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ArcticMyst Security by Avery

VFD tube clock

Joined
Mar 27, 2008
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I just got one of these babies from ebay. Seems like there is essentially no market for these at all. The guy I bought it from seems to be the only place to get one of these. But dammnnnn is it ever pretty.

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Each digit is inside it's own vacuum florescent display (VFD) tube. The circuit board is mounted directly on a carved wood base with an acrylic enclosure around it. It really spices up the area around my bed, that's for sure!
 





daguin

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I love the look of these. I don't know why I don't have one . . . . yet ;)

Peace,
dave
 
Joined
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VFD tube clocks are cool, I take it you've seen nixie tubes also?

I bought a box of 50, now I just gotta get around to building the circuit for them lol

Click Image to Enlarge
 
Joined
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I've seen nixie tubes and they are pretty cool, but I just love the look of a VFD. I am also kinda turned off by the fact that the nixies have all 10 individual numbers as a separate element. I prefer the 7 elements arranged to make the number 8 with specific ones turned on to make the number. It's old school, but not as old school as the nixies which are really old school. I grew up in the 90's which was when everyone and their mother had a cheap digital clock and nobody in my entire extended family was able to set the time on their VCR. So I suppose I grew up with those led segment displays and liked them ever since.


They are real VFD's though, if you look up close you can see the glowing filament. I'll try and get a nice close up when I get home.
 

rkcstr

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MarioMaster said:
VFD tube clocks are cool, I take it you've seen nixie tubes also?

I bought a box of 50, now I just gotta get around to building the circuit for them lol

You should build a multimeter or LPM display with some. That'd be pretty awesome ;D
 
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Event Horizon said:
I've seen nixie tubes and they are pretty cool, but I just love the look of a VFD. I am also kinda turned off by the fact that the nixies have all 10 individual numbers as a separate element. I prefer the 7 elements arranged to make the number 8 with specific ones turned on to make the number. It's old school, but not as old school as the nixies which are really old school. I grew up in the 90's which was when everyone and their mother had a cheap digital clock and nobody in my entire extended family was able to set the time on their VCR. So I suppose I grew up with those led segment displays and liked them ever since.


They are real VFD's though, if you look up close you can see the glowing filament. I'll try and get a nice close up when I get home.

I have a Sony alarm clock back at my house with a VFD display (not single tubes like this, but same display technology)





rkcstr said:
You should build a multimeter or LPM display with some.  That'd be pretty awesome  ;D

I already have a nixie tube multimeter :p

Click Image to Enlarge
 
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i've been secretly in love with nixie tubes ever since playing final fantasy 7. they used them as timers and clocks through out the game. and i never knew they existed untill i found this site which gave me the name of them ;D
 
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bump - I found the VFD clock I pulled out of an ancient VCR a while ago. The circuitry was so modular I was able to still use the clock part although i have since gotten rid of the rest of it :D

Click Image to Enlarge
 
C

carulli

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thats it im getting a box of nixies and building a clock/driver circuit ;D.
 




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