Increasing ice tube clock brightness even more?

[owens]

Hello,

I just put my ice tube clock together, works perfectly as soon as I plugged it in! Dispite the tube displaying a green instead of the aqua blue I was hoping for as advertised Been using it for a couple days now as my bed side alarm clock lol.

There's just one little niggly problem I have with it atm. During the day it's bright in my room so it makes the tube a bit harder to read.
I've noticed the last digit (right hand side) is also slightly faint than the rest of the display. I've set the brightness to as high as it can go but hasnt made that much of a difference.

I was wondering if there was an easy way of increasing the brightness even more than the maximum you can set at the moment?
Is it possible by using another power adapter with more Volts/Amps (safe), or mod the firmware to allow more Volts/Amps to the tube?

I'm aware that the more you increase the brightness, it will decrease the life span of the tube, but thats a risk I'm willing to take. I might order another tube just for future sakes if this one burns out

[adafruit]

going with a 12V -regulated- wall adapter may increase the voltage without having to rewrite the firmware
please check the FAQ for answers to some of your questions
http://www.ladyada.net/make/icetube/faq.html

[erikd]

My clock never got real bright either. Check your high voltage. I could not get more then 30volts dc out of mine with the tube installed. I replaced the 2200uh inductor with an 820uh inductor and now get about 54Vdc at max brightness. That being said, be careful increasing the high voltage. The zener diode will limit HV to 60vdc so you will want to stay below that. The VFD driver chip has a nominal voltage spec of 76vdc that should be your limit if you remove the zener. If you do, beef up D3 to one with a higher reverse breakdown voltage than the 60vdc which is currently used.

[adafruit]

please do not remove the zener diode. its there to protect the circuitry!

[stinkbutt]

Changing the output voltage of the voltage of the boost converter is relatively easy in the firmware, and while I don't imagine it's too terribly safe, it's no LESS safe then plugging in a 12V adapter vs. a 9V. In fact it might be slightly safer. Either way the boost converter's pushing more output voltage, but at least the rest of the system is still running off 9V stock.

In the stock firmware you want to find this code in iv.c, starting at line 969:

Code: Select all

      if (mode == SET_BRITE) {
   brightness += 5;
   if (brightness > 91)
     brightness = 30;
   display[7] = pgm_read_byte(numbertable_p + (brightness / 10)) | 0x1;
   display[8] = pgm_read_byte(numbertable_p + (brightness % 10)) | 0x1;
   if (brightness <= 30) {
     OCR0A = 30;
   } else if (brightness <= 35) {
     OCR0A = 35;
   } else if (brightness <= 40) {
     OCR0A = 40;
   } else if (brightness <= 45) {
     OCR0A = 45;
   } else if (brightness <= 50) {
     OCR0A = 50;
   } else if (brightness <= 55) {
     OCR0A = 55;
   } else if (brightness <= 60) {
     OCR0A = 60;
   } else if (brightness <= 65) {
     OCR0A = 65;
   } else if (brightness <= 70) {
     OCR0A = 70;
   } else if (brightness <= 75) {
     OCR0A = 75;
   } else if (brightness <= 80) {
     OCR0A = 80;
   } else if (brightness <= 85) {
     OCR0A = 85;
   } else if (brightness <= 90) {
     OCR0A = 90;
   } else {
     OCR0A = 30;
   }
      }
    }

And change it to this:

Code: Select all

      if (mode == SET_BRITE) {
   brightness += 5;
   if (brightness > 100)
     brightness = 30;
   display[7] = pgm_read_byte(numbertable_p + (brightness / 10)) | 0x1;
   display[8] = pgm_read_byte(numbertable_p + (brightness % 10)) | 0x1;
   if (brightness <= 30) {
     OCR0A = 30;
   } else if (brightness <= 35) {
     OCR0A = 35;
   } else if (brightness <= 40) {
     OCR0A = 40;
   } else if (brightness <= 45) {
     OCR0A = 45;
   } else if (brightness <= 50) {
     OCR0A = 50;
   } else if (brightness <= 55) {
     OCR0A = 55;
   } else if (brightness <= 60) {
     OCR0A = 60;
   } else if (brightness <= 65) {
     OCR0A = 65;
   } else if (brightness <= 70) {
     OCR0A = 70;
   } else if (brightness <= 75) {
     OCR0A = 75;
   } else if (brightness <= 80) {
     OCR0A = 80;
   } else if (brightness <= 85) {
     OCR0A = 85;
   } else if (brightness <= 90) {
     OCR0A = 90;
   } else if (brightness <= 95) {
     OCR0A = 95;
   } else if (brightness <= 100) {
     OCR0A = 100;
   } else {
     OCR0A = 30;
   }
      }
    }


You will also need to make similar changes to the boost init procedure which begins in iv.c in line 1330. There are other firmwares out there, with markedly different ways of handling the boost converter. If you use digisage's firmware, for example, he only requires you to change one little line of code, in iv.h (note: iv.h, not iv.c!) at line 44. You change:

Code: Select all

#define BRIGHTNESS_MAX 90


to

Code: Select all

#define BRIGHTNESS_MAX 100


or

Code: Select all

#define BRIGHTNESS_MAX 120


Or whatever.

I would caution you, however, I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THIS WILL DO. In theory it'll increase the output voltage of the boost converter, but I have never attempted this modification and have no intention of risking a perfectly serviceable tube to do so.

If the whole thing catches fire, explodes, and melts your face well, banned: Just head to Madagascar institute and join the club. They've got tee shirts.