Scope Clock

[Mike_2545]

Hello all,

I have seen these Scope Clocks on E-bay and I see Dutchtronix puts out a kit. Well I couldn't resist and bought the kit. Anyone else have one?

I think it completes the uber-geek look I was going for.

 

[Speakerguy]

If someone would make a cable TV scope kit, that would be awesome. My Tek has a 16:9 color LCD. Hmmm.... maybe that'll be my next project.

 

[Hero999]

Please use attachements rather than annoying sites like Photobucket.

Does the kit convert a normal scope to a clock?

Will it work with digital scopes?

 

[JimB]

Will it work with digital scopes?

Maybe it will display a digital clock!
JimB

 

[Mike_2545]

Hero999,

Sorry about the photobucket, I have changed to thumbnail.
Yes it will work with an analog scope anything over 1 or 2 Mhz I would go with 5 Mhz to be safe. The clock can generate anywhere from 0.5V to 5V on each axis. Make sure the scope in question has an XY mode, this will not work in timebase mode.

Digital, no won't work with cheep ones, maybe higher end digital.

It will display a binary clock

 

[duffy]

Pretty neat. Looks like it would need to use the Z-axis input to blank the retrace. Have you got a way to keep it from burning the phosphor?

 

[Mike_2545]

Just an X&Y input (If you look real close you can see faint connecting lines on the dial)

The program in the AVR has a "shift" built in to slightly move the clock face every hour.

 

[Video Warrior]

You might like this one:
Cathode Corner - home of the Nixie Watch and Scope Clock

 

[Mike_2545]

Video Warrior,
That is the exact one that got me looking in the first place. Did you see the price tag? It looks like he has stopped making them.

 

[Video Warrior]

I did see the price tag; as I have one of them. Yes, there has been some interruption in David's production of them, I believe there were some health issues mentioned.

More chatter about all this on the neonixie mailing list on Yahoo!, if anyone wants to stop over there..

 

[Mike_2545]

I did see the price tag; as I have one of them.

You have the "mother of all Scope Clocks"? OK, now I'm a bit jealous. Pleeassse post a picture so I may drool...

 

[Video Warrior]

Sigh. Alright- you got me; now I have to actually finish stuffing and soldering the board, I suppose. This will be good incentive to "get 'er done" at least. I'll bump one of the twenty or so other projects down on the list a little.

 

[duffy]

Hey, a circle generator. Remember that "math board" from the one Exidy game with the vector display?

Looks like that kit's more than just a scope clock - looks like it's the whole freakin' scope!

 

[Mike_2545]

Sigh. Alright- you got me; now I have to actually finish stuffing and soldering the board, I suppose. This will be good incentive to "get 'er done" at least.

I thought David only sold complete units. I didn't know he sold kits
If you bought a kit how long ago? His web site was last updated in 2005. How long does it take to put together a kit? WAIT a minuet...are you Pulling my leg? No, I don't believe that anyone would kid about owning one of David's Scope Clocks. Would they. Why would any one do that? Am I upset? I don't sound upset, do I?

Then post Pictures of the parts of the Scope Clock and I'll drool over them.

 

[Mike_2545]

I saw, somewhere out on the web, someone had a scope that had a clock running on it one moment and then...they were playing asteroids on it the next. I would really like to know how they did that.

 

[Video Warrior]

My "kit" consists of all the parts, and a (partially-stuffed) PCB. I understand that David did also offer the kits assembled and tested with a CRT, if you wanted that. I have an old 5-inch DuMont electrostatic CRT I am going to drive with it. I'm embarrassed to say how long I have had the kit.

Duff, do you mean "Vertigo"?: http://www.gamearchive.com/Video_Games/Danger_Dan/cabinets/vertigo_cockpit.jpg
http://www.gamearchive.com/Video_Games/Danger_Dan/cabinets/vertigo_screen.jpg
I don't specifically recall a "math board" in that one, but we didn't see too many of that Logic Set come through for repair. Wouldn't surprise me a bit (get it??) though. The Atari AVG logic sets were all doing 16-bit math at 12MHz, remember the mighty 2901s on them? With the state machines for them decoded from bipolar PROM? Battlezone, Red Baron, Tempest.. all had essentially the same mathbox.

 

[Video Warrior]

Oh.. and asteroids runs just fine on a scope. Either they happened to have an Asteroids logic board there, and just switched the signals onto the scope amps, or they hacked some Asteroids-style code into whatever hardware was generating their scopeclock. Original Asteroids ran on something like 6K of code in ROM and a 6502. Disgustingly easy to get that much functionality out of a PIC or something these days.

 

[Mike_2545]

Well I'm glad you were not pulling my leg. Still I'd love to see some pictures when you get the time to put it together.
I'll have to search for an Asteroids game, that would be a fun addition to my retro looking Scope Clock.

 

[duffy]

Looks like Vertigo was the one. Check the inside of the cabinet, there was a separate board just to do the circles.

 

[HiTech]

What a shame to burn in an image like that on a TEK scope! At least use an old crappy B&K or something similar.