What is the Fortress? It’s the culmination of an awful lot of work by two like-minded individuals
who like to tinker with vintage display technologies and turn them into functional and unusual
time-pieces. This clock is somewhat unique in many respects. It is, to our knowledge, the only
‘commercial’ E1T clock deliberately offered for sale
ever
. Others have offered PCBs etc, but this is
the
whole enchilada
and as such is a rarity to be treasured and enjoyed. Fortress is a
combination of old-skool technology married with a very modern micro-controller and 21
st
century case construction and aesthetics. It offers lots of customisation options, such as different
‘faces’ , light-guided LED colours, chimes, GPS or WiFi disciplined timekeeping and is also
open
design and open source
in its publication philosophy to boot!
What’s Included in the Box?
If you purchased a complete clock, then you’ll be receiving the following in the box:
•
A Fortress E1T clock, replete with the case of your choosing , 6 tested E1T tubes and
either a GPS or WiFi module (both come with external antennae, depending on your order)
•
A pre-built 5A power supply and IEC mains cable.
•
A custom programmer used to update firmware and act as a serial console connection.
•
An Infrared remote
What is an E1T Tube?
The plethora of methods developed during the late
1940’s to the 1970’s for displaying/counting numerical
information were numerous and varied. These included
incandescent displays (e.g. edge lit displays such as
those from Non-Linear Systems ), neon gas based
displays such as Nixie tubes and Dekatrons , vacuum
fluorescent displays (VFDs), light-emitting diodes
(LEDs) and liquid crystal displays (LCDs). Some of
these possess a
certain charm
, such as nixie tubes and
Dekatrons with their warm
orange
, neon derived, glow
whilst others
not so much
. What makes the E1T (or
S10S1, the East German Clone) stand out from these
technologies is that it represents the adaptation of
Throughout this document, you will note the use of hyperlinks which both lead you to external references as well as internal bookmarks.
Stay tuned for more!
However, you can purchase
just the PCBs
if you wish….see, how’s that for being flexible!
😀
And a whole programming language (Nuggle) so you can design your own colourful displays!
Currently, we can offer the case in any colour of acrylic, but the standard is a clear laser cut case, or for a little extra, a glass effect finish with
a professional welded case top. At the time of writing a premium, special edition brushed-anodised aluminium version is in preparation.
We can currently offer NOS tubes, tubes of unknown usage but look NOS with the same functionality or tubes that have some visible signs
of wear but still function well. These are now rare as hens-teeth, but occasionally appear on eBay and the like.
If readily available to us for your part of the world……
https://stevenjohnson.com/nls/index.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixie_tube
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dekatron
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_fluorescent_display
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-emitting_diode
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid-crystal_display
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder….
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Содержание An E1T Timepiece
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Страница 120: ...E1T Data Sheet Page 120 Version 1 0 Copyright Grahame Marsh Nick Stock 2019...