Open Source Russian Vacuum Fluorescent Tube Clock 155
ptorrone writes "Hacker extraordinaire Ladyada (whose open source hardware projects we have discussed before) has just published a complete how-to, with design document, on making your own open source Russian vacuum fluorescent clock. The vacuum fluorescent tubes aren't as dangerous as (high-voltage) Nixie tubes, and there seem to be more of them available in the world. If you're not interested in building a clock from scratch, you can also pick up a kit version. All the schematics, source code, and files are available on the project's page."
Re:And this is worth buidling because.. ???? (Score:2, Interesting)
building from old parts (Score:5, Interesting)
A long time ago I redirected my child interest in destroying and rebuilding electronics to tinkering with virtual constructs.
So I shouldn't be interested in "hardware hacking"; however, too many hours of fallout, too many zombie movies and too many post apocaliptic novels have given me a degree of interest in that part of the engineering poetry.
Time to go find an open source rifle made from old car parts.
Cute, but how about this. (Score:5, Interesting)
IMHO this [die-wuestens.de] has more geek points.
Re:And this is worth buidling because.. ???? (Score:5, Interesting)
Here's a gadget that is cool (from a geek point of view), that you can make yourself (provided you have the skills, you should as a geek), that makes other geeks go "ooooooh" in envy and awe, that glows in flurescent blue (that by itself is already enough) and you dismiss it as something you wouldn't want.
Please drop your geek card in the shredder by the door on your way out, will ya?
Re:"Open Source" hardware (Score:3, Interesting)
I have seen (smart) 12 year olds build digital clocks using the relevant TTL/CMOS dividers, with the displays being either LED or Nixie tubes. (The difference between LED or Nixie is in the type of display driver chip.)
However, I wish the authors well. Don't see many people building anything electronic these days, probably because the price of consumer electronics is way lower than the price of just the parts! (IE: DVD player for under $20 is just one common item
Re:Cute, but how about this. (Score:2, Interesting)
IMHO this [die-wuestens.de] has more geek points.
I see your bet, and I raise you one nixie clock built in a bottle [hackaday.com].
Re:Cute, but how about this. (Score:1, Interesting)
Too big? You'll be wanting the CRT pocket watch version then.
http://www.cathodecorner.com/sc60.html
A little crt tube pocket watch 25mm by 75mm by 100mm. Lovely!
The all tube digital clock. (Score:5, Interesting)
That's not retro; it has a CPU in it. Look at this all vacuum tube digital clock [engadget.com] where all the logic is tubes. 103 tubes.