Programming a Nixie Clock

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popssss
 
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Programming a Nixie Clock

Post by popssss »

I'm very new to the site, and new to this technology so I'm gonna ask questions that you guys could answer as easy as 1+1...but for me it's LJKHK=JHJ&HHY...gibberish....

So I have a nixie clock from here:
http://www.pvelectronics.co.uk/index.ph ... 8994b5d5e9

and I wonder if one of the beaglebones kits you have would let me program it?

so I have no idea what the beagle bones does except for what the one video I saw had, a guy programming an LED display to repeat something.

I have a PC with Linux Mint, and Ubuntu 11.04, and a MACBook Pro, can I use the beaglebones to dig into them and reprogram stuff? don't ask me what I'd reprogram, but if I wanted to make a hackintosh, can the beaglebones help out too? I'd love to learn security and hacking, and 3D Printing...can this help me out...

thanks guys, and I hope you get one of the IceCube clock back in stock, so I can make one of them.

I hope to learn more too...thanks

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Programming a Nixie Clock

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

popssss wrote:I'm very new to the site, and new to this technology so I'm gonna ask questions that you guys could answer as easy as 1+1...but for me it's LJKHK=JHJ&HHY...gibberish....
Actually, it's a bit more like calculus.. a very dense and efficient form of communication, but you have to absorb a lot of background before it makes sense.
popssss wrote:So I have a nixie clock from here:
http://www.pvelectronics.co.uk/index.ph ... 8994b5d5e9

and I wonder if one of the beaglebones kits you have would let me program it?
Yes, but you'd be making life harder for yourself.
popssss wrote:so I have no idea what the beagle bones does except for what the one video I saw had, a guy programming an LED display to repeat something.
Short version: The BeagleBone is a small computer.. pretty much the same as your Linux box. The main difference is that a regular computer handles most of the electrical-level communication with other devices (keyboards, printers, etc) beind the scenes. The BeagleBoard gives you access to the hardware at a very low level.

If you want to program your Nixie clock, your best bet will be a device called a 'programmer' that connects to your regular computer. There are several different kinds, and it's easy to find an inexpensive one that will work well. You could program a BeagleBone to act like a programmer, but A) I think that might be above your challenge rating right now, and B) the roll-your-own option is generally best for people who have experience with the subject and want something specific.
popssss wrote:I have a PC with Linux Mint, and Ubuntu 11.04, and a MACBook Pro, can I use the beaglebones to dig into them and reprogram stuff? don't ask me what I'd reprogram, but if I wanted to make a hackintosh, can the beaglebones help out too? I'd love to learn security and hacking, and 3D Printing...can this help me out...
Phew..

Translating that to construction terms, you've just said something like, "I want to make a 1/4-scale model of Stonehenge and the Eiffel Tower, plus maybe a couple of bank vaults and the Louvre.. will this backhoe help me? I'm new to building stuff."

There's a lot of here-to-there between here and all those specific theres. I'll give you points for enthusiasm, the trick is to see whether the enthusiasm will carry you over the grind of learning all the intermediate stuff between "I want to make X" and "I know how to make X."

For now, I'd suggest you narrow the focus to "I want to program my Nixie clock" and do a few things:

First, before you even buy a PIC programmer, find the source code for the clock's existing firmware and read it. Read it several times, until you're sure you know exactly what it's doing.

While you're doing that, start building your reference library. There are groups out there specifically dedicated to PIC programming (we lean a little more toward AVR and Arduino here), there are datasheets for the microcontrollers themselves, there are references on programming in general, etc. The list never ends, the list of stuff you've already seen just keeps getting longer.

Then buy a PIC programmer and a cheap PIC development board and get comfortable with what's called your 'toolchain'.. all the bits of hardware and software that go between "I'm punching keys on my computer" and "the firmware is running in the microcontroller."

Copy parts of the clock's code into the dev board, get used to how they work, and get a feel for what happens when you modify them. After you've done that for a while, you'll have a much better idea of what parts of your clock's firmware you want to change, and a much better idea of how to do it.

Once you've done all that, you'll have started down the road called 'hacking'.. but just so you know, the farther you go, the more you have to learn.

Some of us consider that just insanely fun.

popssss
 
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Re: Programming a Nixie Clock

Post by popssss »

that's excellent advice...I wouldn't have thought to get the programming the clock came with.

I think I can get a hold of that, so I'll do some looking for a programmer and take step one.

I used to be a programmer back in the 1980s, COBOL, yeah...it worked fine in it's day, and I'm very rusty doing only a little VB with MS Access.

so I'll hopefully be monitoring the web and looking into the nixie programming...I figured it was quite complex, and I'll eventually get there.

thanks a bunch really.

popssss
 
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Re: Programming a Nixie Clock

Post by popssss »

I went backto the clock website and found this
the main controller is the mighty PIC16F1936 running at 16Mhz. The code is programmed entirely in the ‘C’ programming language.

so I guess I can start with a programmer for the PIC 16F1936...if it's in "C" it shouldn't be too difficult to mod.

popssss
 
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Re: Programming a Nixie Clock

Post by popssss »

I think this might do the trick
Building the Inchworm ICD2 PIC Programmer / Debugger

<http://www.instructables.com/id/Buildin ... BANNED/#step1>

what do you think mstone...?

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Programming a Nixie Clock

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

popssss wrote:I used to be a programmer back in the 1980s, COBOL,
Oh good Lord.. you suffered through that too?

Grace Hopper was an amazing person, and she opened territory no one else knew existed before she got there. I just have to work a little to imagine COBOL being a great and amazing thing for its day. We used to entertain ourselves by seeing if we could get school memos to compile.
popssss wrote:so I'll hopefully be monitoring the web and looking into the nixie programming...I figured it was quite complex, and I'll eventually get there.
That part shouldn't be too bad. In the long run, it's just a matter of turning switches on and off. The clock's firmware is your best reference for how it's all done though.. copy what works, futz with it 'til it doesn't, then figure out why.
Last edited by adafruit_support_mike on Sun Aug 26, 2012 1:23 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Programming a Nixie Clock

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

popssss wrote:I think this might do the trick
Building the Inchworm ICD2 PIC Programmer / Debugger

<http://www.instructables.com/id/Buildin ... BANNED/#step1>

what do you think mstone...?
I've never used that device (never heard of it until you posted the link), but the idea of a programmer that also lets you single-step through the code sounds good. It also claims to be compatible with Microchip's MPLAB development environment, which is 'home turf' for PIC programming.

The biggest question I have is, "can you connect it to one of your computers?" The images show a 9-pin D connector that hooks to a PC's serial port, but PCs with serial ports are getting rare these days. That's one of the reasons the Arduino is so popular: it has USB built in.

If you can make it work, I'd say give it a go. Most programmers do a pretty good job, it's mostly a matter of getting used to the quirks of the one you have. That comes with a few hundred rounds of hooking things up and putting the toolchain through its paces.

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