Tag: ブラウン管

  • Astro Clock
    Metropolis Time

    A few years ago, we introduced Metropolis Time, a time system based on the 20-hour, two-shift days featured in Fritz Lang’s iconic movie Metropolis.

    Since then, we’ve received a few requests to craft clocks that display some other calendar and time systems – from the ancient and archaic, to the religious, to the scientific.

    That’s Astronomical!

    Today’s exciting story began with a request from [Alan], a prominent amateur astronomer. He happened to have a lovely Tektronix 620 X-Y Monitor lying around, and wanted to turn it into a clock.

    Well, that would be easy – the Oscilloclock Bare is a bare-bones controller assembly that can be used to drive an oscilloscope or XY monitor that meets certain requirements (for the techies: a DC coupled Z-axis amplifier). And the Tek 620 is perfect – wonderfully performant, and perfectly compatible. Job done! Right?

    Oscilloclock Bare + Tek 620 + scientific passion = Astro Clock!

    No way! [Alan] didn’t want just any old clock. The custom splash screen above was pretty cool, but could his clock display something called “sidereal time“?

    Yes! Anything is possible, and here’s what we ended up delivering: several custom clock faces showing sidereal time (in both analog and digital formats), in addition to all the standard screens that are based on solar time.

    The shipped Astro Clock assembly!

    But what is sidereal time?

    A Solar day

    Well, most normal human beings and their clocks like to measure a 24 hour day by using the Sun as a reference point. One solar day is the time it takes for the Earth to spin on its axis enough and see the Sun at the same height in the sky as the previous day.

    For example, let’s say it’s 1 May 2023. It’s lovely weather out, and you happen to notice that the Sun reached its highest point in the sky at 12:30 pm. The next day, 2 May, you would find the Sun at its highest point at — you guessed it! — 12:30 pm. And if you ignore man-made tweaks such as daylight savings, you find the Sun is always at its highest point at 12:30 pm*, year-round, looking from the same location.

    *This is not quite true – because every day is slightly shorter or longer. But it averages out over the year.

    A sidereal day

    Sidereal time, on the other hand, uses the distant stars as a reference point to measure 24 hours. One sidereal day is the time it takes for the Earth to spin on its axis enough to see the same distant star at the same height in the sky as the previous day.

    Because the Sun is so close, and a distant star is so (relatively) far, there is a difference in the length of a sidereal day compared to a solar day. A sidereal day turns out to be approximately 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4.0905 seconds.

    Confused? I don’t blame you. This video should help:

    History and Sidereal clocks

    According to this brilliant post, the concept and utility of sidereal time has been around a very long time. The length of a sidereal day was even calculated to a surprisingly high level of accuracy some 1,500 years ago!

    Here are two surviving sidereal clocks that were made “recently” – just a few centuries ago.

    But who on Earth would use sidereal time?

    Astronomers would.

    Most people don’t look at the boring old Sun all the time. We look out to the stars and galaxies far, far beyond our solar system. If an astronomer wants to track the position of Betelgeuse day after day, she can record the sidereal time that she saw it, and know that it’ll be at the same ascension at the same sidereal time the following day. Brilliant!

    Mariners and Astronauts would.

    They can fix their location even when the Sun is not visible, by observing the position of the stars and calculating their position back from the current sidereal time. Life-saving!

    Oscilloclock Labs would.

    Because we can.


    In the next post, we’ll take a look at the build. What hardware went into this Astro Clock? How on earth does it tick? Can you figure it out?

  • New Year’s Resolution!

    Q: “What’s your New Year’s Resolution?
    A: “Why, 1024 x 768, of course!”

    Geeky jokes aside, here at the Oscilloclock lab we DO have a form of New Year’s resolution! 「日進月歩Nisshin-geppo, which loosely translates as “Steady progress day by day“, reflects the goal to complete the the once-in-a-decade re-design work, and resume crafting beautiful Oscilloclock products. It also highlights confidence that issues currently facing the wider world will be overcome, one step at a time.

    In keeping with local traditions, [Oscilloboy] wrote the slogan in Japanese calligraphy. But there, tradition ended and true joy began! Behold, courtesy of an Oscilloclock VGA Core assembly, Oscilloclock’s 2021 New Year’s resolution on a beautiful old 7-inch oscilloscope!

    The Setup

    After choosing an appropriately meaningful four-character phrase for our resolution, I asked [Oscilloboy] to write out the characters. Bucking with tradition, we used standard white A4 paper instead of calligraphy paper. The ink took more time to dry, but we wanted to maximize the contrast.

    After scanning the handwritten characters and inverting the images, I created a rolling video in 1024 x 768 resolution. (See? The joke at the beginning of the post about resolution was serious, after all!)

    I then played this through an Oscilloclock VGA Core assembly, which is essentially a graphics card that allows you to use a beautiful old CRT as a rudimentary computer display. (For earlier write-ups, see VGA display… On a 3″ scope tube! and The VGA Cube! .

    The assembly used here features a late prototype of the Revision 3 Power Board, which I have been working on for almost a year. I won’t go into all the bells & whistles yet. Stay tuned!

    A VGA Core assembly – displays monochrome images from VGA, SVGA and XGA inputs

    Unlike a permanent Oscilloclock conversion (see the Gallery for examples), this was only a temporary setup. The VGA Core was positioned externally, with the harness routed into the 7VP1(F) CRT via the rear of one of the side panels. No invasive procedures needed!

    Just LOOK at that beautiful CRT socket – brown Bakelite!

    No VGA socket on your ultramodern slim notebook of choice? No problem – use an off-the-shelf HDMI to VGA converter!

    And voila – the final result! Japanese calligraphy on a vintage 7″ oscilloscope!


    About the Model – A rare 1963 Nitsuki Oscilloscope

    Nitsuki is the brand name of Japan Communication Equipment Co., Ltd., a specialist in television and microwave broadcasting systems. The firm’s English name was originally Nihon Tsushinki Co., Ltd., so you can see how the Nitsuki moniker came about.

    Check out this exquisite cap on the pilot lamp!

    By 1963, the Japan domestic test equipment market was mature and quite competitive. English language labeling had become stock-standard. This scope is one of very few units I have ever obtained that has Japanese labeling. How appropriate for today’s display!

    Japanese labeling – a rarity!

    Some of the higher-quality oscilloscopes of this era featured flip-latches and detachable side panels, for easy access. See the Toshiba ST-1248D for another example. These scopes are infinitely more enjoyable to work with and show off than scopes with a slide-out chassis.

    This model is also quite unusual for its time in that most of the components are located under the chassis! The valves (tubes, if you prefer) are even mounted horizontally. Nitsuki used very robust construction techniques, including very tidy cable lacing.

    In fact, their design was so robust that the scope functions almost perfectly today (except for some triggering instability), yet there is no evidence of major repairs in the last 57 years!

    Back to its natural self – a nice old 7-inch 1963 oscilloscope!

    Like what you see?

    The Oscilloclock lab struggled in 2020 due to worldly events, but NOW – day by day, step by step, the newly designed Oscilloclock boards are at last taking shape! Does your New Year’s ‘resolution’ for your next project specify 1024 x 768? Or perhaps you’re into displaying fancy calligraphy on vintage CRTs? Let me know.

    And as always, see previous posts and the Gallery for info on other unique creations!


    Critical Update 25 December 2021

    Well. Christmas Day 2021, and [Oscillowife] — the chief editor, advisor and critic extraordinaire — just informed me that I had placed [Oscilloboy]’s first character「upside down when creating this post! Apologies to our readers for the gross oversight.

    It’s been 12 months! But better late than never to eat humble pie…
  • For those cat lovers out there, let me present one beautiful kitten who knows his place in life: bedded down amongst some beautiful Brimar CRTs!

    Cathode-ray Cat

    This picture, submitted by an Oscilloclock aficionado, proves that there ARE others with an intense passion for CRTs out there. And this group now includes the feline species!

    Anyone out there have a capacity-controlled canine? An electron-excitable echidna? Or a filly with a phosphor fetish? Let me know!

  • Brimar Beauties for Plug & Play

    [Atif] is quite fond of his custom Oscilloclock Model 1, originally supplied with a bright green Brimar SE5F/P31 CRT. He just loves its crisp, clear trace! But wouldn’t it be great if he could plug-and-play a different CRT, to suit his mood of the day?

    [Atif]’s Oscilloclock Model 1 SE5F with P31 green phosphor… Could we change the mood?

    More specifically, could I create a second display unit (the acrylic tube on the left) using a CRT with a soft, long-persistence blue trace? And could he just swap the units around at will, without having to make any changes to the control unit?

    Absolutely! But to make the 2nd unit completely compatible for plug-and-play, we’d need the same SE5F type CRT, with a different phosphor. Looking at Brimar’s catalogue, this CRT was available in several phosphors – including a P7 blue. This is the same as used in the original Prototype, and it’s really good at showing off those exotic trailing effects!

    SE5F P7 specs

    So the hunt began…

    Now, this particular P7 CRT is famously difficult to come by – whether new OR used.

    The most common piece of old equipment employing the SE5F was the ubiquitous Telequipment S51 oscilloscope, but the overwhelming majority of those had a P31 phosphor CRT installed. Indeed, of all the demonstrably working S51’s posted on eBay in the past decade, I have never seen a single one showing an obviously blue trace!

    After many months of scouring auctions, suppliers and CRT fanatic colleagues across the globe, I managed to locate one SE5F/P7 in highly questionable condition – and located in Italy! With Google Translate as my friend, negotiations ensued, and – taking a substantial risk that the CRT would actually function – the unit was duly purchased and shipped.

    A dirty, slightly rusty SE5F/P7 CRT – snatched from the brinks of destruction in Italy

    Often, well-used CRTs exhibit scratches, spots, or burn-in marks on the internal phosphor coating. Fortunately, this CRT’s phosphor proved unblemished! And powering it up (for the first time in decades, most likely), it proved to be electrically faultless, as well!

    It works!

    Beautifying the Brimar

    You may think that cleaning a CRT is hardly worth writing home (or the world) about.

    Eucalyptus oil is amazing

    But this specimen was slathered in sticky, gooey tape residue, which had to be carefully removed. My chemical of choice for this is, believe it or not, eucalyptus oil! Not only does it remove the gunk, but it also serves to clear up any nasal or bronchial congestion that the technician may have at the time. Two birds with one stone!

    The more difficult issue was removal of the graphite coating. During manufacture, the front-most 8 cm of the glass of each SE5F was sprayed with a conductive graphite-based paint. Why? To make a high-voltage capacitor with the spiral accelerator anode (the beautiful green stripes) and similar graphite coating on the inside of the glass. By connecting the external coating to ground, the thrifty circuit designer could avoid using a separate (and expensive) high-voltage filter capacitor in the anode power supply!

    External and internal graphite coatings form an effective high-voltage capacitor!

    Why remove this coating? Because during use, it gets scratched and marred, as the above photo shows. Such a messy CRT could never be worthy to mount in a clear cast-acrylic case for an Oscilloclock! In addition, the coating obscures some of the attractive spiral accelerator anode, and blocks the incredible view of the trace from behind. And regarding circuit design, we at Oscilloclock NEVER scrimp – the Power Board has oodles of filtering capacity without relying on a graphite coating!

    While eucalyptus oil is also effective, it can get rather expensive in the quantity required – especially as the Oscilloclock lab is not conveniently located in Australia! The more reasonably priced chemical of choice here is nail polish remover. As always, there is a side-benefit – the nasal passages are assuaged by a delicate floral scent during cleaning, and fingers have an arguably nice smell that lingers for quite a while!

    Joking aside – gloves, open windows, good ventilation, and safety glasses (in case the CRT implodes) are key ingredients for this process!

    Eucalyptus oil and nail polish remover has done wonders to this Italian-sourced beauty!

    Onward!

    Having found the perfect CRT, [Atif]’s plug & play unit is now well under construction.


    Epilogue – “Good things come in threes”

    It’s not good just getting one CRT. What if [Atif] wanted a spare? What if I wanted a spare for my venerable Prototype clock? Following from the Italian success, I continued a further 6-month hunt, and managed two achievements.

    The first was a Telequipment S51b unit located in the U.K. that was non-functional, but that I suspected may have a P7 phosphor installed. How could I possibly suspect this? Well, perhaps this is an art rather than a science, but there were several tell-tale signs:

    • The way the phosphor looked under the camera flash or ambient light
    • The colour (or absence) of the graticule (the plastic cover in front of the CRT)
    • The fact that I got a double when I rolled the dice to decide whether to take the plunge or not!
    Oops, it was a P31 – the dice did not roll in my favour that time!

    The seller of this unit was not willing (or perhaps not technically able) to extract the CRT, check the CRT type, or ship overseas. Fortunately, my colleague in the U.K. was more than happy to receive the scope at his end. Thus arranged, when the unit arrived he extracted the CRT and confirmed that – sadly – I had purchased a P31 CRT.

    But I shipped it across anyway, and the CRT tested well. Rescuing a functional SE5F/P31 from eventual demise was still a worthy accomplishment!

    The second achievement was prompted by an auction listing for a “Brimar SE5F”, but with little indication as to the phosphor. The photos of the label (see right), even with subsequent close-ups provided by the seller upon request, were not conclusive.

    The image shows two characters beginning with ‘P’. It looks like “P1”, which is another extremely common green phosphor used in many CRTs since the beginning of time. However, we saw in the catalogue earlier that Brimar only supplied GV, P7, P31, and P39 phosphors as standard. It is unlikely that any equipment manufacturer would have requested Brimar to produce a custom CRT batch using the less-exotic P1 phosphor… Leaving the P7 as the only likely candidate!

    Convinced, the CRT was duly shipped across and tested – and lo and behold, success! A spare P7 was safely procured.

    And with that, the long saga of this CRT hunt closes. As they say, “good things come in threes!”


    Like what you see?

    Cathode ray tubes used to be manufactured in all shapes, sizes, and colours. Some prove harder than others to find! But if you prefer an exotic creation, don’t give up – there is something for you out there, and here at Oscilloclock we will find it.

    As always, see previous posts and the Gallery for info on unique creations!

  • Quake News!

    Fake news – a common keyword these days. Fortunately, Oscilloclocks do not display fake news. But wouldn’t it be handy to see quake news on an exotic scope clock? This is the challenge [Atif] gave me – and one year and many grey hairs later, here is the result: The AfterShock Clock!

    This custom-crafted Oscilloclock Core Duo assembly is a unique first in several ways:

    1. It’s the first scope clock ever that pulls in and displays real earthquake data!
    2. It’s the first scope clock ever that puts a dual-beam CRT to good use – one beam for the clock display, and the other for the earthquake and map overlay!

    Earthquake display

    The AfterShock Clock’s WiFi module connects at regular intervals to two public APIs (servers) to collect the latest earthquake events. It then feeds earthquakes to the clock’s quake gun controller, rotating quakes every 30 seconds. Cool!

    (Note: flickering is due to camera effects and is not visible to the human eye)

    Of course, there is the usual wide variety of standard clock screens to cycle through! The quake map’s beam is automatically dimmed for most of the screens, giving a soft ‘watermark’ effect.

    Dual-beam CRT

    The E10-12GH CRT used in this clock is certainly not mundane!

    Beautiful spiral PDA lets you really see inside the cavity!
    Nothing beats a dual-gun CRT for intricacy… (except a quad- or pentuple-gun CRT!)

    Oscilloclock Core Duo

    Atif wanted to create his own case, so he initially asked for an Oscilloclock Core. But currently a single Core set does not provide control, deflection, and blanking circuits to drive TWO electron guns… So he had two choices:

    1. Wait an eternity for me to redesign the boards to fully support dual beams.
    2. Get started now! Simply put two Core assemblies together, with some degree of inter-control and removing any redundant circuits.

    Atif chose the latter – and the Oscilloclock Core Duo was born!

    WiFi setup

    Setting up the WiFi connection is easy – just connect a device to the clock’s administration SSID and pull up the admin page. (To foil any would-be hackers out there, the admin SSID is available only for the first 5 minutes after power is applied.)

    Then, access the admin URL and configure the connection to your home router:

    There are a million other advanced settings to tweak things such as quake polling interval, quake magnitude filters, maximum quake age before purge, and other geeky aspects…. See the Support page.

    Oh, I forgot to mention – the clock also synchronizes time against an NTP server, eliminating the need for a GPS module.


    Like what you see?

    Do you go for electron guns? idolize intricate electrode assemblies? Have a filament fetish? Or just want some quake news? This kind of clock might fit the bill. Let me know!