Pierre @pierremuth.wordpress.com shares his latest project with us. It’s a neon lamp dot matrix clock based on INS-1 tubes. He writes:
As a big enthusiast of glowing neon, I had to do something with the INS-1 (ИНC-1) tubes. Disclaimer: this project is inefficient in many aspects, fortunately plenty of time was available during the 2020 lock-down.
Fortunately, these single dot tubes are still easy to find in large quantities and rather cheap. Made by Gazotron, it seems they buildup a large stock at that time. The INS-1 has the advantage to be small and produce a nice dot due to the lens-style front. Plus its striking voltage is maximum 100V, lower than regular Nixies.
At first I imagined 5×7 dot character modules, such as the TIL305, but bigger. While playing and trying to make a tiny and simple 5V to 100V step-up power supply, I realized how simple it can be. Here we just need to reach the striking voltage and only 0.5mA. As there is yet non-uniformity in brightness between tubes, no strong voltage accuracy is needed. Without the signal generator, it is a diode and a coil, shorted to ground with a transistor at high frequency.
Read more: NEON PIXELS MATRIX DISPLAY CLOCK
