Comments on: Dekatron Kitchen Timer

By: blo

blo — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 19:49:29 +0000

hi there.
this is an amazing piece of work!
any chance to get the pcb, so i could build my own?

thanks

By: spuffler

spuffler — Fri, 08 May 2009 04:41:56 +0000

Wow. The proposed cover for this device is crying for chocolate color. If I thought it could be hobbied, I’d think dark brown Phenolic like was used for 5 tube Zenith AM radio housings of the late 1950’s. Otherwise, maybe a brown crinkle paint over a formed sheetmetal cover? I’m loving this stuff as well as steampunk.

By: Jadrian

Jadrian — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 23:04:38 +0000

Hi Eric, beautiful work! For the cover, I’d suggest making the wooden back piece (to which the bell is attached) have the same shape as the front piece (where the buttons and display are) and then using a router to make a groove just inside the edges of these two pieces. You could then make a single piece of clear acrylic fit into the grooves and cover all the internals. The result would look like a house with a single, continuous, clear piece forming the side walls and roof, while the front and back walls extend just outside this piece.

Seems to me this wouldn’t screw up the aesthetic you’ve already got going too much. It would be sort of a chore but this is already such a polished piece of equipment it’s worth spending some effort on the rest of the enclosure.

By: Iain Sharp

Iain Sharp — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 09:32:15 +0000

Lovely work – all your projects are great. I wish I had your woodworking skills.

I have just completed my first project involving interfacing Nixie tubes to an AVR microcontroller, so I am feeling pretty pleased with myself.

By: clint

clint — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 01:39:20 +0000

Very nice project! I like the wooden socket and the bell too.

For a cover, may I suggest trying to mold the circuitry into some transparent potting material.

Good job,
Clint

By: eric

eric — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 23:32:49 +0000

The valve pins are made out of 1/8″ diameter brass tubing with a slot cut across. I glued them in with JB Weld.

The wire is from Sundial Wire (http://www.sundialwire.com/).

There are plenty of places that could be shorted by loose metallic objects. I went for the “open” look, but I may need to come up with a plastic cover. Any ideas?

The GS10D in the last photo may have been dropped or subjected to excess vibration. It could also have been slightly leaky from the factory.

By: philpem

philpem — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 19:12:02 +0000

Just saw this on Hack A Day. It looks really neat, and the wooden 3.5mm plug is the icing on the cake.

Two questions though:
– What did you use for the valve pins inside the wooden socket?
– What sort of cable did you use for the 5V connector (as shown in the last photo)? I’ve never seen anything quite like it.

The only thing I’d have done is add a thin piece of wood (with a hole drilled to suit the valve base) to the front of the Dekatron socket, just to stop any small conductive objects shorting against the tube pins. Probably more effort than it’s worth, though.

As for the reason for the death of the GS10D in the last photo? I’d go with an air leak — the silver air-absorbing “getter” has turned white, which suggests the sealing pip has failed, and let the neon/argon fill escape.

By: Dekatron kitchen timer - Hack a Day

Dekatron kitchen timer - Hack a Day — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 17:37:28 +0000

[...] put together this beautiful kitchen timer using a dekatron. We see all kinds of tube projects, but dekatron projects are fairly rare. The [...]

By: Alessandro

Alessandro — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 07:30:13 +0000

Bellissimo !
Everything in the project is nice but I expecially love the wooden 3.5mm plug. Excellent woodworking :
at first I though you did it with CNC but then I realized you did it with a Dremel ? Wow !
Mhhh….I have two spare Nixies !….
Kitchen timer ….Mhhh.
Ciao
Alessandro