Nixie Clock SixNix Assembly Instructions And User Manual Download

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Nixie Tube Clock ‘SixNix’

Issue 5 (14 August 2012)

www.pvelectronics.co.uk

- 1 -

Assembly Instructions

And

User Guide

Nixie Clock Type

‘SixNix’

Summary of Contents for SixNix

Page 1: ...Nixie Tube Clock SixNix Issue 5 14 August 2012 www pvelectronics co uk 1 Assembly Instructions And User Guide Nixie Clock Type SixNix ...

Page 2: ... www pvelectronics co uk 2 REVISION HISTORY Issue Number Date Reason for Issue 5 14 July 2012 New Board Issue 19 July 12 4 1 Jan 2012 Added new fuse type 3 6 Sept 11 Added dimensioned drawing 2 5 Sept 11 Errors corrected 1 20 July 2011 New document ...

Page 3: ...Alarm with programmable snooze period Programmable date display each minute Attractive LED tube lighting Uses a Quartz Crystal Oscillator as the timebase Optional DCF WWVB MSF GPS synchronisation with status indicator LED Supercapacitor backup Keeps time during short power outages Simple time setting using two buttons Programmable leading zero blanking Five programmable neon colon settings Flashin...

Page 4: ...before proceeding The voltages generated by this circuit can give a potentially LETHAL ELECTRIC SHOCK DISCLAIMER This product is supplied as a kit of parts intended only for suitably qualified electronic engineers who are suitably qualified and experienced in electronics assembly and are familiar with safe procedures for working with high voltages The supplier his agents or associates accept no li...

Page 5: ...e useful if you accidentally create solder bridges between adjacent solder joints 2 3 Other items you will need The clock kit does not include a power adapter This is because the kit is sold to many countries around the world each with very different household mains outlet socket types It is more efficient for the user to buy a suitable adapter locally This saves shipping a heavy adapter with the ...

Page 6: ...amic Transistors Q1 IRFD220 MOSFET Q2 Q10 MPSA42 NPN Q11 Q16 MPSA92 NPN Q17 MPSA42 NPN Diodes D1 D3 1N5819 D4 UF4004 D5 5mm Yellow LED D6 D8 1N4148 D9 D14 3mm Blue LED D15 5 mm Green LED Integrated Circuits IC1 7805 5V voltage regulator IC2 PIC16Fxxxx 8 bit microcontroller IC3 74141 K155ID1 Nixie driver Miscellaneous L1 100uH Radial Inductor AM PM 4mm wire ended neon lamp SET ADJ ALARM Miniature p...

Page 7: ...1 3mm Blue LED 6 Integrated Circuits 7805 5V voltage regulator 1 PIC16Fxxxx 8 bit microcontroller 1 74141 K155ID1 Nixie driver 1 Miscellaneous 100uH Radial inductor 1 4mm wire ended neon lamp 2 Miniature push button 3 28 Way IC socket for IC3 1 16 Way IC socket for IC2 1 3 5mm Jack socket 1 2 1mm PCB power socket 1 Piezo sounder 1 500mA fuse 1 6 cm clear insulation 1 32 768KHz watch crystal 1 It i...

Page 8: ...e metal film They are marked with 4 coloured bands to identify the value However it is sometimes unclear in which direction the bands should be read Therefore we recommend that the resistors be identified with a multimeter The fuse is a self resetting type and can be confused for a resistor This is what it looks like ...

Page 9: ...ower components J1 FUSE D1 D3 1N5819 U1 7805 C1 470 µF C2 100 nF Start by installing D1 D3 Align the white band on the components with the band marked on the PCB Continue to mount C1 C2 J1 U1 and FUSE Note that C1 is polarised The longer lead goes in the hole marked The PCB should now look like the picture below ...

Page 10: ...shown below Plug in the power supply and then test using a DC voltmeter Touch the black probe on the GND test point and the red probe on the 5V test point The voltage should measure between 5 1 and 5 3 Volts If not disconnect power and check your work Do not proceed with the assembly until the error is corrected Once the test is completed disconnect the power ...

Page 11: ...the PCB at the IC2 position ensuring that the notch at one end is aligned with the corresponding marking on the PCB Resistors R1 R3 indeed all the resistors on the board need to be mounted upright to save space The leads need to be formed as shown below Bend the leads of each resistor as shown and solder into the correct postion making sure the component body is as close to the board as possible A...

Page 12: ... up the PCB and using the GND and 170V test points measure the high voltage generated It should be between 167 and 173V Disconnect the power supply Finally remove IC2 from its socket and replace on its static protective foam It is best kept safe until needed for the tube tests later in the assembly If you do not get this voltage disconnect the power supply and check your work carefully Do not proc...

Page 13: ...IC3 Align the notch on the IC socket with the corresponding PCB mark See below 4 6 R11 R24 4 7 KΩ R25 R32 390 KΩ 4 7 X1 32 768 KHz Crystal C4 15pF C5 33pF Do not solder the body of the crystal to the PCB just lay it over the large rectangular pad 4 8 R4 R5 R8 4 7 KΩ R6 R7 560 Ω R9 R10 560 Ω ...

Page 14: ... is vital that it is placed in the correct orientation See below There are arrows on the component that need to be pointing the same way as the arrows on the PCB 4 10 D6 D8 1N4148 GPS RFT 3 5mm Jack socket To solder the GPS RFT connector First wet one pad on the PCB with solder Then place the connector in position and re touch the pad with the soldering iron This will anchor the component and then...

Page 15: ...4 August 2012 www pvelectronics co uk 15 4 11 Q2 Q10 Q17 All MPSA42 After placement of these 10 transistors the board should look like this 4 12 Q11 Q16 All MPSA92 After placement of these 6 transistors the board should look like this ...

Page 16: ...ying the anode lead at the back of the tube It has a white coating where it enters the glass Then working around the tube cut each sucessive lead approx 2mm shorter than the previous one This will allow you to feed each lead in in turn IMPORTANT If you will be installing the LED tube lights now is the time to slip off the plastic spacer and drill a 4mm hole in the middle of the spacer to let the l...

Page 17: ...e PCB The tube should count repeatedly from 0 to 9 This tube test routine allows you to check each tube as it is placed and if there are any tube or PCB shorts this will expose them as they happen Because is is a multiplex design any shorts between cathodes even an internal tube defect will show on ALL TUBES So it would be very hard to diagnose a short after placing all tubes Be sure to test each ...

Page 18: ... PM The 2 neons can now be mounted at a suitable height Use small lengths of the clear insulation supplied on the leads to prevent shorts 6 3 LS1 Piezo Sounder There are two sets of holes for this component as two different types may be supplied depending on component availability 6 4 D5 5mm Yellow LED D15 5mm Green LED Mount as shown below if you are using one of our cases Ensure the longer lead ...

Page 19: ...d is on the top This is important as the leads will be trimmed to the same length so you need to be sure that you have the correct longer lead in the hole Now bend again appropriate to the spacing between the pads for the LED and the hole for the LED Cut the leads to the same length The six LEDs may now be installed Insert and solder on the COMPONENT side Take care that the LED leads are well clea...

Page 20: ...ing the button a further 2 seconds until the clock displays in this format 00 XX 99 The 99 in the seconds digits tells you that you are in the configuration menu In configuration mode the hours digits diplay the current parameter being adjusted and the minutes digits display the current value stored against the parameter For each parameter and referring to the table below scroll through the range ...

Page 21: ... minutes 10 Colon neons mode 0 AM PM Indication flashing 1 AM PM Indication illuminated 2 Both flash default 3 Both illuminated 4 Both off 11 Colon neons during night dimmed mode 2 0 AM PM Indication flashing 1 AM PM Indication illuminated 2 Both flash 3 Both illuminated default 4 Both off 12 Radio time signal source 0 No Radio Time source default 3 1 DCF 2 WWVB 3 MSF 4 GPS 13 GPS Baud rate 0 4 8 ...

Page 22: ...me for prescribed period 2 Night time neons mode is active when night mode is set to dim During night time blanking the tubes AND neons are disabled 3 Clock is fully functional without WWVB DCF MSF GPS synchronisation Set time manually 4 Enter your time zone offset from the synchronisation source Note that WWVB transmits UTC 5 Set this to 1 to disable Auto DST adjust on WWVB Sync eg Arizona does n...

Page 23: ...y Auto Date Display Setting parameter 18 to 1 will enable auto display of date between 50 and 55 seconds past each minute Night Blanking Override During programmed night blanking the blanking may be overridden to see the time by briefly pressing the SET button Tubes will remain lit for the period defined in parameter 8 Manual RFT Call In DCF WWVB MSF modes pressing ADJ briefly during time display ...

Page 24: ...hronisation source This is usually only whole hours Examples o Eastern USA is 5 hours offset from UTC transmitted by the WWVB transmitter o UK is 1 hour offset from the time transmitted by the DCF transmitter o France has no offset from the time transmitted by the DCF transmitter Set parameter 16 to identify whether the offset is minus 0 or positive 1 of the time source If using WWVB source and yo...

Page 25: ...WVB Module For receiving time signals from the transmitter at Colorado USA Reception possible throughout the 48 contiguous states of the USA and much of Canada Please note 1 The long wave signals propagate further at night so the clock is configured by default to synchronize at 2am 2 Suitable Power Supplies If using a switching power supply it must have an earth connection Cheap Chinese switching ...

Page 26: ...flash regularly showing the one pulse per second data from the transmitter If your Module s red LED does not start to flash regularly go back and check 1 6 of this section If the red LED does not flash regularly you will not get synchronisation 7 At the start of the minute the clock should start collecting data and if so it will start flashing the green LED rapidly Look for any LED activity at the...

Page 27: ...ng a GPS receiver The clock accepts input directly from our GPS Sync Time Receiver Module The GPS Sync module outputs data at 4 800 bps in a RS232 format Connection to the clock is made with a 3 5mm male male cable Cables are available with lengths of 1 2m 4 ft 3 0m 10 ft and 6 0m 20 ft ...

Page 28: ...nchronisation was between 2 hours and 24 hours ago and off if the last synchronisation is older than 24 hours Whilst seeking DCF WWVB or MSF the LED will flash very briefly once per second Additionally the indicator will flash rapidly whilst the clock is actually receiving and processing a valid time frame The function of the RFT indicator LED may be summarised in the table below Radio Time Source...

Page 29: ...Nixie Tube Clock SixNix Issue 5 14 August 2012 www pvelectronics co uk 29 10 CIRCUIT DIAGRAM ...

Page 30: ...Nixie Tube Clock SixNix Issue 5 14 August 2012 www pvelectronics co uk 30 ...

Page 31: ...Nixie Tube Clock SixNix Issue 5 14 August 2012 www pvelectronics co uk 31 10 DIMENSIONED DRAWING ...

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