Gemini Two Tube Clock
21
Update #1 (21
st
May 2019)
www.nixology.uk
Using a mobile phone, tablet or laptop, connect to the AP called
‘
TwoTubeClockAP
’
. The Captive Portal should be displayed from where you can
set up the connection to your own WiFi. If the portal does not appear
automatically following connection to the AP then it should be visible at
192.168.4.1, point your browser to that IP address.
After configuration, the WeMos will reboot and connect to your WiFi, if it fails
then the AP will be restarted, and you will need to connect to it and reconfigure
the WiFi connection details.
Tube Testing
You can now attach your chosen tubes to the board for testing.
The connections for the tubes match those used on the PV Electronics QTC
clocks so any PV Electronics Tube Cell mounted tube should work. Tube Cells are
available for other tubes such as Z566M, IN-18, ZIN-18 and Dalibor Farneys
tubes. These tube cells also have provision for ‘Neopixel’ style LED’s (APA106).
Tube Cell connections are arranged as follows:
(Viewed from above)
Tubes can be attached in a variety of ways. If your Tube Cells have female
socket headers then these could be attached directly to the board for testing.
Take care to orient the connectors so that the Anode on the Main PCB connects
to the Anode on the Tube Cell.
When mounting tubes remotely you may elect to put male header pins on the
tube cells and use female sockets at each end of the ribbon cable, or use Female
headers on the Tube Cells and have a male header at one end of the ribbon
cable and a female header at the other (to connect to the PCB).
You may find when using Female headers on the tube cells with matching Male
connectors on the ribbon cable that the housing of the Male connector clashes
with the mounting hole on the tube cell, it depends on the style of Female
Header selected.
PIR Connection
The board and software have provision for the connection of a PIR or other
motion sensing device. A regular PIR connects to 5V, GND and Data. Once
activated, the clock will remain on for a period of 5 minutes during daytime and
1 minute during night-time after which it will go off until re-activated.
The clock has been tested with the following types commonly available of PIR:
