Geek Skunk Works

     A little over a year ago I started to get interested in Amateur Radio and the SoftRock  really peaked my interest. I ended up getting a few random kits to practice my soldering and electronics building skills. I was determined to be experienced by the time I built the SoftRock to ensure its success. Some of the interesting/random projects I touched on have already been posted about. Most consisted of through-hole-style soldering. Considering the SoftRock has a a far amount of Surface mount parts I ended up picking up a Digital Oscilloscopes from SeeedStudio  and slowly worked on it several months ago, and only recently got new motivation when receiving my Amateur Radio License. Over the course of the last couple weekend my JYE Tech Oscope finally got completed.

     My initial checkout of the unit was a let down, I just couldn’t get the display to work. Luckily there was a great Google Group  dedicated to this unit that ended up being invaluable. I came across all sorts of great advice and found and excellent troubleshooting guide which helped me isolate and correct several minor errors. The screen continued to be a problem so I posted to the group  for advice. While finding a resolution was not immediate, the actual manufacture contacted me and continued to help. Thought just a few emails they accurately determined my LCD had an error and sent a free replacement. (Thanks again!)
     Working on this kit was a great experience, I feel more comfortable with Surface mount soldering, learned some troubleshooting techniques, got to try out my Bus Pirate  for the first time. (Well documented here , which was another huge help.) Also officially made my first RF cable to check it out. My unit is still running the original Firmware, but I’m hoping to update it soon when some some Max232 I ordered come in. Was unfortunately never able to get the Bus Pirate to update the firmware, just to monitor it while running, which was neat enough for me (and ultimately help narrow down the problem to the LCD.)

     I have to give this unit and the manufacture the highest credit on several accounts: low cost, good documentation and support, continual firmware updates (improving capability and bug fixes), and a nice compact design. Pics are of my finished product, tape measure for size reference. Clicking on the picture goes to the Flickr set which shows a side view.

Several weeks ago my friend Brian convinced me to go to the Baltimore Hamboree and ComputerFest. I had a passing interest in amateur radio at the time, but didn’t really find anything I was excited about…… except this little ‘number tube’, which I later found out was a Nixie tube. Cost me all of .50 cents (kicking myself now for not getting several more.)

I really wanted to fire it up, but wasn’t sure how I’d work out the 170 Volts required. I was just getting into electronics in general and ordered an Arduino board from Adafruit that was just sitting around collecting dust.

I’ve started to follow HackaDay for inspiration and they mentioned that RobotPirate.com worked out an Arduino kit to power Nixie tubes. I immediately ordered it, and started to work on it when it arrived just a few short days later (in a cool little ESD safe bag).

Within a few hours I had the kit built and tested (no surface mount soldering, and not too many parts). I then fired up the Arduino environment and programed the board with the source provided from the RobotPirate/Arduinix site (worked perfect, only had to adjust the delay to keep each numeral lit). I had some minor issues that were quickly reminded with the help of the Robot Pirate bulletin boards. Also lucked out and found the datasheet for the National Nixie tube I had.

I’m sure its common for most projects, but most of my time went towards making a somewhat ‘finished looking’ kit. I found it fit very nicely in a old Apple Shuffe case, once the USB connection of the Arduino board was removed.

Some sticker residue was on the Shuffle case, tried to get it off with “Goof-off,” big mistake, started to melt the plastic case. (Why 1 side has a cloudy look to it.) If I could do it again I’d also be alittle more careful cutting the hole for the Nixie and power-cord, honestly abit sloppy. Either way, the end result is pretty cool, click the picture below for a link to the Flickr page with video of the device in action and other photos of the project.

Very fun project if you have some Nixies laying around, or want to get some and play around with the Arduino. This kit has the ability for this kit to power 8 Nixies, so many options for customizing this.