Steampunk Daily: Time pieces: By Markus Siegenthaler and Niklaus Burren (Switzerland)

We are students at the University of Applied Sciences HTI in Burgdorf. in Switzerland. This term we had to design an electrical device in a project work. We decided to build a radio controlled clock (from DCF77 Atomic-Clock Frankfurt/Germany). But we wanted to have a special display for our clock. So we choose the Russian nixie-tube IN-18. We implemented the tube supply with a step up converter (MC34063) which converts a 12V DC voltage to a 160V DC voltage. So you can use a normal ac adapter (12V DC, 1A) to supply our clock. The radio controlled clock is realized with the PIC microcontroller PIC16F877 from Microchip. The clock shows the time and the date, when you press the date button. It is also possible to set the clock manually for the case that you have no radio contact. For the chassis we used perspex and wood of a nut-tree.

Find out more