The Numitron: a minimum viable idea
Added 2024-06-29 18:26:52 +0000 UTCIt's time to make fun of RCA again!
In one of my video updates, I mentioned needing to build a clock and perhaps doing that as a livestreaming test. Well, this was the clock I had to build - but I quickly realized I am no good at talking while soldering, so I just cobbled it together off-screen.
I've known about these for a long time, but never got my hands on them until recently. As a matter of fact, it wasn't until I realized their point and connected it to the fact that "oh, these will work with any old educational clock kit" that I decided to pull the trigger and get some. Unfortunately my clock kit wasn't able to drive them at full-brightness, but it was enough to get the point across.
I'll probably hold off on releasing this until Monday, and I'll get started on captions now but am unlikely to be able to finish them tonight. We'll see.
Comments
Just an FYI, this vid showed up in the curated links section at https://www.damninteresting.com/curated-links/?after=99968
J.D. Laub
2024-07-08 17:26:28 +0000 UTCThe flat Versions of these I think have had a really good careere in avionics. There is a cockpit clock for Boeing that uses these, it´s called A15808 (9 digits) and A15802 (8 digits). I have build a new clock with these, and the original clocks are from 1979 and 1980. Very nice glow on these
DPHI
2024-07-03 19:38:15 +0000 UTCI remember it was an Exxon station, that's about all I remember.
Aloha
2024-07-02 18:03:04 +0000 UTCMe too! I remember exactly where, but not exactly when, other than it was in the late '80s or early '90s.
Evil Kyle
2024-07-02 17:57:45 +0000 UTCIt would still be interesting to see what's inside that box, I fully expected it to be an Arduino
Kehet
2024-07-02 11:11:43 +0000 UTCI remember something that looked like these in gas pumps! I thought they were seven segment neon (which was also a thing, GE used them in clock radios)
Aloha
2024-07-02 01:08:48 +0000 UTCYour focus on the name Numitron reminded me of something I wondered as a nixie tube collector: it seems like "Nixie" has settled into most languages as the name for the neon indicator tube, but in Czech auctions I've only seen Digitrony or Digitronové. I am not sure why that is. But in any case, "digitron" seems to follow the same naming scheme! If you do ever explore some nixie topics, happy to lend ya some rarer nixie tubes btw!
Alex
2024-07-01 19:21:09 +0000 UTCWell great, I never knew I wanted it, but now I need a video on mechanical numerical displays.
thane
2024-07-01 18:08:35 +0000 UTCI thought for a moment that these used nichrome resistive wire….toaster tubes!
LegitBinary
2024-07-01 16:28:00 +0000 UTCYou just reminded me to pin a comment, so thank you! And yes, I think if they had done something to make the filament look broader this would have worked a lot better. In person they don't look as bad as the camera makes them look much of the time, but they get harder to parse the closer you get to them which is wild
Technology Connections
2024-07-01 14:52:28 +0000 UTCI think this may be their most fatal flaw. You would need additional circuitry that shuts them down if any of the fillaments break to prevent all kinds of disasters.
RTT12
2024-07-01 14:52:10 +0000 UTCI wonder if those could have looked really good if they put Fresnel lenses and a matte filter infront of the wires, to render broader strokes. Or maybe just the matte filter.
RTT12
2024-07-01 14:48:43 +0000 UTCThank you for another great story
Dijkstra
2024-07-01 10:42:43 +0000 UTCOh that vfd clock has me like 😍
Sara Urban
2024-07-01 04:53:52 +0000 UTCGreat video. The last one not being fully screwed down was making my eye twitch lol.
Ted Ledbetter
2024-07-01 03:22:36 +0000 UTCDitto!!!
Markintosh
2024-06-30 15:04:36 +0000 UTCExactly, but I know I like them because they are uncommon, I've never seen them before... And as with Techmoan, everything which is uncommon, is cool to make a video about :-D.
MrHammond
2024-06-30 15:01:20 +0000 UTCI wonder if the grey background was an attempt to mitigate heat issues and increase lifespan. Black may have overheated.
Tyler Smith
2024-06-30 06:40:17 +0000 UTCI had never heard of these, and I’ve built more devices with 7- and 16-segment displays than anyone should. Thanks for making this! Also, when demonstrating the Numitrons in the darkness: nice.
cstone
2024-06-30 04:16:54 +0000 UTCIf you've not seen them yet, check out Posy's videos on display technologies, including various segmented display "fonts"/designs
Jerrad Pierce
2024-06-30 01:20:20 +0000 UTCThey look like something someone would make in their basement using old jars and heating filament, attached to a tiny piece of hastily painted particle board, all in a fever dream inspired crafting session. I love them.
Honorary Octopus
2024-06-30 00:42:33 +0000 UTCI'm curious what the operational life would be for the filaments in those. And what would really suck is if one segment goes out, causing it to produce a character that looks like a valid number, but is actually wrong. Like if you wanted to display the number 8, but it comes out as 0. Or maybe display 6, but it shows up as 5 instead.
The 8-Bit Guy
2024-06-29 23:09:50 +0000 UTCThere's a reason RCA went out of business in 1987.
Crash Cash
2024-06-29 22:47:47 +0000 UTCOther than the not-black background issue, I think these are all minor problems. You say it's janky, like there was anything that wasn't janky back then. My TRS-80 didn't have lowercase so they could save 95 cents by not including another ROM chip. They didn't include buffer chips on the expansion interface, so you had to put disk drives in a frying pan to avoid RFI. This fits perfectly in that era.
Crash Cash
2024-06-29 22:41:06 +0000 UTCYou know…I kinda LIKE them! lol. Pretty cool, even though they weren’t the best. Never heard of them before-thanks!
Markintosh
2024-06-29 21:30:27 +0000 UTCBeen watching for a while now. Love your videos. Got several I liked showing in my electrical classes. There’s always 1 or 2 students that groan at me lol. I’m like “What? This guy is informative and hilarious. What’s not to love?”
Jesse Lang
2024-06-29 21:16:35 +0000 UTCMy guess is the grey background was intentional, given the filament is so thin they expected the reflection from the background would "thicken" the segments a bit... but that only works in very specific conditions
Kilrah
2024-06-29 20:04:45 +0000 UTCIt definitely seems like a project born out of the "stamp out transistors" mindset of "help we're sinking we need to justify our existence *somehow* and quick"
Pietro Gagliardi
2024-06-29 19:26:07 +0000 UTCAs to why they released such a janky product, there was a business concept epitomized by the expression: "Why not run it up the flagpole and see who salutes?" This encapsulates releasing essentially a Beta version of a product and letting the feedback drive further development. If there isn't enough interest, they don't develop it further.
Mike Bird
2024-06-29 19:18:08 +0000 UTCThank you for making it possible!
Technology Connections
2024-06-29 18:39:22 +0000 UTCSir thank you for your work
Matheus Bitencourt
2024-06-29 18:30:56 +0000 UTC
