Good day to all dear Muscovites. I want to tell you about an interesting radio constructor for those who know from which end the soldering iron heats up. In short: the set delivered positive emotions, I recommend it to those interested in this topic.
Details below (carefully, a lot of photos).
I'll start from afar.
I myself do not consider myself a true radio amateur. But I am not alien to the soldering iron and sometimes I want to design / solder something, well, I try to carry out minor repairs of the electronics surrounding me first on my own (without causing irreparable harm to the experimental device), and in case of failure I turn to professionals.
Once, under the influence, I bought and assembled the same watch. The design itself is simple and the assembly did not cause any difficulties. I put the clock in my son's room and calmed down for a while.
Then, after reading, I wanted to try to assemble them too, at the same time practicing soldering smd components. In principle, here everything worked right away, only the squeaker was silent sound signal, bought offline, replaced and that's it. Gave the watch to a friend.
But I wanted something else, more interesting and more complicated.
Somehow, poking around in my father's garage, I came across the remains of some kind of electronic device of the Soviet era. Actually, the remains are a kind of construction of boards, which contained 9 gas-discharge indicator lamps IN-14.
Then the thought came to me - to collect watches on these indicators. Moreover, I have been observing such watches, once assembled by my father, in my parents' apartment for 30 years, if not more. I carefully unsoldered the board and became the owner of 9 lamps produced in early 1974. The desire to attach these rarities to the business intensified.
Through meticulous inquiries from Yandex, I went to the site, which turned out to be just a storehouse of wisdom on the topic of creating such watches. After looking at several diagrams of such designs, I realized that I wanted a clock controlled by a microcontroller, with a real-time chip (RTC). And if, repeating one of the clock designs, it would be possible for me to program the controller and solder the board, then the issue of manufacturing the printed circuit board itself puzzled me (I'm not a true radio amateur yet).
In general, it was decided to start by buying a designer of such watches.
this constructor is just being discussed, in fact this is the topic of the author (his nickname mss_ja) of this kit, where he himself helps with the assembly and launch of his kits. He also has, where there are a lot of photos of finished products. There you can buy not only kits for self-assembly, but also ready-made watches. Look, penetrate.
Some doubts were caused by the issue of delivery, because the respected author lives in Ukraine. But it turned out that war is war, and the post office works on schedule. Actually 14 days and I have the package.
delivery
Here is a box.
So what did I buy? And everything can be seen in the photo.
The set includes:
a printed circuit board (on which the author kindly unsoldered the controller so that I would not suffer, his legs were too small). The program was already hardwired into the controller;
Package with construction components. Large ones are clearly visible - microcircuits, electrolytic capacitors, a tweeter, etc., according to the diagram and description. Under this bag is another one, with small smd components - resistors, capacitors, transistors. All smd elements are pasted on paper with inscribed denominations, very convenient. Photo taken during assembly.
The blank for the watch case is not included in the default set, but after contacting the author, I bought it too. This is a reinsurance against its possible curvature, tk. I practically have nothing to do with a tree, and all the experience of processing it comes down to the periodic sawing of firewood for barbecue in the country. And I wanted a classic look - like “glass from a piece of wood”, as they say on the radio cat forum.
So let's get started.
That's actually all we need to start the assembly. And in order to complete it successfully, we still need a head and hands.
No, he didn't show everything. Without this thing, you can not even start. These smd elements are so small...
The assembly began strictly on the recommendation of the author - with power converters. And there are two of them in this design. 12V->3.3V to power the electronics and 12V->180V to operate the indicators themselves. It is necessary to assemble such things very carefully, first making sure that you are soldering exactly what you are doing, exactly there and not confusing the polarity of the components. The printed circuit board itself is of excellent quality, industrial production, soldering is a pleasure.
The power converters were assembled and tested for the appropriate voltages, then I began to install the remaining components.
Starting the assembly process, I made a promise to myself to photograph every step of it. But, carried away by this action, I remembered my desire to write a review only when the board was almost ready. Therefore, the following photo was taken when I started testing the indicators by simply plugging them into the board and applying power. 
Of the nine IN-14 lamps I got, one turned out to be completely non-working, but the rest were in excellent condition, all the numbers and commas glowed perfectly. 6 lamps went to the watch, and two went to the reserve. 
I deliberately did not wash off the date of manufacture from the lamps.
back side 
Here you can see a clumsily installed photoresistor, I was looking for its best position.
So, after making sure that the circuit worked and the clock started, I put it aside. And took care of the body. Bottom part made from a piece of fiberglass from which I tore off the foil. And the wooden blank was carefully sanded with fine sandpaper to a state of “pleasant smoothness”. Well, then it is varnished with stain in several layers with intermediate drying and polishing with fine sandpaper. 
It wasn't perfect, but I think it's good. Especially given my lack of experience with woodworking. 
At the back, you can see holes for connecting power and a temperature sensor, which I don’t have yet (yes, it can also show the temperature ...). 
Here are some shots of the interior. It’s impossible to take a picture sensibly, the photos don’t convey all the “beauty”. 
This is a date display. 
Lamp illumination. Well, where without her. It is disabled, if you don't like it, don't turn it on.
Remarkable running accuracy. I've been watching the clock for a week, it goes second by second. Of course, a week is not a deadline, but the trend is obvious.
In conclusion, I will give the characteristics of the watch that I copied and pasted directly from the site of the author of the project:
Watch features:
Hours, format: 12 / 24
Date, format: HH.MM.YY / HH.MM.D
Alarm clock adjustable by day.
Temperature measurement.
Hourly signal (can be disabled).
Automatic brightness adjustment depending on the lighting.
High running accuracy (DS3231).
indication effects.
--- no effects.
---smooth fading.
--- scroll.
--- overlay numbers.
Effects of dividing lamps.
---off.
--- flashing 1 hertz.
---smooth fading.
--- flashing 2 hertz.
---included.
Date display effects.
--- no effects.
---Shift.
--- Shift with scrolling.
---Scroll.
---Change numbers.
pendulum effect.
---simple.
---difficult.
backlights
---Blue
---Possibility of illumination of the case. (Optional)
So, let me summarize. I really liked the watch. Assembling a watch from a set is not difficult for a person of average curvature. After spending a few days on a very interesting activity, we get a beautiful and useful device, even with a touch of exclusivity.
Of course, by today's standards, the price is not very humane. But firstly, this is a hobby, it’s not a pity to spend money on it. And secondly, the author is not to blame for the fact that the ruble is now worth nothing.
Hello users again and keep the promise!
Today I begin to spread a detailed photo report on the manufacture of watches on gas discharge indicators(GRI). Based on IN-14.
All the manipulations in this and the following posts are available to a person without experience, you just need to have a little skill. I will divide the work into several parts, each of which will be described in detail by me and posted on the network.
We proceed to the first stage - etching the boards. After researching the literature, I found several technologies:
- . It needs three components to work: laser printer, ferric chloride and iron. The method is the easiest and cheapest. He has only one minus - it is difficult to transfer very thin tracks.
- Photo resist. The following materials are needed for work: photo-razist, printer film, soda ash and a UV lamp. The method allows etching boards at home. The downside is that it's not cheap.
- Reactive ion etching (RIE). Reactive plasma is needed for work, therefore it is not feasible at home.
Anode etching is most commonly used. The process of anodic etching consists in the electrolytic dissolution of the metal and the mechanical separation of oxides by the released oxygen.
It is quite understandable that I chose the LUT method for etching boards. Scroll necessary equipment and materials should look something like this:
- Ferric chloride. He is bathed in radio products at a price of 100-150 rubles per can.
- Foil fiberglass. Can be found in radio stores, radio flea markets or factories.
- Capacity. A regular food container will do.
- Iron.
- Glossy paper. Self-adhesive paper or a plain page of a glossy magazine will do.
- Laser printer.
IMPORTANT! The print version must be a mirror image, because when the image is transferred from paper to copper, it will be displayed back.
It is necessary to mark up and cut off a piece of textolite for the board. This is done with a hacksaw, a breadboard knife, or, as in my case, a drill.
After that, I cut out a sketch of the future board from paper and attached the pattern to the textolite (from the foil side). Paper is taken with a margin in order to wrap the textolite. We fix the sheet on the back side with adhesive tape for fixing.
From the side of the drawing, we draw along the future board with an iron several times through sheet A4. It will take at least 2 minutes of intensive “ironing” to transfer the toner to copper.
We substitute the workpiece under a stream of cold water and easily remove the paper layer (wet paper should come off freely by itself). If the heating of the surface was insufficient, small pieces of toner may come off. We finish them with cheap nail polish. As a result, the blank for the board should look like this:
In the prepared container, we prepare a solution of ferric chloride and water. It is better to use hot water for these purposes, this will increase the reaction rate. It is better to refuse boiling water, because heat deforms the board. The finished liquid should have the color of medium tea leaves. We place the board in the solution and wait until the excess foil is completely dissolved.
If you occasionally stir the solution in the container, the reaction rate will also increase. For the skin of the hands, ferric chloride is not dangerous, but the fingers can be stained.
To give greater clarity to the process, I placed the board in the solution partially. What changes should take place can be seen in the photo:
Excess copper dissolves in the composition after about 40 minutes. After that, the etching process can be considered completed. It remains only to make a few holes. We mark with an awl and drill small holes with a drill. The tool must run at high speed so that the drill does not move out. The result of the work should look something like this:
The second stage in the manufacture of watches on the GRI is the soldering of the components. I will talk about this in my next post.
Downloading:
- Program ).
- Post about soldering components -;
- Post about microcontroller firmware -;
- A post about making a case -.
Handy fringe cutter for transformers. Soldering iron heating regulator with power indicator
Lamp clock in the style of the well-known game "Fallout". Sometimes you wonder what some people are capable of. Fantasy, coupled with straight arms and a clean head, works wonders! Well, it's time to start talking about a real work of art :)
In his product, the author uses only output components, tracks on a printed circuit board with a width of at least 1 millimeter, which, in turn, is very convenient for beginners and inexperienced radio amateurs. The whole circuit is on a single board, the denomination of the components and the components themselves are marked. Since the author of the product could not decide on the color of the LED illumination of the lamps, it was decided to use the PIC12F765 controller to adjust the RGB LEDs. Also used are incandescent bulbs, which give a cozy light, to illuminate the dashboard and ammeter. Some parts and the case itself were taken from the old (1953 release) Soviet multimeter TT-1. I would like to use only original parts from this multimeter, so it was decided to keep the ammeter with the dashboard, and stick the discharge indicators into place under the cover. But the first problem arose - there was too little space for indicators under the lid, so the lid simply could not close with the indicators inside. But the author found a way out - to slightly drown the panel into the case and make the ammeter a little smaller in volume.
The hefty ferrite magnet was replaced by two miniature neodymium ones, in general, the author removed all unnecessary details to make room for the stuffing, while maintaining the functionality of the TT-1. The ammeter is planned to be connected to the leg of the MK, which regulates the supply of current to the anode at the sixth lamp, which is responsible for the image of seconds, so the hand will move in time with the changing seconds on the lamp.
The author used a 0.8A toroidal transformer to convert 220 Volts to 12 Volts. It is a pity that the transformer could not be placed outside the case, because it is so consistent with the design of Fallout.
The board is made according to LUT technology standards. Designed according to the dimensions of the case.
The author pays special attention to the DS1307 clock chip. In the photo, it is in a DIP package, but the wiring for this microcircuit is made as for SMD, so the legs are turned the other way, and the microcircuit itself is stuck belly up. Instead of K155ID1, KM155ID1 was used, the author claims that only with the replaced part it was possible to avoid flashes. Placement of elements on the board:
The author has assembled the simplest LPT programmer for programming K ATMega8 (firmware for ATMega8, all boards, firmware for PIC at the end of the article)
PIC programmer:
IN-14 gas discharge indicators have long soft solder leads, but due to their limited resource, it was decided to make them easily replaceable. Therefore, the author used collets from the DIP-microcircuit panel, and shortened the IN-14 legs to the depth of the collets. The holes in the center in the sockets are made specifically for the LEDs, which are located under the lamps on a separate board. The LEDs are connected in parallel, one resistor serves to limit the current per color.
This is what gas-discharge indicators mounted in an aluminum corner look like.
The mount, in the role of which the aluminum corner acts, is etched in ferric chloride, because of this it has aged very visually, which gives more entourage. As it turned out, aluminum reacts very violently with ferric chloride: a very large amount of chlorine and heat is released. Of course, the solution after such tests is no longer suitable for use.
Other details were made using a similar technology (LUT) (the fallout-boy logo, Vault-Tec, as well as the number HB-30YR). The device was intended for a gift to a friend on his 30th birthday. For those who don't understand, the number HB-30YR stands for Happy Birthday - 30 Years :)
The author used a nichrome spiral with antenna F-type connectors at the ends for wiring between the housing and the cover. Fortunately, on the panel right place there were 6 holes, and they served as connectors for wire leads.
Watch before complete assembly. The wires, of course, are not laid out neatly, but this will not affect the functionality in any way.
Power cable. Some old military connectors. The author made the adapter for the plug himself.
Connector for connecting the power cable, as well as a fuse on the surface of the case at the bottom.
View of the device in the closed state. Indeed, it is not much different from the TT-1.
General view of the device.
Stopper to prevent the lid from tipping back.
Watches in the dark look best.
Hi all. I want to tell you about my recent "craft", namely the clock on gas discharge indicators (GDI).
Gas-discharge indicators have long since sunk into oblivion; personally, even the most “new” ones are older than me. GRI was used mainly in watches and measuring instruments, later they were replaced by vacuum fluorescent indicators.
So what is the GREE lamp? This is a glass bottle (it's a lamp, after all!) filled with neon inside with a small amount of mercury. Inside there are also electrodes curved in the form of numbers or signs. The interesting thing is that the symbols are located one after another, therefore, each symbol glows at its own depth. If there are cathodes, there must be an anode! - He is one for all. So, in order to light a certain symbol in the indicator, you need to apply a voltage, and not a small one, between the anode and cathode of the corresponding symbol.
For reference, I would like to write how the glow occurs. When applied high voltage between the anode and the cathode, the gas in the lamp, which was previously neutral, begins to ionize (i.e., a positive ion and an electron are formed from a neutral atom). The formed positive ions begin to move to the cathode, the released electrons to the anode. In this case, the electrons “along the way” additionally ionize the gas atoms that they collide with. As a result, an avalanche-like process of ionization occurs and electricity in a lamp (glow discharge). So now the most interesting thing, in addition to the ionization process, i.e. the formation of a positive ion and an electron, there is also a reverse process, it is called recombination. When the positive ion and electron "turn" into one again! In this case, energy is released in the form of a glow, which we observe.
Now directly to the clock. Lamps I used IN-12A. They have a not quite classic lamp shape and contain the characters 0-9.
I bought a fair amount of lamps that were not in use!
So to say, so that everyone has enough!
It was interesting to make a miniature device. The result is a fairly compact product.
The case was cut out on a laser machine from black acrylic according to a 3D model, which I made based on printed circuit boards:
Device diagram.
The clock consists of two boards. On the first board there are four IN-12A lamps, a K155ID1 decoder and optocouplers for controlling the anodes of the lamps.
The board also has inputs for connecting power, controlling optocouplers and a decoder.
The second board is already the brain of the watch. It contains a microcontroller, a real-time clock, a 9V to 12V conversion unit, a 9V to 5V conversion unit, two control buttons, a buzzer and the outputs of all signal wires that match the display board. The real-time clock has a backup battery, which does not allow time to be lost when the main power is turned off. Power is supplied from a 220V-9V block (200mA is enough).
These boards are connected using a pin connector, but not by inserting, but by soldering!
The whole thing is going in this way. First, a long screw M3 * 40. A tube from a 4mm air hose is put on this screw (it is dense and suitable for holding printed circuit boards, I use it very often). Then between printed circuit boards rack (printed on a 3D printer) and then a brass through nut tightens it all. And the back wall will also be fastened with M3 bolts to through brass nuts.
During assembly, such an unpleasant feature was found out. I wrote the firmware, but the clock refused to work, the lamps flickered in an incomprehensible order. The problem was solved by installing an additional capacitor between + 5V and ground right next to the microcontroller. It can be seen in the photo above (I installed it in the programming slot).
Attached are the project files in EagleCAD and the firmware in CodeVisionAVR. You can upgrade if necessary for your own purposes)))
Clock firmware is made quite simply without bells and whistles! Just a watch. Two control buttons. One button is "mode", the second is "setting". By pressing the “mode” button for the first time, only the numbers responsible for the clock are displayed, if you press “setting” in this mode, the clock will start to increase (when it reaches 23, it resets to 00). If you press "mode" again, only the minutes will be displayed. Accordingly, if you press “setting” in this mode, the minutes will also increase in a “circular” manner. With another click on the "mode" - both hours and minutes are displayed. When changing the hours and minutes, the seconds are reset to zero.
This article will focus on the manufacture of original and unusual watches. Their singularity lies in the fact that the time indication is carried out using digital indicator lamps. Such lamps, once, were released great amount both here and abroad. They were used in many devices, ranging from watches to measuring equipment. But after the appearance LED indicators lamps gradually fell into disuse. And now, thanks to the development of microprocessor technology, it became possible to create watches with a relatively simple circuit on digital indicator lamps.
I think it would not be superfluous to say that two types of lamps were mainly used: fluorescent and gas discharge. The advantages of fluorescent indicators include low operating voltage and the presence of several discharges in one lamp (although such specimens are also found among gas-discharge ones, but finding them is much more difficult). But all the benefits of this type lamps cover one huge minus - the presence of a phosphor, which burns out over time, and the glow dims or stops. For this reason, second-hand lamps cannot be used.
Gas-discharge indicators are free from this disadvantage, because. gas discharge glows in them. Essentially, this type of lamp is a neon lamp with multiple cathodes. Due to this, the service life of gas discharge indicators is much longer. In addition, both new and used lamps work equally well (and often used ones work better). Still, it could not do without drawbacks - the operating voltage of gas-discharge indicators is more than 100 V. But solving the issue with voltage is much easier than with a burnable phosphor. On the Internet, such watches are distributed under the name NIXIE CLOCK: 
The indicators themselves look like this:
So, on account design features everything seems to be clear, now let's start designing the circuit of our clock. Let's start with design high voltage source voltage. There are two ways. The first is to use a transformer with a secondary winding of 110-120 V. But such a transformer will either be too bulky, or you will have to wind it yourself (the prospect is so-so). Yes, and the voltage is problematic to regulate. The second way is to build a step up converter. Well, there will be more pluses here: firstly, it will take up little space, secondly, it has short-circuit protection and, thirdly, you can easily adjust the output voltage. In general, there is everything that is necessary for happiness. I chose the second way, because. there was no desire to look for a transformer and a winding wire, and I also wanted miniature. It was decided to assemble the converter on the MC34063, because. I had experience with her. The result is this scheme:
At first it was assembled on a breadboard and showed excellent results. Everything started right away and no configuration was required. When powered by 12V. the output turned out to be 175V. The assembled clock power supply looks like this:
A linear stabilizer LM7805 was immediately installed on the board to power the clock electronics and a transformer.
The next stage of development was the design of the lamp switching circuit. In principle, the control of lamps is no different from the control of seven-segment indicators, with the exception of high voltage. Those. it is enough to apply a positive voltage to the anode, and connect the corresponding cathode to the minus power supply. At this stage, it is required to solve two problems: matching the levels of MK (5V) and lamps (170V), and switching the cathodes of the lamps (they are the numbers). After some time of reflection and experimentation, the following circuit was created to control the anodes of the lamps:
And cathode control is very easy, for this they came up with a special K155ID1 microcircuit. True, they have long been discontinued, like lamps, but buying them is not a problem. Those. to control the cathodes, you just need to connect them to the corresponding pins of the microcircuit and apply data to the input in binary format. Yes, I almost forgot, it is powered by 5V. (well, a very handy thing). It was decided to make the indication dynamic, because otherwise, you would have to put K155ID1 on each lamp, and there will be 6 of them. The general scheme turned out like this:
Under each lamp, I installed a bright red LED glow (it's more beautiful). The assembled board looks like this:
It was not possible to find sockets for the lamps, so I had to improvise. As a result, the old connectors, similar to modern COMs, were disassembled, the contacts were removed from them, and after some manipulations with wire cutters and a needle file, they were soldered into the board. I did not make sockets for IN-17, I did it only for IN-8.
The most difficult part is over, it remains to develop a diagram of the “brain” of the watch. For this, I chose the Mega8 microcontroller. Well, then everything is quite easy, just take it and connect everything to it in the way that is convenient for us. As a result, 3 buttons for control appeared in the clock circuit, a real-time clock chip DS1307, digital thermometer DS18B20, and a pair of transistors to control the backlight. For convenience, we connect the anode keys to one port, in this case it is port C. When assembled, it looks like this:
There is a small error on the board, but it has been fixed in the attached board files. The connector for MK firmware is soldered with wires, after flashing the device it should be unsoldered.
Well, now it would be nice to draw a general scheme. No sooner said than done, here it is:
And this is how it all looks in its entirety:
Now it remains only to write the firmware for the microcontroller, which was done. The functionality is as follows:
Display of time, date and temperature. Pressing the MENU button briefly changes the display mode.
1 mode - only time.
2nd mode - time 2 min. date 10 sec.
3 mode - time 2 min. temperature 10 sec.
4 mode - time 2 min. date 10 sec. temperature 10 sec.
When held, the time and date setting is turned on, the transition through the settings by pressing the MENU button
The maximum number of DS18B20 sensors is 2. If the temperature is not needed, you can not install them at all, this will not affect the operation of the clock in any way. Hot connection of sensors is not provided.
By briefly pressing the UP button, the date is switched on for 2 seconds. When held, the backlight turns on/off.
By briefly pressing the DOWN button, the temperature is turned on for 2 seconds.
From 00:00 to 07:00 the brightness is reduced.
The whole thing works like this:
The source codes of the firmware are attached to the project. The code contains comments so it will not be difficult to change the functionality. The program is written in Eclipse, but the code compiles without any changes in AVR Studio. The MK operates from an internal oscillator at a frequency of 8 MHz. Fuzes are set like this:
And in hexadecimal it looks like this: HIGH: D9, LOW: D4
Also included are boards with bug fixes:
These clocks run for a month. No operational problems were identified. The LM7805 stabilizer and the converter transistor are barely warm. The transformer heats up to 40 degrees, so if you plan to install the clock in the case without ventilation holes, the transformer will have to take more power. In my watch, it provides current in the region of 200mA. The accuracy of the course is highly dependent on the applied quartz at 32.768 kHz. Store-bought quartz is not recommended. Best Results showed quartz from motherboards and mobile phones.
In addition to the lamps used in my circuit, you can install any other gas discharge indicators. To do this, you will have to change the wiring of the board, and for some lamps the voltage of the boost converter and the resistors on the anodes.
Attention: the device contains a high voltage source!!! The current is small, but quite noticeable !!! Therefore, when working with the device, be careful!
PS The first article, somewhere I could make a mistake / make a mistake - wishes and advice for correction are welcome.