Nixie Tube Music Visualizer

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by Senator Penguin
 

introNixie Tube Music Visualizer

A hypnotizing music visualizer inspired by those little bars in the top of iTunes. Fourteen Russian IN-13 Nixie bargraph tubes are used as the display.

The length that each nixie tube lights up represents the volume of a certain frequency in the music, 7 different bands for both the left and right channels.



I designed and built this over a month my junior year in high school. This instructable will go over my design process and the construction, hopefully aiding anyone who wants to build one of their own.
Nixie Tube Music Visualizer
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step 1Design Process

The goal is to make an interesting display that would show the volume levels of various frequency bands in an audio signal, as in many music players and on the front of some hi-fi audio equipment. There are three major points the project would focus on:

  • Minimizing cost: In the process of designing the visualizer, I found this simple VU meter with a nixie display utilizing an exotic IC to convert an audio signal into a volume level. While convenient, it's manufactured by a small company, and each piece would cost over $5 (for me, nearly $80 in those alone!) For simplicity and for my wallet, this only uses simple, cheap, and mass-produced parts. Also because of cost, I decided that 10K ohm resistors would be used for just about everything, so I could buy a few hundred for around $3.
  • Analog only: Using a digital signal processor was a possibility, but programming a DSP is fairly difficult, and the cost of DACs for the input and ADCs to drive the output began to raise the price too far. So only analog parts such as op-amps and comparators would be used.
  • Adjustability: After Nixie IN-13 tubes were chosen as the display, I realized that the only documentation was in Russian (or poorly translated English) and not very informative. Not knowing anything at all about how much it took to light it up any specific length (aside from less than 4 milliamps), everything about this design would be adjustable.
Design Process
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27 comments
May 1, 2010. 4:12 PMStormrage says:
Its awesome... just im wondering where can i find those tubes, can it be bit simpler and  can it work with microphone?
Feb 11, 2010. 6:19 AMluhe98922 says:
Hi there! Could I use a more common LM339 voltage comparator instead of the ts3704 which is giving me a hard time to find?
Dec 11, 2009. 12:21 AMbman22 says:

I have been looking for exactly this for a different project i am working, my only problem is that i need a variable voltage between 0 and 5 volts instead of your 12v current system. Can anybody here help me in acheiving this. Its a bit over my head, so i would really appreciate some help.

Nov 1, 2009. 4:37 PMsatanklawz says:
Great project! I've ordered most of the same parts. What are the voltage requirements for the capacitors? You wouldn't happen to still have the parts list from mouser and digikey?
Nov 1, 2009. 5:53 PMsatanklawz says:
Based on a comment you made before, is the information below correct?

14x    100uF electrolytic polarized capacitor 25v
14x    4.7uF electrolytic polarized capacitor 25v
18x    1uF capacitor 25v
Are the below capacitors multilayer ceramic, ormica? Would ceramic suffice (I didn't see polarity noted for any of them)?

13x    .1uF capacitor (should this be 14?)
8x    .01uF capacitor
4x    1000pF capacitor
Oct 24, 2009. 2:41 PMalfredhenriksen says:
I love it!

Thank you for writing and shareing this project. :)


Oct 5, 2009. 10:53 AMfade400 says:
Does the value of Cin matter ?
Sep 15, 2009. 7:11 PMSmithjoe1 says:
You can probably use half the parts if you use LM3196 chips for the log to linear, they are identical to the circuit that is printed on the original post but cut it from 4 chips to 1 on each tube. I've got a set of IN9 tubes that I'll be building this with. But I'm having a hard time understanding the frequency splitters, how do you work out what resistors to use for each frequency?
Aug 28, 2009. 9:19 PMlindland1 says:
can i use 9 in tubes in sted of 14in X 13in
Aug 27, 2009. 12:41 PMszechuan53 says:
Aw man, this is soooo cool. Did you do this as a school proj or just for fun?
Jul 26, 2009. 3:04 PMlemonie says:
Really good looking - any plans to mount these in a case? L
Jul 27, 2009. 11:36 AMThe Ideanator says:
Well, measure 2+ times, cut once(unless you have wood to spare) I wanna put this in an old Victrola radio/record player, they would go together SOOOO well. Actually, I want to convert the whole thing to a steampunk-esque media center. Ooh! You could try to mount this in the side of a PC case! That would be cool.
Aug 21, 2009. 10:26 AMthepelton says:
As someone who works in wood myself, I can tell you that first, you should always buy a little more wood than you actually need for the project, since there is a possibility that somewhere in it is a defect or injury that you will have to work around. It is, after all, coming from living trees.
Aug 21, 2009. 10:23 AMthepelton says:
Fascinating. I had never heard of nixie bargraph tubes before. They look neat.
Aug 20, 2009. 12:57 PMx2percentmilk says:
this is exactly what i was looking for for my acrlic cased home built chip amp project...thank you so much. i didnt want analog vu meters, or those basic 2 channel led kits. i cant believe how beautiful it looks and works. thanks again
Aug 17, 2009. 11:41 PMbassbindevil says:
Cool. I did not know there were such things as Russian bar graph nixies.

Around 1977, Popular Electronics published plans for a miniature real-time-analyzer that used a matrix of LEDs for the display, complete with a PC board layout. It was probably the kit form of an RTA sold by Gold Line. (An updated version is the model ASA10B, http://www.gold-line.com/asa10b.htm ) Anyway, if you can find a copy of that article and etch the board, that would take care of the bandpass filters.

Another option: I'm pretty sure that Rohm made a real-time display chip with something like 5 bands, intended for consumer products. If you can't buy the chip anymore, maybe salvage one (or an equivalent) from a yard sale stereo receiver or car booster. (For example, a Realistic 12-1956 "80 watt" booster has a built-in LED "spectrum analyzer".)
Aug 15, 2009. 12:28 PMdz0004455 says:
that is great! i might make one to put in my homestudio to monitor different frequencies
Aug 2, 2009. 6:59 PMalex-sharetskiy says:
great instructable, but a little too complex for my tastes and chance that you're going to sell pre-built circuit boards?
Aug 10, 2009. 10:31 AMhivoltage says:
Wow this is an amazing project! I really want to build one to put in my room somewhere. I have been looking for instructions on how to do something like this for a while now, and I really like the effect of the nixie tubes. 5* from me!
Jul 27, 2009. 11:53 AMThe Ideanator says:
I love this idea, I saw it posted w/ the same vid on http://hackaday.com/2008/06/13/multiband-nixie-vu-meter/ a while ago, are you the same guy?
Jul 27, 2009. 2:28 AMmunkymoose says:
This is GREAT! Im working on a homemade portable speaker system at the minute and i was wondering if there was anyway to add this to it for a better looking speaker?
Jul 26, 2009. 9:55 PMBigev says:
Fantastic. 5* You have done what I've always wanted to do, but in high school. I'm frankly astounded.
Jul 26, 2009. 3:48 PMsedition says:
Awesome Instructable. I was working on a network activity indicator along the same lines, but shelved it a year ago. You may have just inspired me to pick it back up. Great work!