Something I’ve been working on and modifying for the last few years. Every version gets a little more robust, and a little nicer looking. This, will definitely be the last version, I’m sick of rebuilding this thing.
Would you like to know more? >>
After more hours than I’d like to admit, even if I actually knew how many, I’m done. I started this, believe it or not, before the APC40 was even announced, and at the time there weren’t many products out there like it. Now, obviously it would make more sense to just buy one of those products, nevertheless, where are you gonna get an RGB monome with a nixie tube display that takes OSC commands? Exactly.
Would you like to know more? >>
I looked around the internet for a while for another way to do this that wouldn’t require opening up the mini, but the best I found was a method where you have to power off the mini every time before shutting down, then it will restart when you reconnect power. “eh….”. Ultimately, I was faced with a decision, was the humiliation of having to walk behind my rack every time I had to turn the computer on worth risking having to spend another $1k? I decided no, at first, then yes very shortly after I suffered such a humiliation. OK, so baring in mind that you risk destroying your computer if you screw up, and you defintiely void your warranty (no big deal, mac warranties are crap anyway IMO), you’ll need a soldering iron with a small tip, some electrical tape, an exacto knife or razor blade, and probably a clean surface just in case, a grounding strap would also be a good idea. Here’s how you do it, at your own risk of course!
Would you like to know more? >>
I’ve been putting nixie tubes in projects for a while now, following Nick de Smiths’s design found here. A really great write-up and explanation of how to make your own DC-DC converter for nixie tubes. The most important thing I’ve learned is that LAYOUT IS CRUCIAL. He emphasizes that in his write-up and you should really listen. (I tried otherwise once and failed miserably.) So the following is some results I got that I think would be useful to anyone considering building one into a project.
Would you like to know more? >>
I recently decided that instead of making a specialized PCB for every new project I work on, it would be a lot cheaper, and faster to make a controller that could handle just about everything I would need for the type of stuff I work on. The pictures above show the board being used in a future project. Would you like to know more? >>
