"Lixie"- a LED Alternative to the Nixie Tube

My inspiration

I've always been a fan of the Nixie Tube. Beautiful typography, endearing glow, and very clever technology. But when commercial production stopped in the 1990s, prices for surplus Nixie Tubes began to rise. Smaller tubes like the IN-16 are still only about $3.50/piece, but bigger and more desirable tubes like the IN-18 can run up to $45/piece. If you wanted to make a 6-digit clock, it can cost up to $270 just for the tubes! And they're potentially dangerous. And they might "burn out" next week. And they need special switching circuitry. And they're old news.

So let's modernize the Nixie Tube!

How I did it

Edge-lighting panes of acrylic etched with a design has been done for decades, but they've always been static information like an "EXIT" sign. If you stack multiple panes of acrylic (each with a unique design) and light them individually, you can change what design the user sees!

This makes edge-lighting perfect for a numeric display! And since I love the look of Nixies, we'll emulate the typography as well. At the end of the day, what I've made is a beautiful over-sized numeric display using WS2812Bs and a laser cut digit assembly!

We'll call it a "Lixie".

The Lixie has an extremely simple setup, just connect the 5V, GND, and DIN pads to an Arduino and use the Lixie library to write a digit to the display! That's it! No HV switching, PCB footprint, or worries!

Since the Lixie is just wired like a WS2812B strip, you can connect the DOUT pin of one to the next and show a number as long you'd like!

Here is a video demonstrating the result: