Fresh off the press – some photos of the Oscilloblock – Summer Dusk edition in its new home! The owner is clearly a huge Nixie tube and neon aficionado, but this is his very first CRT clock. What a fitting environment!
Ahh, summer – it’s well and truly over. But one person in the world is able to enjoy the warm, cheery feeling of summer every single day: the proud new owner of this beautiful Oscilloblock – Summer Dusk edition!
Truly the best thing to come out of the lab this summer – the Oscilloblock!
The Exterior
This playful timepiece features a Lego art case, painstakingly designed and constructed by Oscilloclock lab’s junior technician from a whopping 548 brand-new Lego parts sourced from around the globe. No expenses spared! Even the control knob is actually a Lego Technics gear. And just in case the owner wanted to take it apart and build it all over again, we included a 140-step Lego building guide in the package. Good luck!
The Oscilloblock features a good-looking 1970’s 3-inch (75mm) flat-faced CRT from Toshiba, with the iconic scripted logo in great condition on the base. At the rear is a scarce brown bakelite CRT socket, which are very hard to find complete with the rear insulating cap! The harness consists of tough 3kV tolerant silicone-sheathed cabling, shielded over most of its length to reduce electromagnetic interference.
Wow, these vintage bakelite CRT sockets are hard to find!No doubts about authenticity!
One design goal was to have more than 90% of the CRT’s surface area completely exposed for viewing and touching, as opposed to encasing it in acrylic. Borne from this was a tremendous achievement for 2015: a new CRT ring support structure!
Acrylic rings with super-tiny pocket holes… cast and machined in Japan!
Internals
The internals of the clock are equally exquisite. A set of latest-revision Oscilloclock control, deflection and power boards drive the CRT at 2.1kV, providing a crystal-clear, ultra-bright trace. And of couse, every figure and character is generated using silky-smooth Circle Graphics.
The CRT assembly simply lifts away for showing off the internals! But DON’T TOUCH…Latest-revision boards. 250+ components. All hand-mounted!On-board GPS for accurate timing – anywhere in the world!
Operation
There is only one control. It’s intuitive. It’s fun. It’s simple! Visit my YouTube channel to see various Oscilloclocks in operation.
But not everything is obvious, and Oscilloclocks all ship with an Operation Guide, with content specific to each and every unique unit. Here’s a snippet from the Oscilloblock’s guide:
No Oscilloclock model ships without a decent Operation Guide!
Like what you see?
There’s really no limit to what can be done with a CRT and an idea! It was my son’s idea to use Lego, and he is proud to know there is nothing in the world quite like this Oscilloblock. See the Gallery for other equally unique creations.
The rainy season is officially over, and the long heat of summer has taken command. But here at Oscilloclock.com, we plan to sweat it out in air-conditioned comfort at…
Visit our booth and check out several new models! First up is the fabulous 2015 edition Oscilloblock. One unit will go on sale at the event!
Recently I received a most intriguing request: I was asked to build a self-contained, super-bright X-Y display unit with 3-inch CRT, for use in an “HUD“. Hmm…
Fortunately, I didn’t need to guess any further. As I was once an avid flight simulator enthusiast, I quickly hit upon the correct meaning: Head-Up Display. This is a mechanism that overlays instrumentation or map data onto the view looking forward from the cockpit, so that the pilot doesn’t have to look down to see this information.
Wikipedia has a great introduction to HUDs and their history, but Mike’s Flight Deck has the definitive tome for flight simulator enthusiasts who want to actually build an HUD. According to Mike, the system employs various optical paraphernalia, but at the heart of the mechanism is what lies closest to my own heart – a CRT Display!
An Oscilloclock 3-inch X-Y-Z display unit, optimized for use in an HUD(more…)
I believe in reincarnation. Every vintage device sporting a CRT deserves to live again, to be loved again, to lift someone’s spirits again. And in 2014, this beautiful Toshiba ST-1248D received its chance, born again as a suave Oscilloclock!
Manufactured sometime in the mid to late 1950’s, the ST-1248D was extremely well-designed and assembled, compared to other compact models available on the domestic Japanese market at that time. The engineers considered both function and form – latched panels on the side and back, delicately laced wiring, and a relatively spacious interior conducive to heat removal and circuit reliability. But the delightful brass bezel is what really makes this one of the most beautiful Oscilloclock conversions ever.
