Reusing compression olives

.......but I'd rather have a LED binary clock. B-)

Good grief, I made one of those once must have been around 1980

I made a Nixie Tube one using TTL which used the mains frequency as a timebase via a Schmitt trigger on the secondary of a transformer in 1968!

Me too, although mine was built about 3 years later as a project after I'd finished A levels and was bored.

IIRC, there was a design for it in one of the electronics magazines. The TTL counters and especially the decoder/drivers for the tubes were pretty expensive and one had to be careful to avoid blowing them up with the 180v or so used to drive the tubes.

I added an alarm and a relay to mine with comparator logic and some thumbwheel switches. Later I changed to a quartz oscillator for the time reference.

The whole thing fitted into a case a little bit smaller than a breeze block.

It worked well then and still works today......

.andy

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As in 6 columns of ordinary LEDs or using 7 seg numeric LED displays?

I've thought about building one but for US$30ish blue LEDs and brushed Ali it wouldn't look as (I hate to use this word) cool.

A nixie tube clock I'd like to do, that can look a bit more Heath Robinson. B-)

More like Heathkit, for those who remember . ;-)

Chris

I do indeed.

When I was at school, I used to receive their catalogue at least once a year and there were all sorts of things in it which I coveted but couldn't afford.

Then I figured out that actually, from electronics magazines, I could adapt projects to do what I wanted, and that the components were (mostly) not that expensive.

So I made all manner of audio stuff, gadgetry and instruments to test it all.

Never did buy a Heathkit....

.andy

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Yes.

I've been indulging a bit of a hobby by buying old test gear - mainly from ebay. Got a near mint valve Heathkit harmonic Distortion Meter and valve Voltmeter. Perhaps most of it was amateur owned so not kicked to bits.

Of course, these days you can buy a pocket Fluke meter that's just as good if not better than some of these things that cost thousands. But they're nice to look at and play with.

Not DIY, but John Lewis have a Westlclox "Jumbo" alarm clock, which has > 2" high red LED

Not 24-hr clock, so not *exactly* what I wanted, but nice nonetheless.

I designed mine from scratch around components I could get hold of cheaply, as TTL was very expensive back then. I seem to remember I bought a lot of components from a company called BiPrePak, based in Ware, Herts. They used to supply big packs of 50 or more assorted 'fall out' devices for about 10 bob. The devices mainly worked but had outputs missing/not connected or the parts were mis-marked. Half the fun was getting something working out of that pile of bits!

Dave

Here's a Nixie I'm working on at the moment

-- Die Gotterspammerung - Junkmail of the Gods

Heathkits were a major part of my childhood. I was one of their test builders, and got to build (and then keep), all sorts of neat stuff. Free. All I had to do was make accurate notes on the construction, so that the kits and/or manuals could be amended before being released for sale.

Sheila

I didn't have that problem as I worked for an electronics company and they let you have what you wanted within reason..... mind you, the pay was rubbish...

Well, well..

In Michigan?

I guess you've seen

.andy

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Shouldn't it be in brown bakelite to be authentic reproduction?

In message , BillR writes

Like a friend of mine years ago who booked in a metal box as a "Mixer" at the security gate, and walked out a couple of weeks later with, well a mixer actually

I worked in the electronic maintenance department of Mullards, on shiftwork. I remember they had 4 big metal cabinets containing essential components for repairing shop floor equipment which only the maintenance staff could get the keys for.

Always empty of any useful components as I recall. Memories are very dim now but I believe there were some damn good stereo systems, metal detectors and even the ping-pong TV tennis games which were just appearing in the mid-70's made from those components.

Allegedly. I wouldn't want anyone to get the idea that I knew this was going on.....we were usually far too busy playing 3 card brag as soon as the day shift went home ;)

PoP

Gosh - the Heathkit analogue computer. I recall being shown one of those during my HNC Electronics course in the early 70's. Never did figure out how one could use an analogue computer, digital made so much more sense.

A digital computer just asks a yes/no question at every junction, you just need to ask the right question. Whereas with an analogue computer you've got yes, no and every other damn possibility coming thru - not only does it make asking the question difficult but you can never figure whether the answer coming back is good or bad.

I suppose the Labour Party use an analogue computer to draw up their manifesto with regard to university fees.....

PoP

I recall a very similar experience.

Then there were always the respresentatives from the manufacturers who were dying to have their components designed into products.

Generally it cost them a few samples of non related components for home office projects.

.andy

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In message , PoP writes

Of course, you can tailor the processing to get the answer you want