Siren Alarm Clock Question

[Blasty]

Since you would need power to operate that clock, you can count the 60 Hz AC as a timer. Utility companies keep AC extremely accurate.

This is the way I've chosen to do it. I take the 60Hz from one side of the 6.3V secondary on the power transformer and convert it to a square wave with a couple of diodes and a Schmitt inverter. Then I simply run it through two decimal counters to divide by 10 and then 6. A jumper on the second counter can be used to choose between 50Hz or 60Hz operation if desired.

I've already tested that part of the circuit and it works very well. I sat there for several minutes with a watch to my ear and my eye on the blinking LED that I used as an indicator.

[I_Love_Sirens_lol]

ACH DU HEILIGE SCHEI?E!!!! I'm going insane trying to get through these posts and decypher what this stuff means. Once you guys get into the real world, you will be required to learn how to spell and use reasonably intelligible grammar at work, assuming you can get through the resume process.

dont be hatin cuz im not from ur country im sorry if my newly learned english upsets u my lord i just like sirens man does it really matter how i show that love?

Spreekt U Nederlands? Afrikaans? That is the only language I know of where "U" can mean "you". Most Dutch I know speak excellent English when they want to. Your grammatical structure suggests that you know better, but are trying to annoy us.

Wirklich spreche ich Deutsches. Mein Englisch ist nicht das beste, also versuche ich, nicht oben zu verwirren, aber das ist ein Verbrechen, das vom Tod angemessen ist.

[Robert Gift]

Wonderful, Daniel.

Thank you for those great images.
I had never seen a Dekatron tube before.
Otherwise, I would have asked why not form numerals with it's electrodes?

But I also like my neon Nixie tube which has nicely-shaped solid numerals and a decimal point.

I'd rather have numerals for hours and minutes and Dekatron tubes only for seconds.
Would be fun to watch them step-advance seconds and decades.

So, do you have an electric "flower" bulb which has pink glowing petals on green glowing stems and leaves in the SAME bulb? \*/

I figured out how they do it. Will tell you after you try.

Sirens, U tryin' to beat my negative score?

[Blasty]

If I'm not mistaken, I believe the dekatron was also used as a counting device before there were integrated circuits to do that job.

[Robert Gift]

If I'm not mistaken, I believe the dekatron was also used as a counting device before there were integrated circuits to do that job.

Nice circuit, Blasty.

Did the Dekatron tube have moving parts?

How did it count?

Danka

[Blasty]

No moving parts at all.

Daniel linked to the Mike's Electric Stuff page in one of his posts. Here's Mike's display tube page. If you scroll down, there's some information on dekatrons there. This is the page where I first learned about nixie tubes.

http://www.electricstuff.co.uk/count.html

[Daniel]

I_Love_Sirens_lol: Na, das war kein Verbrechen. Ich kann heute kaum deutsch, und Ihr englisch ist ja besser als mein deutsch, also entschuldigen Sie mir. Ich war doch sehr m?de . . .

Robert: I have one with purple flowers. The bulb is filled with argon, I believe, which accounts for the purple, and the leaves are coated with a green-glowing phosphor like that used in NE-2G green neon bulbs.

Blasty: Yes, they were most frequently used as counting tubes that drove nixie displays, and with many of those tubes, the light was barely visible. Check out that huge Anita calculator on that website to see them in action.

[AllSafe]

Actually, Panaplex used a different type of gas, and they used a gas plasma to ignite a phosphor coating on each digit. Those neon displays they used to use on gas pumps are similar but they are a different technology, closer to a nixie.

[Robert Gift]

Robert: I have one with purple flowers. The bulb is filled with argon, I believe, which accounts for the purple, and the leaves are coated with a green-glowing phosphor like that used in NE-2G green neon bulbs.

But what makes the phosphor glow green?

Green glowing neon tubes?! Interesting!

Also phascinating how those Dekatron tubes "counted" by their glowing
elements always advancing clockwise.

Do you have the "tuning eye" tube \V/ which which old radios used to show when tuned into a station?

Now you have me hooked on these indicator vacuum tubes.
I have an old Schulmerich carillon whichas old vacuum tubes.

[Daniel]

Actually, Panaplex used a different type of gas, and they used a gas plasma to ignite a phosphor coating on each digit. Those neon displays they used to use on gas pumps are similar but they are a different technology, closer to a nixie.

Now that I think of it, the old NCR cash registers that my father sold and serviced had display segments that looked white when off, rather than metallic. They were orange, but less reddish than the display type I posted above. Also, I remember the high-pitched squeal when they were first powered up. Maybe there are different variations of a similar display. The ones in my clock look like the above photo, but don't appear to have any coating on the electrodes like a VFD. They appear to be bare metal, and illuminate the same color as most neon-filled devices do.

Robert: I have an old capacitance tester with a V-shaped tuning eye. There were many kinds of "magic eye" tubes with different images. I used to work on an old 25-note Schulmerich Basilican carillon built in 1954, but it had only a single, large, screw-base neon indicator inside a clear "bulls-eye" lens as a peak volume indicator.

Methinks this thread hath strayed far from sirens.