Steampunked Magic Eye Winker powered by batteries and USB-connected

Hi everybody
and a happy new year to the instructables- and also steampunk- company.

Here is my latest project: The Steampunked Magic Eye Winker.
Since my earliest childhood I am deeply impressed of the magic light at my grandparents radio.
Whenever they where listeneing -mostly in the evening- to the radio news I was fascinated by this magic glooming light of the magic eye  tube.
So I decided to find a way of watching it again.
I discussed a lot with my friends and finally got in contact with a famous guy called Mr. Nixie. He made the propsal to invent such a special universal electronic to let wink any of thes old magic eye tubes. My option was that it has to be possible to drive this circuit either by 4 pieces of AA-batteries or by using an USB connector. Also it has to be not too expensive and available for all guys in the world.

And here is the result:


Enjoy yourself by this small video impression and if you like, follow this instructable

Have fun Yours Aeon Junophor

And now let us start!!!!

 

 

Step 1: First draft

The Steampunked Magic Eye Winker should follow in its design my other steampunk objects and so I invented this from the already known brass parts. I combined it with some new parts from an very old petrollamp and some wodden stuff.

Comments

[diy_bloke]

Warum nicht die ganze Wäscheklammer verwenden?

[Junophor]

Die Federn halten auf dem engen Raum besser und das Holzstück dahinter ist konisch geschliffen, da rutschten die Klammern immer ab.

[diy_bloke]

Hab mich dass auch gedacht. Vernunftig. Vielleicht kann man auch die Seite der Wäscheklammer benutzen. Ach, nur mit dem Eisen, gehts auch

[wjbean]

In the U.S. the bit shown is known as a Forstner Bit. This was invented by a fellow named Benjamin Forstner.patented in 1874.

[Junophor]

Hi wjbean

Thank you very much for your kind information.
In Germany ist is also called "Forstner-Bohrer" (means driller) but I did not knew that it had been invented by Benjamin Forstner and that you use the same term.
I have already added the name in the text . In my profession as a carpenter I work a lot with this Forstner bit.......
Have a nice time

Cheers Aeon Junophor

[wjbean]

This is a really slick looking project.

I too was fascinated by the "magic eye" technology. As I remember it was integrated into a Fischer receiver my dad had. When a radio station was tuned in the eye would "narrow." It also pulsated in time to the audio.

[longwinters]

That looks like an EAM 86 you must have used two different tubes.

What does the pot do? does it change the frequency of the cycle or the width?

[Junophor]

Hi longwinters
You are right I build two types of this magic eye winker, one with an EAM 86 tube (see step nine) and one with an 6E1P tube (see step ten)

By turning the pot you can change the width of waving. Sorry I forgot to explain it in my text. The frequency depends on each tube and it´s temperature while working. The cycle is generated in the circuit itself and can´t be influenced.

Hope this will help
Cheers
Aeon Junophor

[agis68]

excellent job with many difficulties but well overpassed from the author....shame i dont have nixies any more and now the value goes to the skylimits in the market....

[longwinters]

I love the way you think outside the box, now all I have to do is figure out how to order the kit from Germany.

The overall appearence would improve if you would find an oldtime knob to replace the light bulb socket you used at the base.

There is one thing for sure when you make a project it is always unique and not like anything others are making, that;s why I love it when you post a new project.

[Junophor]

Hi longwinters

A happy new year to you and your family and thanks for your nice words.

To order the kit just get in contact to Mr. Nixie. He sends his kits to all parts of the world, and that is why I presented this instructable now after making sure that you and all the other intrested guys can order there also the different magic eye tubes are available at Mr. Nixie. I am very pleased that he asked me for a picture of my steampunked magic eye winker too to show it at his homepage ;-))))



Yours Aeon Junophor

[kwhitacre]

This caught my eye. I used to have a bunch of old tubes, but no longer:-(

I hope that I have the time to look into making one of these. I would enjoy it. Thanks for the good photos and descriptions.

[Infrasonic]

Lovely!
I can follow your deep impression on these old "Dampfradios". So nice...