Curios continued

Making the Nixie sockets was the ballest of ballaches but I’m not waiting around for an eastern European import at such a high price. That said, for other more popular tubes (IN-14 for example) it’s cheap. I just liked these big fat old IN-1, despite their terrible lifespan of 1000h.

The background radiation surprised me. It ticks over every two or three seconds which, yeah I expected it to be less I think.. ah well, the planet’s screwed.

Possibly my most complete electronics project?

Man, I’m proud of this one. It’s actually finished, has a whole host of different hand-made parts and it didn’t even take all that long. Or didn’t feel like it anyway.

What’s the secret?

Mini projects! I thought of every aspect of it as a project in its own right - e.g. providing a high voltage for the nixie tubes, their driver circuitry and programming, the laser cut case, the handles, etc etc.

Small projects that could each be completed over the course of an evening or two - giving that sweet brief dopamine hit we all crave.