed 8 displays such as Nixie tubes and Dekatrons vacuum 9 10 fl uorescent displays VFDs light emitting diodes 11 12 LEDs and liquid crystal displays LCDs Some of 13 these possess a certain charm such a...

Page 3: ...stem fi les and system ini fi le A removable plate at the rear to access both the SD card and the programming port on the CPU board A GPS WiFi antenna connector PSU Input hole 12V DC rated at a minimu...

Page 4: ...er Once that s all complete plug in the PSU cable to the back of the clock and turn on the power You will notice that the underside LEDs will all light up and after about a minute the E1T tubes will i...

Page 5: ...5 seconds then turning power back on Pulling the PSU socket out and plugging it back in isn t ideal as this can also lead to hanging the CPU so please only cycle power using the switch on the power s...

Page 6: ...ion It also covers the basics on how to modify aspects of the clock to suit your tastes and troubleshooting Pages 79 107 How The Clock Works Technical description of all the subsystems and circuitry t...

Page 7: ...as got its IP and fetched the time from an NTP server If you need to manually set the time go to Face numbers 960 time page 37 and 961 date page 38 v Change the clock face display with either the rota...

Page 8: ...SAFETY AND LEGAL32 SAFETY LEGAL LICENSE CONSIDERATIONS You know the fun stuff 32 Page 8 Version 1 0 Copyright Grahame Marsh Nick Stock 2019...

Page 9: ...Do not touch the electronics while the clock is in use or has been recently operated Treat the clock with the same level of care and common sense as any mains powered electrical device do not expose...

Page 10: ...s your responsibility to carefully review the documentation the design and the kit contents and to assure yourself that you have the necessary expertise to construct and or operate the clock safely In...

Page 11: ...BY ATMEL AS IS AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON INFRINGEMENT ARE EXPRESSLY AND SPE...

Page 12: ...a kit of parts no warranty can be provided pertaining to the quality of construction and operation of the fi nal product as this is the duty of the purchaser and is dependent upon their skill The For...

Page 13: ...ock Distribution Faces39 The Standard Face Feature Set For the latest Fortress Faces distribution see the Fortress Face Supplemental on the DropBox 39 Page 13 Version 1 0 Copyright Grahame Marsh Nick...

Page 14: ...ct quickly and easily I arrange my favourite faces to be in the number range 1 to 9 and other good clock faces that I might occasionally want to use in the range 10 to 99 This minimises the travel dis...

Page 15: ...no excessive bling or chimes A very simple display 106 time11 nug 3 Time with bling and chimes 201 nick02 nug 4 Time with date shown each minute Bling but no chimes 121 dattim02 nug 5 Time with date...

Page 16: ...r 101 Nuggle fi le time02 nug Description Simple time display respect user format setting Colons Flash red Bling Dim red Chimes None Face number 102 Nuggle fi le time03 nug Description Simple time dis...

Page 17: ...cond then all tubes on each minute roll over Colons Flash green Bling Dim green Chimes None Face number 110 Nuggle fi le date01 nug Description Simple date display respect user format settings Colons...

Page 18: ...except during seconds 40 to 49 when the date is shown Colons Showing time fl ash green Showing date fi xed green Bling None Chimes None Face number 121 Nuggle fi le dattim02 nug Description Time is s...

Page 19: ...handset key s 0 to 9 default operation are overridden by the Nuggle code the use of keys 0 to 9 to dial in a new face number won t work Face number 123 Nuggle fi le dattime04 nug Description As with 1...

Page 20: ...h II These fi rst sets of clock faces concentrate on the chimes and use no bling Face number 130 Nuggle fi le awest nug Description Shows the time as hh mm ss using fl ashing colons no bling tick tock...

Page 21: ...c wt11 wav c wt12 wav Face number 135 Nuggle fi le amaria nug Description Shows the time as hh mm ss Ave Maria Chimes fl ashing colons no bling Colons Colons fl ash green each sec Bling None Chimes am...

Page 22: ...teph30 wav steph45 wav stepht wav tick01 wav Face number 140 Nuggle fi le ships nug Description Shows the time as hh mm ss ships bells fl ashing colons no bling The bell is from HMS Chepstow Classic B...

Page 23: ...resistor colour code numbers Black 0 brown 1 and so on The downward bling are lit cyan Chimes none Face number 151 Nuggle fi le decimal nug Description Shows the time as HH hhhh where HH is the hours...

Page 24: ...nts a couple more will be beamed down to await the same fate Downward bling are a planetary green Note that the bling fades in during the face start up sequence Chimes ost_open wav ost_end wav ost_cc...

Page 25: ...elvis15 wav elvis30 wav elvis45 wav elvist wav Face number 154 Nuggle fi le tng01 nug Description Star Trek The Next Generation themed clock Colons Colons fl ash white each second Bling None Chimes t...

Page 26: ...ime10 nug with bling and chimes Colons None used as bling Bling A fast rotation of blue bling from left to right across the top bling modules and then right to left along the downward modules Chimes t...

Page 27: ...himes None Face number 251 Nuggle fi le seq10a nug Description As in 201 nick02 nug but arranged for sequential calling and return Face number 252 Nuggle fi le seq10b nug Description As in 140 ship nu...

Page 28: ...he altitude The azimuth can vary from 0 to 359 degrees and the altitude from 90 to 90 degrees a negative altitude indicating the angle below the horizon Face number 300 Nuggle fi le sunpos nug Descrip...

Page 29: ...ise the tubes will show the time and purple blue tube bling Chimes None Face number 302 Nuggle fi le sunset nug Description Shows the sunset today as hh mm using tubes 0 to 3 Tubes 4 and 5 remain blan...

Page 30: ...i le pir nug Description This is a game You select the face away from the clock and then walk towards it Each time the PIR sensor sees you it will increment the count on the tubes fl ash the bling and...

Page 31: ...the other tubes are off Colons None Bling The random tube that has been picked to display a random number is given a random bling hue The other tubes bling hues are unchanged The downward bling is di...

Page 32: ...number 405 Nuggle fi le larsonr nug Description As face number 404 above but more colourful Colons Used as part of the bling cycle Bling As in face number 404 above except red is replaced by a colour...

Page 33: ...bes 0 and 1 remain blank Colons The right colon is lit green between the major and minor hardware version numbers Bling Bling on the used tubes and below the used tubes is lit green The bling around a...

Page 34: ...south of the equator Bling Bling is lit around and under the active tubes Chimes None Face number 911 Nuggle fi le longtude nug Description Shows the clock longitude east of Greenwich in the form DDD...

Page 35: ...grees Celsius There is no fraction shown Whilst there is no user preference setting for display units the Nuggle program includes the necessary conversion to Fahrenheit which can be activated by chang...

Page 36: ...uggle fi le gps nug Description Shows the status of the GPS receiver using the bling colons and tubes With no GPS receiver installed the tubes all remain off With the GPS receiver installed then tubes...

Page 37: ...ly shown when the face is fi rst displayed If you change the status then the face must be re shown Colons The right colon shows the pairing status disabled shows blue always forced to be enabled shows...

Page 38: ...o the RTC that will immediately start using it The clock will then change to show the face that was shown before this face was selected or Play key acts as a cancel or escape key the time shown is aba...

Page 39: ...e RTC that will immediately start using it The clock will then change to show the face that was shown before this face was selected or Play key acts as a cancel or escape key the date shown is abandon...

Page 40: ...hard reset The E1T tubes show the count down The bling shows the last six seconds and the chimes the last four seconds Colons Not used Bling Initially the tube bling is all orange It goes black one t...

Page 41: ...dure use of NVR and Push simple stack to transfer data to the new face t_dest nug 1010 t_dest nug This is the destination face for t_face nug so is not run directly 1011 t_func nug Tests Abs Sqrt Max...

Page 42: ...the date for a ten second period during each minute Face number 2100 Nuggle fi le seq01 nug Description This is the sequential face calling fi le It displays nothing itself but runs a series of other...

Page 43: ...set or restarted NVR Index Use 0 Face counter incremented each time a new face is shown by the sequential counter 1 Sequential calling Nuggle program to return to 2 Period in seconds to show the seque...

Page 44: ...Fortress E1T Operations Guide Everything you wanted to know but daren t ask Page 44 Version 1 0 Copyright Grahame Marsh Nick Stock 2019...

Page 45: ...Accessing the clock SD card directories and fi les Adding or changing chime WAV fi les Adding or changing Nuggle fi les Compiling the SAM3X8C fi rmware Infrared remote Standalone manuals describe the...

Page 46: ...test mode then the setting of this jumper is ignored 3 Permit automatic PSU start up the 6 3V heater PSU and 300V fl yback HT PSU will normally start up automatically when required Fitting this jumper...

Page 47: ...t now assigned Note the number as it will be needed later In my case the port number was COM9 If you are uncertain which USB Serial Device has just appeared you may have others then disconnect and rec...

Page 48: ...Fortress E1T clock and the reset button on the clock pressed brie fl y you should see a simple welcome message Something like 54 Or a much longer one if the verbose jumper 8 is fi tted 54 Page 48 Ver...

Page 49: ...aluator FAC FACe command help message GPS Global Positioning System if fi tted IRH InfraRed Handset LDR Light Dependent Resistor measures ambient light LED LED bling controls LOC LOCale reports NUG NU...

Page 50: ...ng a use Backspace BS deletes the last character typed or is ignored at the start of the line Escape Esc deletes the whole entry Return enters the command for use ADC readings and interpretation The F...

Page 51: ...BEeP command help message BEPS c f d Play a beep c channel 1 right 2 left 3 both f frequency 30 5000 Hz d duration 10 5000 mS BEPU n Play a pre de fi ned beep sequence 0 4 CHM CHiMe command help mess...

Page 52: ...1 14 DATU Perform a synchronisation with the plug in WiFi or GPS module E1T E1T command help message E1TC n Continuously spin tube n Press Esc key to stop E1TG n Get the position of tube n where the...

Page 53: ...ly played Press the Esc key to stop GPSR n GPS report where n 0 report data validity geolocation etc n 1 report on satellite data GPSU Hardware reset and restart the GPS Module IRH IR Handset help mes...

Page 54: ...urn off all LED modules LEDR LED module report LEDS 0 grp rgb Set a group of LEDs to the speci fi ed RGB colour Groups and RGB colour values are explained in the Nuggle manual example leds 0 0x3f 0xff...

Page 55: ...ion information read from the SD card n 3 user preferred date and time formatting settings NUG NUGgle program help message NUGG List the running Nuggle program from the info fi le NUGR Report on the r...

Page 56: ...UTR Report all settings OUTS n v Set the digital output n to value v n as above v 0 1 PIR PIR sensor help message PIRC Put the console into an operation where all PIR hits are played to the console by...

Page 57: ...s n 4 demonstrate fl oating point errors n 5 demonstrate random number generation n 6 version and build information SYSU n System actions n 0 invoke sleep n 1 wake up n 2 shut down the clock requires...

Page 58: ...be read and used in conjunction with the ESP32 BIT documentation VAR System VARiable help message VARG name Get the current value of a system variable in both decimal and hexadecimal example varg lati...

Page 59: ...x bin where comxx is the COM number that the board is using and xxxxx bin is the binary image of 57 the fi rmware you want to program into the fl ash example d bossa samprog COM9 d fortress fi rmware...

Page 60: ...u to read through and edit The fi le is self documented and contains many options for you to select such as your preferred chime muting times the clock IR remote pair number the parameters used for va...

Page 61: ...sing the WiFi plug in module The only editing you must do to this fi le is to enter your WiFi log in credentials You can read through the remaining sections in the fi le and make other changes as you...

Page 62: ...he fi le as a WAV format readable by the Fortress E1T Clock It also enable you to play and edit the fi le You can blend several fi les together and add effects like echo and reverb Have fun Copying th...

Page 63: ...k restarts N B The fi le pre processor is quiet a slow operation Conversion of a fi le can take several seconds to many minutes So if you converting several fi les then go and make a cup of coffee and...

Page 64: ...ew fi lename then you now need to assign an index number to the fi le as Nuggle fi les are selected to run by a number and not the fi lename directly To do this you edit nuggle ini and in the faces se...

Page 65: ...exported templates so it will de fi nitely be in another location on your system Creating a project and compiling the SAM3X8C fi rmware Run Atmel Studio and start a new project The new project dialogu...

Page 66: ...d if missing STACK_CHK_GUARD 0xa242b7f0 Linker Miscellaneous add if missing Other objects Wl defsym HEAP_SIZE 0x10000 Build the solution the output should show no errors warnings or messages The outpu...

Page 67: ...bled then the clock will respond to all keystrokes on the IR handset When enabled the clock must be paired by entering the clock number that is saved in the ini fi le Recommended numbers are so far 1...

Page 68: ...l be restored the next time the clock is restarted When the EQ key is pressed only the Sgitheach clock with the corresponding pairing number will respond to other key strokes Hint Clock face 950 and c...

Page 69: ...found must be due to the SAM3X8C programmer The build instructions contain detailed test processes that should have demonstrated that the programmer is working correctly Remember that accidentally pr...

Page 70: ...display board drivers for them are slightly unusual a more detailed explanation is given here on what you might expect to fi nd When probing points on the board take extreme care that you do not acci...

Page 71: ...70mV 3 300V 50mV 4 Ground 7mV 5 Ground 16 2V 6 Ground 0V 7 300V 300 5V 8 Ground 260V 9 Ground 83V 10 Ground 3 28V 11 Ground 15mV See the NUGK and E1TS console commands 68 Page 71 Version 1 0 Copyright...

Page 72: ...was used with DC coupling unless otherwise stated In all cases the E1T was spinning at 100mS between step pulses using the console E1TC command Schematic The following waveforms were captured The ste...

Page 73: ...This is the pulse applied to the de fl ection plate x in the E1T 69 The pulse rises quickly to 15 2V and then decays over a period of about 20 S The ideal waveform 70 The measured waveform meets the r...

Page 74: ...13V cuts off the electron fl ow through the tube causing it to reset to position 0 when the current fl ow is re established Normally the cathode potential is about 15V above ground and the grid is at...

Page 75: ...Before blaming the Fortress clock you might take some simple steps of swapping the tubes around to see if the fault moves or not If the fault doesn t move then you can begin to suspect the clock hard...

Page 76: ...conds position so it changes every second then the eye sees it steps through the sequence 3 3 4 5 and you can then read the 4 position correctly Burns Look at position 6 there is a black line showing...

Page 77: ...The tube was given to a collector Crazy Lacquering Some E1T tubes appear to have been lacquered I know not why With time the lacquer can be damaged or in extreme cases become crazed It is not hard to...

Page 78: ...dome silvering is also usually not uniform or sometimes signi fi cantly worn away The tube on the left is what I believe to be a new unused tube The silvering just re fl ects the ceiling and camera H...

Page 79: ...Fortress How It Works Board Schematics and Function Page 79 Version 1 0 Copyright Grahame Marsh Nick Stock 2019...

Page 80: ...ck 73 300V 10mA power supply to run the E1T tubes 6 3V 2A power supply to run the E1T tube heaters 5V and 3 3V power supplies to run all the analogue and digital electronics An optional WiFi module An...

Page 81: ...four layer PCB measuring 52mm x 52mm It carries Native USB port Separate 3 3V regulator 6 pin programming port77 Filtering and decoupling according to the Atmel data sheet 12MHz crystal for the syste...

Page 82: ...Page 82 Version 1 0 Copyright Grahame Marsh Nick Stock 2019 1 1 SAM3X8C schematic...

Page 83: ...Version 1 0 Copyright Grahame Marsh Nick Stock 2019 1 2 Battery Backup 1 3 Analogue Decoupling 1 7 UTMI Decoupling 1 8 3 3V IN Decoupling 1 9 3 3V OUT 1 4 PLL Decoupling 1 5 Core Decoupling 1 6 IO Dec...

Page 84: ...rammer can be plugged in directly Page 84 Version 1 0 Copyright Grahame Marsh Nick Stock 2019 1 10 System Oscillator 12MHz Crystal 1 12 Reset 1 13 Programmer Socket Fit C28 and Y3 to use the external...

Page 85: ...The USB socket cannot be used to power the plugin board The board can only be powered using connections to the headers Page 85 Version 1 0 Copyright Grahame Marsh Nick Stock 2019 1 14 USB Socket...

Page 86: ...To conserve space 2mm spaced headers are used instead of the more usual 2 54mm spaced headers Page 86 Version 1 0 Copyright Grahame Marsh Nick Stock 2019 1 15 Header Connectors...

Page 87: ...r Reset circuit 16MHz clock oscillator USB socket and interface Decoupling Page 87 Version 1 0 Copyright Grahame Marsh Nick Stock 2019 This regulator can be used to supply power but care must be taken...

Page 88: ...es This is more or less the programmer used on the Arduino Due and maybe other Arduino versions as well The fi rmware has been completely rewritten and the Arduino version is incompatible with this ha...

Page 89: ...h inter connectors to pass signals and power between the two boards 3 1 SAM3X8C Plug In 3 2 Back up power A super cap or a Li cell provide back up power one or the other is fi tted Page 89 Version 1 0...

Page 90: ...n 3 4 Storage SD Card This is a native SD Card interface and not a slow SPI based one It transfers 4 bits of data per 78 clock cycle the SPI transfers 1 bit and will clock at 50MHz with a Class 10 SD...

Page 91: ...when 79 the clock is switched off and can also be used to pass information between clock faces The required TWI pull up resistors are here Two otherwise unused I O pins power and the TWI bus are brou...

Page 92: ...lished by the switch or the SAM by pulling the gate of Q1 high 3 7 Option Jumpers The fi rmware uses these jumper to con fi gure the clock without having to use any more complex hardware like the SD c...

Page 93: ...ug In Module Socket Optional add ons include a GPS receiver or a WiFi adapter to allow the clock to automatically set the date and time See below Page 93 Version 1 0 Copyright Grahame Marsh Nick Stock...

Page 94: ...nalogue DAC 80 convertor outputs and from pulse width modulated PWM I O pins Four signals in total The DAC output are used to play WAV fi les from the SD card and the PWM output can make a wide www ti...

Page 95: ...to sleep Z4 is an IR receiver and the clock then uses a small IR transmitter handset which can be used to select the clock face to use adjust the audio ampli fi er volume settings etc Finally S2 is a...

Page 96: ...onnected to Channel 0 of the SPI bus The devices used require a 5V supply and signals so two buffers are used to select the SPI channel and act as 3 3V to 5V level shifters The thirty two modules are...

Page 97: ...e underneath the case The outputs from Z10 the 6th module are taken to connectors to the display board In addition to the decoupling capacitor across each module some energy storage is allowed for alo...

Page 98: ...convertor using a custom transformer It is a very robust supply Q2 acts as a level convertor and makes the logic positive a 3 3V input is required to switch the convertor on The circuit around Q3 prov...

Page 99: ...itched on by the SAM3X8C via the buffer level convertor IC10 The convertor has a soft start feature which is con fi gured to take roughly 10 seconds to increase the output voltage from 0V to 6 3V This...

Page 100: ...uses the the same chip inductor and diode The 5V output is passed to a 3 3V low dropout regulator Also note the negative input is connected to two terminals marked chassis earth bond If the fi nal cas...

Page 101: ...ectors These transfer 300V 5V and 6 3V to the display board These transfer the LED module serial data and clock signals and return the LDR resistance to ground Page 101 Version 1 0 Copyright Grahame M...

Page 102: ...reset the tube to zero and one to step the tube by one Therefore eighteen control lines are required which are transferred using the three 2x3 headers Finally the SPI bus is made available for expans...

Page 103: ...T module Serial data is transferred to the SAM3X8C The module can be reset using Q1 Programming the ESP32 is accomplished using the SAM programmer and fi tting the program jumper Page 103 Version 1 0...

Page 104: ...In Serial data as NMEA statements are transferred from the GPS module to the SAM3X8C The use of an external active antenna is selected using R4 R5 and R6 Page 104 Version 1 0 Copyright Grahame Marsh N...

Page 105: ...s step pulse circuit 81 By omitting a few components changing a few and decreasing the step voltage then the same PCB can use the step pulse circuit by Ron Dekker In practice a 82 0R resistor is subst...

Page 106: ...4 6 Bling Data and Clock LDR Connector Page 106 Version 1 0 Copyright Grahame Marsh Nick Stock 2019 4 2 12V Regulator 4 3 30V Regulator 4 4 15V 18V Regulator 4 5 156V Regulator...

Page 107: ...ix LED modules are used just two are shown here The E1T tubes are lit with four apiece and the remaining two are used as colon separators Additional 5V power storage is provided along the 5V PCB trace...

Page 111: ...E1T Tube How 1T Works83 A Miniature CRT In Action Get it Ha ha ha 83 Page 111 Version 1 0 Copyright Grahame Marsh Nick Stock 2019...

Page 112: ...ich has ten stable positions in the tube A small portion of the beam passes through one of the ten holes in the anode and strikes a fl uorescent coating on the inside of the tube envelope so that a ve...

Page 113: ...arranged that the electron beam will be stable only when a certain fraction of it is passing through one of the vertical rectangular slots in g4 The purpose of the horizontal slot will be discussed la...

Page 114: ...ltage of plate x Vx would be as shown in Fig 5 5 a provided that the potential of the other de fl ector plate Vx were kept constant When the potential of x is altered the beam is de fl ected and passe...

Page 115: ...causes a reduction in the potential of x Thus the position a in Fig 5 6 is a very stable one The intersections of the load line with the rising parts of the E1T characteristic are the ten stable beam...

Page 116: ...pid enough and of a suitable amplitude the beam will therefore move to the next stable position to the left of the initial position in Fig 5 6 and a count will have been registered The stabilising mec...

Page 117: ...able height for each peak is essential in high speed counting circuits This subject is more fully discussed in the section of this chapter which deals with the design of an input circuit for 100 kc s...

Page 118: ...t at any intermediate position If the cutoff time is too long however the reset time will be increased and the maximum counting rate will be reduced If the beam is de fl ected too far it will be in an...

Page 119: ...uate margin of safety If an allowance of 33 sec is made for the resetting time the maximum counting rate which can be attained is about 30 000 per second It is found in actual practice that E1T circui...

Page 120: ...E1T Data Sheet Page 120 Version 1 0 Copyright Grahame Marsh Nick Stock 2019...

Page 121: ...Fortress Nuggle for the E1T Writing code for your Fortress Clock Page 121 Version 1 0 Copyright Grahame Marsh Nick Stock 2019...

Page 122: ...rt Fortress E1T Clock speci fi c events are described in section 10 7 Functions Fortress E1T Clock speci fi c function designators are as follows Standard System Functions E1T Syntax E1T tube Returns...

Page 123: ...ommended for this function Flyback Syntax Flyback state Turns the E1T HT supply to state Where state is true 1 or off 0 GPIO Syntax GPIO pin value This sets the state of a GPIO pin to logical 1 if val...

Page 124: ...ously the E1T tubes are limited to displaying the numbers 0 to 9 so any other character in the string Str will turn off the corresponding tube It is recommended to use the space character Only the fi...

Page 125: ...ir If the clock is asleep any stage it wakes up See below for other default functions event_pir If the clock is asleep any stage it wakes up event_sleep The event occurs as the clock wakes up from bei...

Page 126: ...n then use NoDefault or Default to allow the state change or not Obviously if you prevent the clock from waking up then you will need to use a range of Nuggle commands instead It is much easier to pre...

Page 127: ...wake_heateronreq Request to turn on heater PSU 12 awake_heateron Heater PSU turned on heater_on 15 seconds delay 14 awake_ fl ybackonreq Request to turn on fl yback PSU 15 awake_ fl ybackon Flyback PS...

Page 128: ...Nuggle program to take over the display from another without any jitter Default Tick Events The RTC ticks each second and generates an event The value of the system variable arg_tick is set as follow...

Page 129: ...hat the main board is mounted upside down so the LED module numbers running 0 to 5 left to right are actually right to left when viewed Therefore for example LED module 0 in underneath tube 6 Example...

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