About Timers

This page contains an archive of all entries posted to Gadget Freak in the Timers category. They are listed from oldest to newest.

Test and measurement is the previous category.

Voltage regulators is the next category.

Many more can be found on the main index page or by looking through the archives.

Sign up for the fortnightly Circuits eNewsletter. Get design ideas and circuit schematics straight to your email inbox, no fuss. Just tick the option for Circuits.

RSS Subscribe to this blog's feed
[What is this?]

Archives

Main

Timers Archives

August 2, 2007

Custom built Pong watch makes time fly

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

Continue reading "Custom built Pong watch makes time fly" »

July 21, 2008

Hans' Nixie clock takes a step back in time

GF July 2008 - row of clocks 2.jpgBack 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.

Continue reading "Hans' Nixie clock takes a step back in time" »

August 15, 2008

Peter's F1 gantry start-lights race into position

gf aug 08 lights and board.jpg
Peter Griffiths - the man who turned a lamp into a work of art - moves into pole position with the featured Gadget Freak for August.

Based around LED cluster modules and a microcontroller, the circuit drives F1-style gantry race start lights.

Who wouldn't want to be the race controller, with their finger on the starting switch?

Fully documented in terms of parts and the build process, Peter has provided loads of photos to help navigate construction. And for those of you who don't have access to PCB making facilities, there are photos of building the project on stripboard.

Continue reading "Peter's F1 gantry start-lights race into position" »