> >> >A real gem. Pity there is no schematic available:
> >> >
> >> >  http://www.wps.com/projects/instruments/Cubic-V45/index.html
> >> >
> >> >Peter P.
> >> >
> >> Fascinating instrument, a real gem as you say.  I'm not 
> sure I agree 
> >> with the authors suggestion that "Display technology has improved 
> >> only slightly" though!
> >> 
> >> Regards
> >> 
> >> Mike
> >
> >
> >What to do when Nixies haven't been invented yet.  Years ago I came 
> >across Nixies, and figured I could emulate the display by, 
> you guessed 
> >it, etching numbers in glass, edge lit & stacked.  Worked 
> nicely as a 
> >clock, and I was suitably chuffed at my technical progress.
> >
> >I was less chuffed when I discovered voltmeters like this, and even 
> >less when I found out the Russians did it 30 or so years before that.
> >
> >I've been meaning to make a 7 seg version, you only need 7 pieces of 
> >glass/plastic per digit then.
> >
> >Tony
> 
> If you had enough sheets you could even make a dot matrix display :-)
> 
> Mike


That thought had not occurred to me.  Probably a good thing.

Hmmm.

7 thin strips, a dot on each, being one vertical line.  5 strips for a
typical display, so 35 pieces.  A clock needs at least 4 displays, so that's
4 x 5 x 7, or 140 pieces.  With LEDs @ 20mA, that's pushing 3 amps.

It's hard to cut thin strips of glass, 5mm should be ok.  Assembled would be
35 x 25mm per 'number'.

Bi-colour can be done by having a LED at each end of the glass strip (window
glass is 3mm, for pictures it's 2mm).  Gosh, where would I find a 2 x 5mm
LED?

I'll add it to the pile.  Don't expect much progress  :)

Tony

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