Gadget Freak

Time goes by so slowly for electrical engineers without this very cool custom made Pong watch.

Back in the days of the Berlin Wall, these Nixie tubes were manufactured by a now long-forgotten company. Fast forward to the twenty-first century, and Hans Summers found them stocked by an antique electronics part company.

Originally painted red, the coating from the 4-inch high tubes were painstakingly removed using a craft knife. Using a plain matrix board and wire connections, Hans built the circuit on three boards.

The first holds the rectifier, divide by 50 circuit, seconds counters and seconds driver transistors. The second and third boards hold the counters and drivers for the minutes and hours digit pairs. Now your tribute to East Germany is sure to get past Checkpoint Charlie.

You can read the full details of the project, including a data sheet for the Z568M and details of the construction, on Hans' website.

The Nixie tube

Hans used the Z568M, which is 4-inches high (100mm) and has a digit height of 2 inches (50mm). It is therefore truly a giant amongst nixie tubes, he says, presumably intended for railway clock applications and so on.