Taylor Electronics Services
www.tayloredge.com
C 2009
Specifications: 1381/1383 Clock Timer Controller
Rev 2010/05/16
Fig 1: 1383 Horizontal timer module
The TES 1381/1383 timer controller modules provide a simple way to extend the operating
life for battery powered nixie clocks based on the SmartNixie family while providing an entertaining
hands free display capability. A very low power micro-processor on these modules supports three
modes of operation:
1. Pressing an enable button immediately powers a connected clock to display the time.
2. The processor counts time to operate the clock at various specific intervals.
3. The connected clock can be set to display continuously.
When a connected clock is powered on, the timer module acts as an I
2
C slave on the clock
communication bus to which the clock master, the 10s of hours module, updates along with the
other display modules the current time. When the timer module prepares to power down the clock,
it uses the last updated time information to compute the delay until the next display interval. The
timer counts down this delay using a very low power oscillator... current consumption of the entire
timer module in this "Waiting" mode is less than 50uA at 9V input.
Since the maximum time between wakeups is no more than one hour (The maximum interval
in the automatic display mode), the accuracy of the timer clock only has to be trimmed close enough
so as to not loose more than 1/2 second per hour.
A SmartNixie RTC is used to count the real-time displayed on the clock and so it is trimmed
for long term accuracy. The RTC has its own battery to maintain the correct time which is charged
when ever the clock is turned on... So long as the time is displayed periodically, the RTC battery
will remain charged indefinitely since this battery charges much-much faster than it discharges.
Introduction
