This Fixie Clock Is Made Using OLED-Based “Fake Nixie” Tubes

Nixie tubes haven’t been manufactured in significant numbers for many decades, but they’ve experienced a huge revival in the maker community. They have a distinct retro aesthetic that is very popular for decorative displays like clocks. But because Nixie tubes haven’t been manufactured in a long time, the cost of NOS (New Old Stock) is just increasing more and more. They also aren’t very easy to work with, as they require high voltages. Derek Woodroffe of Extreme Electronics has developed an alternative Fixie Clock that utilizes inexpensive and readily-available OLED displays.

This Fixie Clock has “fixie tubes” (Fake Nixie) that are designed to replicate the look of Nixie tubes without the cost or hassle. These fixie tubes can be controlled easily with just about any modern development board or single-board computer, and operate at low voltages. Each digit is displayed on a small 0.96” 128 x 64 white OLED display, and a piece of laser-cut acrylic is positioned in front of each display. The acrylic is translucent orange, which makes glows like a real Nixie tube. The face of the acrylic also has a honeycomb pattern and the digit outlines engraved to sell the illusion. Small hexagonal jam jars act as the vacuum tubes that normally encase Nixie tubes.

The OLED displays are controlled by a Raspberry Pi Zero W via I2C connections. But the Raspberry Pi can only support a single I2C bus, and the displays only have two available I2C addresses. Five displays are required for the clock (the two seconds digits are shown on a single display), so Woodroffe had to order an I2C multiplexer breakout board from Pimoroni. That lets you control up to eight I2C buses from the single Raspberry Pi I2C bus. The clock’s enclosure was constructed from laser-cut MDF, and then painted. Finally, a few pieces of brass were used to cover up the enclosure’s joints and to add a bit of flair. The result looks almost as good as a real Nixie tube clock, but didn’t require any expensive vintage components.