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Nixie Tube Clock ‘Nixie 5750’ 

 

Issue 1 (5 July 2020)

 

 

www.pvelectronics.co.uk

 

- 1 -

 

Assembly Instructions 

And  

User Guide 

 

Nixie Clock Type  

‘Nixie 5750 

For Parts Bag Serial  

Numbers from 000 onwards

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 

 

Summary of Contents for Nixie 5750

Page 1: ...Nixie Tube Clock Nixie 5750 Issue 1 5 July 2020 www pvelectronics co uk 1 Assembly Instructions And User Guide Nixie Clock Type Nixie 5750 For Parts Bag Serial Numbers from 000 onwards ...

Page 2: ...Nixie Tube Clock Nixie 5750 Issue 1 5 July 2020 www pvelectronics co uk 2 REVISION HISTORY Issue Number Date Reason for Issue Issue 1 5 July 2020 New document ...

Page 3: ...ds can be reset to zero to precisely the set time Programmable night mode blanked or dimmed display to save tubes or prevent sleep disturbance Rear Indicator LEDs dim at night to prevent sleep disturbance Weekday aware Master Blank function to turn off tubes and LEDs on weekends or during working hours Separate modes for colon neons during night mode Standard fading or crossfading with scrollback ...

Page 4: ...ics co uk 4 1 2 Tubes Supported There are many types of tube this kit will drive all have the same pinout The commonest types are as follows B 5750 B 5870 5853S GR 116D ZM1330 ZM1332 Digit height is generally 13mm for all these tubes A typical tube is shown below ...

Page 5: ...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 liability for any damage injury o...

Page 6: ...nk the heat shrink tubing over the neon lamp wires 2 2 Materials you will need Solder lead tin solder is highly recommended USE LEAD TIN SOLDER Lead free solder as now required to be used in commercial products in Europe has a much higher melting point and can be very hard to work with Desoldering wick braid can be useful if you accidentally create solder bridges between adjacent solder joints Bla...

Page 7: ...c C8 0 1F or 0 22F C9 100nF Ceramic Transistors Q1 IRFD220 MOSFET Q2 Q4 EL817 Optocoupler Q5 Q9 MPSA42 Diodes D1 D3 1N5819 D4 1N4148 D5 UF4004 D6 5mm Yellow LED D7 5mm Green LED D8 5mm Yellow LED RGB1 RGB6 APA106 RGB LED Integrated Circuits IC1 LM2576 5V voltage regulator IC2 PIC16F1938 8 bit microcontroller IC3 HV5812 pre soldered Miscellaneous L1 L2 100uH inductor AM1 AM2 PM1 PM2 4mm wire ended ...

Page 8: ...Nixie Tube Clock Nixie 5750 Issue 1 5 July 2020 www pvelectronics co uk 8 Tube test Socket 30cm Tube Test Cable J2 10 Way 0 1 Female socket strip J3 10 Way 0 1 Male strip ...

Page 9: ...5 EL817 Optocoupler 3 Diodes 1N5819 3 UF4004 fast recovery diode 1 1N4148 1 5mm Green LED 1 5mm Yellow LED 2 APA106 RGB LED 6 Integrated Circuits LM2576 5V voltage regulator 1 PIC16F1938 8 bit microcontroller 1 HV5812 pre soldered 1 Miscellaneous 100uH inductor 2 4mm wire ended neon lamp 4 Miniature push button 4 28 way narrow IC Socket for IC2 1 2 1mm PCB power socket 1 Surface mount 3 5mm jack s...

Page 10: ...lear in which direction the bands should be read Therefore we recommend that the resistors be identified with a multimeter Please note the fuse will look like the picture below It can easily be confused for a capacitor It is a self resetting fuse The 15pF and 33pF capacitors will be marked 15 and 33 respectively The 100nF capacitors will be marked 104 Q1 IRFD220 is in a very similar package to Q2 ...

Page 11: ...DEVELOPMENT AND IMPROVEMENTS YOUR PCB MAY NOT LOOK EXACTLY LIKE THE ONE PICTURED 4 1 Low Voltage Power components J1 FUSE D1 D3 1N5819 D4 1N4148 IC1 LM2576 L2 100uH Inductor C1 C2 220uF Start by installing D1 D4 The diodes are also polarized the band on the part must match the band marked on the white PCB marking ...

Page 12: ...rge and easy to solder Start by wetting one pad with solder Then place the part in position and heat the lead so the solder below it melts and anchors the part The four other leads can then be soldered Do not solder the heatsink tab C1 and C2 are polarized The Positive lead is the longest and goes in the pad marked ...

Page 13: ... 2 Testing Low Voltage Power Supply Identify the test GND 5V and HV test points as 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 6 and 5 9 Volts If not disconnect power and check your work Do not proceed with the assembly until the error is corrected Onc...

Page 14: ...omponents Socket for IC2 R1 R4 4 7 KΩ R5 390 KΩ C3 1uF C4 220uF Q1 IRFD220 L2 100uH Inductor D5 UF4004 Solder the 5 resistors and the diode first as they are lower profile its easier to solder the top pad rather than the bottom pad This prevents the component falling out as you try to solder an inverted PCB L2 is a tight fit so push it in hard so that it is as close to the PCBas possible preventin...

Page 15: ...re that the notched end of the IC socket is at the end shown However if you find you soldered it with the wrong orientation do not try to remove it It is perfectly fine with the notch at the wrong end just be sure to place the IC in the socket with the IC s notch in the correct position C3 and C4 are polarized The Positive lead is the longest and goes in the pad marked ...

Page 16: ...ND and HV test points measure the high voltage generated using a voltmeter on DC setting It should be between 164 and 176 Volts If this is in order disconnect the power supply If you do not get this voltage do not proceed Refer to the troubleshooting section on page 46 IF YOU CHOOSE TO PROCEED BEYOND THIS POINT WITHOUT GETTING THE CORRECT VOLTAGE WE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO OFFER SUPPORT 4 5 C5 15pF C6...

Page 17: ... Cables Take the 30cm of cable and cut it in half then strip 2mm insulation from each end and tin the exposed strands To one end of one cable solder the very small socket receptacle Solder the other end of this lead to the ANODE pad as shown below And solder one end of the other lead to the CATHODES pad ...

Page 18: ...ts on all tubes removing a bad tube is a fiddly job First of all we suggest to clip off the outer two leads as they are just for decimal points which are not used in this kit First identify the anode on the tube We are showing GR116D tubes but all tubes compatible with this kit have the same anode location It is quite simple the anode is the front left pin of the tube ...

Page 19: ...e socket on onto the anode lead Now remembering that the board generates 170V power up the PCB and use the bare end of the cathode wire to touch up against each of the cathode wires in turn and check that all digits light Once the tube tests have been completed you can desolder the 2 test wires from the main PCB ...

Page 20: ...2 10 Way female socket strip J3 10 Way male header These are the parts you will need for this step Start by screwing the 11mm hex spacers to each corner of the main PCB Now push the male and female connectors together and insert the FEMALE side into the J2 position on the main PCB ...

Page 21: ...e soldered IC facing upwards ensuring the 10 pins are engaged in the 10 holes Screw in place You can now solder all 20 pads in the knowledge that everything is perfectly alighned After soldering remove all the screws and hex spacers and keep them safe for later Now split the 2 PCBs it is time to work on the upper tube PCB ...

Page 22: ...w pvelectronics co uk 22 5 UPPER PCB COMPONENTS 5 1 Q2 Q3 Q4 EL817 Be sure to place with the dot on the part at the same location as the white dot marking on the PCB 5 2 R12 R13 R14 1 KΩ 5 3 R15 R20 4 7 KΩ R21 300 KΩ R22 390 KΩ C9 100nF but marked 104 ...

Page 23: ... that the bad tube will magically fix itself at the end If your tubes have the extra outer 2 leads for decimal points they must be snipped off leaving 2 rows of 6 wires Insert the tube facing forwards From the underside bend the 2 diagonally opposite wires outwards to hold the tube in place See the picture below Now solder those 2 pins in place to secure the tube From above check the alighnment an...

Page 24: ...he 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 in to the correct postion making sure the component body is as close to the board as possible Mount them all in the same direction so that there is no possibility of contact between adjacent resistors ...

Page 25: ... pad Then place the socket over the pad and re heat the pad to wet the solder and anchor the part The remaining pads can then be soldered 7 5 SET ADJ DST ALARM Push button switch Only solder the two pins closest to the board edge The other two pins are the frame and are not electrically connected By only soldering the two active pads if you make a mistake it is much easier to remove or re position...

Page 26: ...lectronics co uk 26 7 6 D6 5mm yellow LED D7 5mm green LED D8 5mm yellow LED First bend the leads of the LEDs as shown below paying attention to the longer lead being on the left hand side Then solder in place with the body of the LED just touching the PCB ...

Page 27: ...plemented see the configuration setup later in the manual Cut the clear heat shrink tubing into 8 lengths four of 30mm and four of 20mm but make a test fit first as the lengths may be different dependiing on the tubes you have Slip the insulation over the neon lamp leads and with a hot air gun shrink the tubing Finally solder the neons in place on the PCB with the taller neons at the back ...

Page 28: ...to use RGB tube lighting at all in which case simply don t solder the RGB LEDs If you wish to RGB backlight the tubes this is the best method First coat each LED with black nail varnish Use a thick coating but not so much that it drips Leave each LED to dry for 24 hours You can use the black foam square as a jig to hold the LEDs as you paint them Once dry scrape a thin band off using a sharp knife...

Page 29: ...ndicates the orientation of the longer of the 2 leads Only 3 leads per LED are soldered As you did with the tubes test each LED at a time before progressing to the next one Each LED should cycle through a variety of colours including off If you don t get this cycling stop and check for solder shorts between adjacent RGB solder pads ...

Page 30: ... Tube Clock Nixie 5750 Issue 1 5 July 2020 www pvelectronics co uk 30 8 FINAL ASSEMBLY 8 1 Using the hardware supplied screw the 2 halves of the PCB together ensuring the 10 way connectors are properly mated ...

Page 31: ...ration is stored even after powering off the clock for extended periods To access the configuration mode press and hold the SET button After 2 seconds the seconds will become highlighted Continue holding 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...

Page 32: ...ll revert the clock back to time display mode The first parameter 0 cannot be changed as it is the software revision number It will show for several seconds and then move to parameter 1 In all correspondence on support issues please quote the board type revision date and software version ...

Page 33: ...ication left right 2 AM PM Indication left right flashing 3 AM PM Indication top bottom 4 AM PM Indication top bottom flashing 5 All slow flashing 6 Slow flashing left right 7 All flashing 8 Both illuminated 9 Railroad fast 10 Railroad slow 11 Colon neons during night dimmed mode 2 As per parameter 10 12 Radio time signal source3 0 to 3 reserved 4 GPS 5 XTERNA 13 GPS Baud rate 0 4 8 Kbps 1 9 6 Kbp...

Page 34: ...Mode to show time for prescribed period 8 Set this parameter to 1 to restore factory configuration settings Internal operations will then load all the original settings and restore the value to 0 1 Slots every minute 2 Slots every 10 minutes default 3 Slots every hour 4 Slots at midnight 23 Dekatron Sync Sleep Mode 0 Dekatron always on 1 Dekatron off when night dimmed Dekatron off when tubes maste...

Page 35: ...utton to set the hours Proceed in this fashion to set the calendar Year Month and Day Finally briefly Press SET again to revert to normal clock operation Showing Date From time display mode briefly press SET button Date will be shown for 5 seconds then revert to time display Auto Date Display Setting parameter 27 to 1 or 2 will enable auto display of date between 50 and 55 seconds past each minute...

Page 36: ...p To force a Cold Start do the following Toggle the DST LED on by pressing the DST button if necessary From time display press ALARM once Press ADJ once to illuminate the ALARM LED Immediately disconnect power The power sensing sleep routine is not called from within the Alarm setup so the clock will drain the supercapacitor via the DST and ALARM LEDs Wait 2 3 minutes until the LEDs are fully off ...

Page 37: ...time Supplied as a complete hobby kit of parts For shipping reasons batteries are not included the kit takes approx 30 40 minutes to comfortably assemble The TCXO IC is pre soldered so there is no fiddly SMD soldering to worry about Naturally XTERNA is sealed against rain ingress Battery life is estimated between 6 to 12 months We recommend high quality branded batteries for the longest operation ...

Page 38: ...perature will not be displayed until after the first synchronisation Set Celsius or Fahrenheit using parameter 29 Fahrenheit 1 Celsius 2 Temperature is displayed between 30 and 35 seconds past each minute Celsius is displayed with 0 5 C resolution Fahrenheit is displayed with 1 F resolution Positive and negative temperature is indicated by the left hand neons Neon indicator PM2 acts as a decimal p...

Page 39: ... sequentially and finally exiting back to time display Please see the table below Stats Menu Item Description Range of Values Example 1 Minimum Temperature in last 24 hours 40 C to 60 C 40 F to 140 F 2 Maximum Temperature in last 24 hours 40 C to 60 C 40 F to 140 F 3 Voltage of XTERNA Battery 2 5V to 5 0V 4 Time required for last GPS fix loaded into the TCXO 0 to 98 sec 99 no fix at last attempt 5...

Page 40: ...olour cycling effect at your choice of speed 10 1 Entering RGB LED menu Press and hold the DST button until the display shows 00 0 00 NX3 will not be lit For each hour 0 23 you can set a custom colour Each custom colour can have your choice of RED GREEN and BLUE values from 0 colour off to 8 maximum brightness Mix the colours using the ALARM ADJ SET buttons Use low values 1 2 and 3 for low brightn...

Page 41: ...velectronics co uk 41 Colours are displayed live during RGB menu In the example above between 11 and 12 hours the LEDs will be purple 8 red 0 green 8 blue In the example below between 19 and 20 hours the LEDs will be Orange green 8 red 5 green and 0 blue ...

Page 42: ...ed hour The speed of the cycling will then be governed by the GREEN value 0 very slow change 9 very fast change This auto colour cycling mode is explained in the picture below Red 9 therefore Auto Colour Cycling is enabled for 12 13 hours Green 3 so speed is 3 Blue value has no effect Note The colours do not cycle live during Auto Colour Cycling setup The cycling starts only during normal time and...

Page 43: ...ence 11 1 Configuring for GPS Synchronisation Set parameter 12 to value 4 Set the baud rate in parameter 13 Set parameters 14 and 15 for the hours and minutes your time zone is offset from UTC Time This is usually only whole hours Set parameter 16 to identify whether the offset is minus 0 or positive 1 of the time source The Green 5mm LED will light when the clock has received a recent GPS WiFi or...

Page 44: ...44 12 CONNECTING OUR DEKATRON DRIVER The clock can be connected by just 3 wires to our DekaDuo Dual OG4 Dekatron Driver Please refer to the separate DekaDuo instructions for full details on how to do this Control of the Dekatron in night modes is possible using parameter 23 ...

Page 45: ...Nixie Tube Clock Nixie 5750 Issue 1 5 July 2020 www pvelectronics co uk 45 ...

Page 46: ...with IC2 out of its socket 5V test Point Should be 5 6V HV test point Should be approx 12V IC2 Socket Pin 1 Should be 5 6V IC2 Socket Pin 2 Should be 0 14V IC2 Socket Pin 24 Should be 0V IC2 Socket Pin 20 Should be 5 2V If pin 2 is not to spec check the feedback resistors R2 and R3 are correct and correctly soldered If pin 20 is not to spec check why the PIC is not getting power via D3 Orientation...

Page 47: ...Nixie Tube Clock Nixie 5750 Issue 1 5 July 2020 www pvelectronics co uk 47 14 CIRCUIT DIAGRAM ...

Page 48: ...Nixie Tube Clock Nixie 5750 Issue 1 5 July 2020 www pvelectronics co uk 48 ...

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