Instead of simply incrementing the time every new second, it would be great to have a display of forward- and backward-spinning digits, slowly rolling-out to the new time, a little bit like the reels of a slot machine. Having never encountered them, decatrons are completely new to me. How do they work, how to interface them to a processor Instead of
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working on it for a few months or so and then writing a new web-page on it, I decided to present this page in the form of a web-log. The idea is that this page is expanded every time the project has advanced a bit. Like the E1T "scaling tube" the decatron preceded the nixie tube, perhaps not by invention, but certainly by application. The most likely reason is that, besides a being a display device, both the Scaling Tube and the Decatron perform the counting function themselves, whereas Nixie tubes require quite a bit of electronics to make them work. They are both small wonders of ingenuity. The Decatron was first announced in a paper in Electronic Engineering of May 1950 entitled: "The Decatron, A New Cold Cathode Counting Tube" by R. C. Bacon and J. R. Pollard from Ericsson Telephones Research Laboratories, Nottingham, England [4]. The paper discusses the general operation, the performance, and the circuit requirements. The working of the Decatron is best explained in the words of the inventors: A cathode glow on one of a set of inter-connected cathodes, arranged around a central common anode, is caused to transfer from one position to the next by application of controlling voltages to intermediate electrodes or "guides". This arrangement will become clear by considering Figs. 2 and 3. Fig. 2 shows, around the central anode disk A, a number of equi-spaced rods or wires (on a pitch circle of 20mm. diameter in the case of...
This project fits more for custom made battery casing that can have more space to hide things inside. This switch with few alterations can be used for any other project as well but is designed based on e-bike needs! This project use a clever functionality of....
The circuit described here uses ultrasonic oscillations and operates based on the propagation velocity of these oscillations in the air. Thus, we can easily determine the distance of two points if the time within which the wave travels this distance is....
Sometimes the precious metals are hidden too deep and are not detected except with complicated devices. In many cases, however, small pieces of precious metal buried near the surface can be detected by relatively simple means. Everyone is very attractive to....
Many times for various reasons we forget or can not water the plants that we have in our homes. And many humidity sensors units just notify us with a beeping sound or with a flashing light, that the pot needs watering. But what if we are away from home? This....
The principle behind a metal detector is really very simple. Proof of this is the circuit that follows, in which it proves that the construction of a metal detector can be done in the minute, with few components that we find very easily everywhere. With the....
The sub-harmonic bass generator is a sound producing unit for guitars. The sound it produces looks very much like that of the bass guitar. The octave generator is sometimes quite unusual since it does not produce any of the usual ways of coloring the sound,....
In the past the sounding (sea bottom measurement) was done with the "bullet", that is, with a heavy lead object that the seamen plucked into the sea hung from a calibrated rope. As soon as the "bullet" reached the bottom, the depth appeared directly from the....
This Amplifier was designed to have the following specifications: Distortion less than 0.1% at full power of 100W even at 20KHz. Power has to be attributed to an extended bandwidth. The output transistors must be protected against short circuits. The power....
A series of LEDs serve to alert the gardener when plants need water. Using two conventional digital integrated LEDs and a series of LEDs, we make a very useful device for gardening. The device detects the amount of water in the pot and alerts the grower.....
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