What is included and what is not

NCV2.1-18 is the nixie clock kit without the enclosure. The kit contains all required electronic parts, both PCBs and 72x gold-plated "Digi-Key" receptacles for tube's pins as well as preprogrammed PICmicro microcontroller. Mechanical assembly parts are included as well.

The IN-18 nixie tubes and column separator bulbs are not included.

Board is not assembled and is provided as a kit.

Enclosure is not included. Compatible enclosure may be obtained from NUMINEX. I'm not affiliated with this company, so contact them for availablity and pricing.

Wall-cube power supply and GPS receiver are not included. You can get them in your local store. GPS receiver is optional, clock is fully functional without it.

User's guide is downloadable following the link on the bottom of this page. In order to lower shipping expenses, hardcopy of this guide is not included along with the kit.

The clock is professionally designed using the cutting-edge tools and technologies. PCBs are routed in consideration with termal dissipation, shortest paths, signal interference and shielding. The best FR4 material is used. All electronic parts are the best quality and comes from the famous producers such as: Philips, Microchip, Texas Instruments, STM, Maxim-Dallas, International-Rectifier, Yageo, Jauch, Maxell, Tokin, Bourns, ACP, Jamicon and others.

The clock's firmware is driven by operating system and is able to work in multitasking mode. Several industrial protocols are involved and dozens of tasks and algorithms are coded. It is quite complex and contains many thousands of code lines. It is programmed so that all settings and tube's lifetime counter values are stored in the battery back upped memory and are kept safely during the power outage. Moreover, time and date are still counted when the clock has no power. An absolute accuracy may be achieved using GPS synchronization. Clock is fully functional without a GPS receiver.

Current version of firmware: v1.3.

Technical data

Software

• Time display

  • 12-hour mode

  • 24-hour mode

  • AM/PM indication

  • Programmable leading zero suppression

  • Programmable DST correction (custom rules for various countries including new rules for USA and Canada introduced in 2007)

• Date display

  • DD/MM/YY mode

  • MM/DD/YY mode

  • Leap year correction

• Programmable column separators

• Programmable tubes shut-down during night time

• Crossfading with selectable deep

• Three visual effects

• Selectable refresh rate of tubes

• Tube's lifetime counter (16-bit)

• GPS time and date synchronization

• Selectable time-zone

• Cathode poisoning prevention

Hardware

• Sandwich design ensures optimal occupied space and shape

• Through hole components for easy assembling

• Microchip PIC16F876A main controller

• Real Time Clock with battery back-up (CR2032 Lithium battery)

• Tube's drive mode: 3x2 multiplex

• High voltage power supply with PWM control and software shut-down

• RS232 levels serial input

• 2 pushbuttons

• Power supply: 9-12V @ 500-1000mA DC; 5.5/2.1mm jack with positive inner

• Incorrect polarity and current over-consumption protections

• High precision (10ppm) timebase XTAL

Download:

User's guide

IN-18 Datasheet

Video clip of running clock (divx codec is required)