I started making a clock with Nixie tubes.

What is the Nixie tube?

Nixie Tube is a cold cathode display, a special kind of neon lamp that can display numbers from 0 to 9(or alphabetic or special characters - like IN-15 series) .

▲ Glowing IN-14 nixie tube.

So, why did I choose IN-12A?

▲ IN-12A nixie tube and its datasheet.

Because IN-12A is relatively inexpensive compared to other tubes. And I like top-view nixies too. IN-12A nixie tube is the top-view nixie that has 18mm height of digits. Some Nixie tubes that made from soviet, such as IN-12A or IN-14, use number '5' with '2' turned over(Like the top IN-14 photo). It is a bit distracting, but it is not severe.

How can I drive the nixie tube?

Nixie tube works at high voltage, so you can drive it with HV5622 chips, or 74141 (K155ID1).

How will the project proceed in the future?

 ▶ Use the HV5622 serial-to-parrarel converter to drive nixies.

 ▶ Make a HV boost converter and a 5VDC buck converter.

 ▶ Make three PCBs - Nixie board, Main board, Power converter board

I'm going to make a main board that has ATMEGA328P MCU and HV5622.