If you’d like to know what is going on in the world, and your computer, smartphone, and smartwatch just aren’t cutting it anymore, you might need to construct your own InfoDome. Daniel Kummer decided to build his dome “not with an idea, but with hardware and my usually strong tinkering-urge.” This hardware included four Nixie tubes and an Arduino Yùn (ATmega32U4) to fetch and display data with them.
The results, as seen in the video below, are quite beautiful, with the Nixie tubes encased in a glass jar. The tubes display 01 01 (appropriate for binary information, it would seem) when loading, then pertinent information including time, date, temperature, and a few other items. The Nixie tubes, which require hundreds of volts to operate, are run by off-the-shelf driver modules. These modules, though an added expense, should simplify a project using these beautiful components significantly.
The machine is programmed as a state machine using the SMLib libray to allow it to execute the code in blocks without interfering with different functions of the device. Although the Yùn’s built-in WiFi capability is ideal for an IoT project like this, the limited onboard program storage was an impediment to a more capable machine. As Kummer puts it, “With only 28,672 bytes the options are limited and minimal sized code is key. Imagine what could be done with even more space!”
You can find more info on how to build your own ‘Dome on Kummer’s GitHub page.