VFD IV-18 clock firmware in .ino format available?

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WWJD
 
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VFD IV-18 clock firmware in .ino format available?

Post by WWJD »

Hi all... I'm just getting into VFD and Nixie tube stuff and I'm hooked...

Bought some IV-18 tubes...

I would love to make my own changes to the clock firmware (add live BANNED value display, GSM time setting etc.) from the 'x-mas' version but there's no .ino available?

If someone can help me, I would be very grateful.

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: VFD IV-18 clock firmware in .ino format available?

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

The xmas firmware was written by forum member jarchie and he maintains the gitbhub repo for it. Links can be found in his thread on the project: viewtopic.php?f=41&t=43836

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Re: VFD IV-18 clock firmware in .ino format available?

Post by jarchie »

Sorry if this comes too late, but on the off chance this is still of interest...

Similar to the original Adafruit firmware, the xmas firmware is AVR C code and not Arduino C code, so there is no .ino file associated with the project. The Ice Tube Clock design requires manual control over much of the ATmega328p hardware (e.g., timers, interrupts, analog-to-digital converter, watchdog timer, etc.). And since the Arduino environment tries to abstract away a lot of those low-level tasks, it would have been difficult to implement the project in the Arduino IDE.

As adafruit_support_bill wrote, my firmware is available on GitHub, and people are still using it. I've stopped adding features long ago, but am willing to fix bugs, if reported.

The xmas firmware is a large-ish project, and you'll need to have a copy of the ATmega328p datasheet handy to understand a lot of the hardware level stuff. But the project is well-organized and well-commented, so understanding it is not impossible if you have a knack for hacking code.

I guess my advice would be to start reading the source, and see for yourself if modifying it seems like a desirable next project. Maybe start with the main file--firmware/icetube.c--and then skim the other .c files.

Good luck and happy hacking!

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