General

Nixie Tap is a minimal device which will elegantly display information in living rooms, work desks and bedrooms. 

Current features are:

- device is USB powered

- network time and date synchronization

- automatic DST adjustment

- optional manual synchronization

- provided functions for cryptocurrency and temperature display

- all tubes are IN-12B (with dot for every digit)

Configuration

At the heart of the product lies the ESP8266, namely the ESP-12F variant. At device power-on, the ESP serves a hotspot, which is used for configuration. This is where the user configures the Nixie Tap with the following features (to be expanded):

- WiFi network credentials

- manual time and date setting

- display format (24h or 12h)

- cryptocurrency price display 

Once the configuration is finished, the ESP goes online and picks up the required information.

Circuit overview

Driver section is based on HV5812, which is a high-voltage shift register made by Microchip. Since this device uses 5V logic, and ESP is 3.3V rated, a HC595 was inserted, to act as a level shifter for the SPI chain.

To be able to generate 170V requred for Nixies, and still be powered via USB, a special PSU was designed around the FP5139. This is a switcher IC made by Feeling Technology from Shenzhen.

An RTC chip is also present on board, to keep accurate time and offload the tasks from the ESP.

For more information, please visit the Hackaday.io page.

Nixie Board

This project has an additional PCB, the one which holds the IN-12B tubes.

To order that PCB, please visit the PCBWay page.