Tube clocks are a quintessentially geeky way to adorn your desktop, and building one from scratch gains you even more (hit) points! This IV3 Tube Clock Kit gives you all the necessary components to assemble a beautiful vintage styled four-digit display for your bedroom, living room, or gaming space.
Nixie Tubes, also known as Cold Cathode Displays, are vintage components that were particularly popular in the 1950s-70s. Similar to fluorescent neon lighting, these bulbs contained ten shaped pieces of metal and required about 170 volts to start glowing.
The IV3 tubes used in this kit are a slightly modernized take on these iconic bulbs. They contain a segmented display inside a vacuum tube, earning them the title of Vacuum Fluorescent Displays. Very popular in the 1980s, these safer, lower voltage displays have incredible brightness and contrast – making them straightforward to read, while still keeping the excellent vintage aesthetics that nixie tubes bring.
This kit runs from a CircuitPython SeeedStudio XIAO board; a tiny microcontroller designed for small products and wearables. The code on the SeeedStudio XIAO board is 100% user-customizable; just plug in a USB, write your code using CircuitPython, and upload it to the device!
CircuitPython is a programming language designed to encourage speedy prototyping, learning through experimentation, and idea generation. Based on the ever-popular Python language, CircuitPython suits this Nixie Clock perfectly – and makes it astoundingly easy to be creative with! There are so many ingenious ways to use this hardware – how about a number memory game, or an exchange rate tracker?
Neon Things is an independent company based in Cambridgeshire, UK. Previously a physicist, the creator now makes a living researching and developing pet care products when they’re not working on cool things like this! Check out their other IV3 Tube Clock Kit.
