Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Full review here: http://www.tubeclockdb.com/

It also functions as a clock featuring both 12 and 24 hour modes.  Once per minute, instead of displaying a word, it shows the time in HHMM format.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Featured:

• Jeff Thomas / Nixichron Nixie Clock
• Jon Ellis / Nimimini Numitron Clock
• Konstantin Bodrenkov / IV-11 clock VFD Clock

Click here to view the embedded video.

by Kosbo.com

$Price Unknown / request only

I just found this clock while doing a Google Image search for something completely unrelated.  It appears to be by eBay seller Sparkeltube.  It is a 6 discrete digit VFD based clock.  It has two alarm and a built in buzzer.  But let’s face it – you’re buying this for the display   I love this thing – I want one!

More photos and website description after the jump

FTA

• Unique and new VFD Clock on the market !
• Fully assembled and tested VFD Clock
• Six BIG 20mm high digits (IV-11 VFD Tubes)
• Displays Time , Date and 2 Alarm clock sets
• Accurate & calibrated time clock source from internal crystal
• Integrated 2 Alarm Clocks
• Easy control with only 2 buttons
• Uses standard 12V wall plug Power Supply
• Precision Seconds setup
• Internal buzzer for Alarm1 and Alarm2
• High efficiency integrated on board DC-DC converter

Photos:

Links:

• IV-11 Clock: http://kosbo.com/iv11clock/
• Kosbo Store: http://www.kosbo.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=18&vmcchk=1&Itemid=18
• More Kosbo Clocks: http://www.kosbo.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=39&Itemid=53

See the full collection here

VFD IV-12 / ИB-12

Nixie Telefunken ZM1020

VFD ИB-17 IV-17

Nixie Burroughs 5440

Last updated 04-30-2009

added IV-17, IV-22, photos

All Photos:

http://www.ineedcaffeine.com/content/display-tubes/

Just the data:

[table id=10 /]

via eBay/ $98 / sold by Tortugascuba

I found one more magic eye winker in addition to the one yesterday.  This one is a little more expensive but it comes as a complete kit.  I really like this little version.  There are no integrated circuits and it looks well built.  I don’t know if I would spend $100 on it..but I do like it.   Check out the video and the description after the jump.

Gallery

Magic Eye Winker. Similar to Dekatron Spinner. Uses a Valvo EAM86 (6GX8) Tuning Indicator Tube (aka Magic Eye).

Tuning indicator tubes, more commonly known as “Magic Eyes”, found their place in early radios around the late 1930s. They were usually the more expensive radios, that used this feature, to aid in fine tuning of a radio station. By the early 1950s these tubes also were used as VU meters in early tape recorders. The EAM86 was specifically intended for VU meter service. They also found applications in many pieces of tube era test equipment, since they made such a handy unscaled meters. They were used in some fashion or another until the mid 1970s.

Magic eye tubes are simple voltage level indicators. Here are a couple of sites were you can see the various types made: Ake Holms Tubes and magiceyetubes.com. These tubes came with a wide variety of features, including multiple indicators, and with (or without) internal amplifying triodes. Some could be viewed at the top end of the tube while others were viewed from the side.

What I’m selling here is what I call a “Magic Eye Winker”. Its a simple ‘all-tube’ circuit. NO Semiconductors: Transistors, IC, or Diodes.The eye winks open and closed due to the oscillation of its internal triode. That triode is wired as a phase-shift oscillator with a frequency in the ballpark of 1Hz (roughly one cycle per second). The ‘rectifier’ for making the 150VDC, from household 120VAC, is a common 6AL5 vacuum tube dual diode. The 6AL5 was more commonly used in radio receiver demodulator circuits. The ‘eye’ in this winker is an EAM86 (European designation), which is also a 6GX8 (North American designation). A “Winker” is to a Magic Eye, as a “Spinner” is to a Dekatron.

Here is a video at Dailymotion showing this unit working: Winker Video.

Here are some higher resolution photos: Top View and Bottom View. And here is an additional photo of The Rear showing the Siemens tube, though the unit being sold has a Valvo tube. The tubes are NOS.

The winker is housed on two clear acrylic plates. The top plate serves as the circuit board, with all the components mounted to it as if it were a PCB (printed circuit board). The bottom plate serves as the base, and keeps your fingers from accidentally coming in contact with the live (and hot) circuit. It also has the schematic engraved onto it. The tube sockets are actually individually socket pins which are suppose to be soldered to PCB pads. Here they are mounted in acrylic, without any pads, so they float a bit which actually reduces strain on the glass tubes (in pre-manufactured sockets, the pins float, which also cause no strain on the tube). This a completed unit, ready to plug in and go. It is NOT a kit, nor made from a kit. I designed and made it myself from scratch.

WARNING: This circuit plugs directly into a 120VAC household outlet, and is NOT electrically isolated. It should be safe to handle as long as you use some common sense. Keep it away from wet areas, such as near the kitchen sink, or a bathroom. Its not a good idea to have it on a shelf over your bathtub. The filament current is also taped directly from the 120VAC, and is limited to 300mA, due to the 6.8uf capacitor. That cap has a reactance of 390 ohms at 60Hz. At 50Hz the reactance would be 470 ohms, so the current would be limited to 255mA. If used in Europe, a 220V to 120V step down transformer is needed. Its ‘All-Tube’ so static electricity is not a problem. It should even withstand an EMP.

eBay Seller: Tortugascuba

This Auction:  http://cgi.ebay.com/Magic-Eye-Winker-EAM86-6GX8-akin-to-Dekatron-Spinner_W0QQitemZ150333532934QQcmdZViewItemQQptZVintage_Electronics_R2?hash=item150333532934&_trksid=p3286.m20.l1116

I found this clock while searching for clocks to feature and reminds me a lot of the Verbarius clock.  It is a large VFD display that spells out the time and appears to be able to display other information.  Sadly, it seems that only four of these clocks were ever made.  Go check out Clock-It now, he has some good stuff there.Samsung VFD display in grey metallic finish case

This clock was made in conjunction with a friend, Andrew Jardine, who also introduced me to PIC programming, which opened up a whole new world to me. At last I can make my electronic dreams come true… maybe.

Not much to say about the case, it is a minimal shape made from thick polycarbonate to house the displays and my driver board that sits on the back of it. As the display itself runs off 5v and has all the necessary components to make the display work, all I needed to do was feed it serial data and off it went.

The aim of this clock is to display words much as a person speaks when you ask them the time. About six o’clock, nearly half past six, that kind of thing. So it approximates to the nearest ten minutes and gives an appropriate response.

In addition there are a few other modes. A static rather than scrolling clock, one that dissolves snowflakes into the characters.

I have made four of these clocks. Andrew has one, two have been sold and I kept one.

I have a small quantity of the displays left and Iintend to expand the repertoire of words with an EEPROM.

Originally from Clock-It

p.s. I want one!

I found one of these clocks on eBay a while ago and shamelessly stole the images from it, from Wikipedia and from one other source (below.)  They are old VFD Matrix displays that have become somewhat of a collector item.  Since Wikipedia has a good description I will let them describe it:

Electronics 7 are industrial clocks with luminescent indicators where each figure was formed by four or eleven 7-segment lamps. For each indicator there was a board decoding the binary code sent by the main board. There were also models based on light-emitting diodes . The basic shortcoming of the clocks was that the segments of the display were gradually burnt out, and there was a significant difference in a luminescence between more often and less often displayed segments. It usually happened after ten or more years of continuous work. All the street and wall clocks were based on the kit by Saratov factory “Reflector” and even now are used in many administrative and industrial premises in Russia. The clocks were made on the basis of vacuum-fluorescent indicators manufactured in Russia.

via Wikipedia and via technabob.com

I like this device.  Not only is it a cool use of a great use of cyan VFD displays, but it is small and at $125, it is worth every cent.

First and foremost, it is a 4-letter-word device.  Normally, these are made with tubes such as the B7971 or similar Panaplex displays (think of a flat version of a nixie tube).  Instead, the inventor opted to go with a VFD.  I’ve never seen a FLW this small and I’ve never seen one with display type.  Basically, it is a device that spells out words, usually in English, that are exactly four letters long.   Nice work! Second, this device acts as a clock.  It might not be as polished as say, the Nocrotec, but this device does have a charm to it. I really hope the seller decides to make more of these.  At $125, it is a great deal.

Gallery and seller’s description after the jump

The Super Electrofluorescent Profanity Machine, or Four Letter Word (for short), is a bit of electronics cobbled together out of vintage Cold War-era Soviet vacuum fluorescent tubes and custom driver circuitry. It was designed and built by me. The device does two things: the first (mundane but utilitarian) thing that it does is tell you the time. It’s an accurate clock whose numbers glow brightly enough to dimly illuminate a dark room, serving as an effective night-light. It probably won’t wake you up, unless you can’t sleep in the presence of dim green lights. The second (less mundane and utilitarian) thing that it does is generate random four letter words, which it displays for you at a rate of one per second. Every English word consisting of exactly four letters is possible, and the device is programmed to predispose the generation of words that you can pronounce, as opposed to incomprehensible trash. As the name of the device implies, even the more profane of English words is possible (though not necessarily probable). The effect is strangely hypnotic – the short length of time that this device spent on my desk at work was deliriously unproductive. The main board has three buttons, one for switching the device between word-mode and time-mode, and two for setting the time. Included is a header to break the buttons out, in case you want to enclose its bare sexy boards inside a case that frustrates attempts to set the clock.

http://www.etsy.com/