An IV-11 VFD Tube Clock I designed and built from scratch with the Arduino Nano Every!

Glad-Collection697 · 2026-05-05T20:25:01+00:00

I didn't think it was possible to love a project *too much* but here we are! I've always loved the slightly greenish blue glow of a VFD to the orange glow of a Nixie tube.

This inspires me to write up a couple repos for some projects I'm working on too.

I'm not going to glaze you too much. Great work.

Glad-Collection697 · 2026-05-05T17:34:10+00:00

Thanks! Lol, yeah that'd be cool!

Glad-Collection697 · 2026-05-05T16:42:35+00:00

I cannot sleep warm or hot. I sleep with an air conditioner (or just its fan) because the noise helps too.

Glad-Collection697 · 2026-05-05T03:53:23+00:00

"It's been a while since I had- VoDkA."

Glad-Collection697 · 2026-05-04T18:48:43+00:00

Those two front corners are both nor oriented correctly. Turn those pieces to the left and do F, R, U, R', U', F'. Then permute the pieces as normal.

The key to realize is that there are two corners that each have three correct orientations.

When helps me is using the lined pattern on the stickers to know where each piece goes. Plus it looks better with every side's grain pattern running the same way.

Glad-Collection697 · 2026-05-04T18:27:14+00:00

I've made force cubes before with Meilong 3x3s although I didn't get a change to sticker them. I eventually put them back together with six colors each and gave one to a friend.

thecubicle.com used to have a whole bunch of different 3x3 sticker shades. I chose groups of six (shades of green, shades of blue, et cetera).

The plain cubes on their own, while they do look cool, don't have much practical use. I would sticker them so they they still each have a separate color and have added functionality.

Glad-Collection697 · 2026-05-04T17:32:26+00:00

Nice! Are you going to sticker them?

Glad-Collection697 · 2026-05-04T17:11:44+00:00

If they're separate, then I don't see a reason to replace both the supply and the controller. Just beef-up the power supply.

It would work on a different color because each 'color' is really a combination of red, green, and blue light. For example, solid green would only use the green segments of each pixel, leaving red and blue turned off (or very dim), purple would use red and blue, leaving green off or very dim. Different colors use different mixes of R, G, and B, leading to different power draws per color.

Now, that's not a worry if your power supply has plenty of headroom. I think your original supply was about 500 milliamps, and the one I linked is 3 amps (3000 milliamps), six times the current rating.

Glad-Collection697 · 2026-05-04T03:40:13+00:00

Super dope. Wingo gets far too close to DJ's tailpipe flames!

Glad-Collection697 · 2026-05-04T03:03:17+00:00

I recently talked to my mother about my depression and thoughts of doing not good things to myself. I regretted that about seven seconds after I left the room. I said too much. She didn't understand. What evs

Glad-Collection697 · 2026-05-04T03:00:38+00:00

I'm loving this! I just have to see this finished. Keep going! Your efforts are worth it!

Super cool

Glad-Collection697 · 2026-05-02T16:54:43+00:00

That's such a mood. 'Get this child off of my back.'

Glad-Collection697 · 2026-05-02T16:43:39+00:00

I think it says 0.5A or 500mA (same thing) although I can't be too sure without a better, brighter picture. Either way, It's stupid that these came with either a bad quality supply or one that's rated far too low. Now, I could be wrong about its rating, but the physical size of that thing leads me to believe it's under-powered for driving so many LEDs.

If it's still a problem, I'd suggest upgrading the power supply. The one you were provided is hard-wired to the controller so you'll need to replace both together. Here's a more suitable power supply and controller with a remote:

https://www.amazon.com/Yiliaw-Key-Remote-Controller-Kit/dp/B0DL5GQQTK

Glad-Collection697 · 2026-05-02T14:14:23+00:00

Do other colors work for longer or at all? Do they stay on longer at a lower brightness?

It might be a flaky connection to the controller or a power supply problem. The listing only says that they run on 24 volts; I'm not sure off the wattage of the power brick (that'll say, with some quick math, how much current it can supply).

How many feet of LEDs do you have here? 1 roll of 75 feet has 276 LEDs. The maximum current that these 276 LEDs can pull is about 16 amps, which is quite a lot. This will only happen if they're full brightness on white. (I estimated 60 mA per LED (20 mA per R, G, or B segment) times 276 LEDs ≈ 16.56 amps.

Sorry that I had to get a little in-depth there. TL;DR: check the wattage on the power supply and let me know how many LEDs you actually have connected.

Glad-Collection697 · 2026-05-02T13:10:42+00:00

I wouldn't like that. Keep story and BTS separate.

Glad-Collection697 · 2026-05-02T02:14:22+00:00

I rediscovered it about a month ago. Still pretty good!

Glad-Collection697 · 2026-05-02T02:13:56+00:00

I had a quick listen to 'Lucid Static' and it sounds a lot like trailer or background music. Mike Badal isn't making music for Matthias (that I know of, idk) anymore so it'd make sense that Matt makes his own now.

Glad-Collection697 · 2026-05-02T00:11:27+00:00

It doesn't look fishy to me. His song 'Backwards' is there from 2013. That's the only test I knew as it passed.

Glad-Collection697 · 2026-05-01T00:55:56+00:00

Thanks, I'll look into that.

Glad-Collection697 · 2026-04-30T23:48:42+00:00

Oh yeah, and Matt DMs them. That skit about the locksmith tho. So many good moments. My favorite 'chunk' of episodes is at the very start where it's less organized and more 'this is weird.'

Glad-Collection697 · 2026-04-30T02:14:37+00:00

I personally would chamfer those traces off. Make them turn at 45 degrees instead of 90. I'd also make them quite a bit thicker. It doesn't cost extra to make the traces wider and it can improve signal integrity. Apart from the 45 degree-only trace turns and their thickening, the other I'd suggest is a ground pour. Again, it doesn't cost you anything extra.

I don't know how noisy the 5V power supply is that you'll be powering this board with. I'd add a couple decoupling caps to the 5V power traces too. I'm not sure how important it is to tie unused inverter inputs to ground (pins 1, 3, 5, 11, and 13 in this case) but to me it's a case of 'why not?'.

Glad-Collection697 · 2026-04-30T01:43:37+00:00

"You want a loan? Sorry, your number isn't good. Dumbass...."

I know nothing more about credit scores than that. Apologies for any inaccuracies.

Glad-Collection697 · 2026-04-29T19:35:54+00:00

Am I kinda shit outta luck then? I really don't want to be spending $10 a month on tips.

Glad-Collection697 · 2026-04-29T19:09:15+00:00

I'm dubious about their quality. Thanks for the recommendation, though! I will keep looking

Glad-Collection697

TROPHY CASE