VFD Modular Clock IV-6

Name: VFD Modular Clock IV-6
SKU: 771
Price: 78.00 USD
Availability: InStock
Rating: 4.64 (7 reviews)

(7 Reviews)

A modular clock kit based on old-fashioned VFD display tubes. IV-6 version.

Designed by Akafugu Corporation in Japan

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$78.00

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A modular clock kit based on old-fashioned VFD display tubes. IV-6 version.

The VFD Modular Clock is a clock based on old-fashioned VFD Display Tubes. VFD is short for Vacuum Flourescent Display. A VFD display is typically green or blue, and emits a bright light with high co…

Features

Modular design: The display tube shields are swappable
Atmega32U4 microcontroller with Arduino Leonardo bootloader
Powered from a 5V USB mini-b connector. Can be powered directly from a computer.
HV5812 VFD driver with 20 outputs: Can drive up to four 16-segment alphanumeric displays or twelve 7-segment numerical displays.
Open source firmware (available at GitHub)
DS3231M Real Time Clock with backup battery
Four Letter Word functionality (comes with word association database EEPROM)
GPS support in firmware (requires separate GPS module)
Acrylic enclosure available separately

Acrylic enclosure

See here for information about the optional enclosure: http://www.akafugu.jp/posts/products/vfd-modular-clock/assembly-case/

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Akafugu Corporation Shipping Policy:

Due to the ongoing pandemic situation and the situation in Europe. Japan Post has suspended shipment to several countries. Depending on your destination country, we may not be able to fulfill your order.

List of availability by country: https://www.post.japanpost.jp/int/information/overview_en.html

As of 2022.14.04, only USA shipping is available. Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand are not possible to ship for the time being.

Review Breakdown

Average Ratings

Product: (4.86)

Documentation: (4.29)

Shipping: (4.57)

Communication: (4.86)

Viktor | Nov. 10, 2020

Amazing and original product

Great doc, great quality of components, original design.
Just a great thing for people who like to practice soldering and build something.

Anthony | Dec. 21, 2019

The very best quality clock kit

Hi'
I've purchased a quite a few few kits from Akafugu Corporation as they make very good presents for very special occasions. I'm giving this one as a wedding present housed in an Australian Iron Bark wooden enclosure and laser engraved with the couples names on it. They are of the highest quality and work perfectly. My first one is still working great after many years of running 24/7. The other clocks I build are nixies from PV electronics which are also of the same high quality.
I can highly recommend these kits
regards
Tony

Stuart | Oct. 15, 2019

Fun to build

Very fun to build. Always verify component values to be safe. Seller was great. Very helpful with questions. Would buy from them again.

Neil | May 8, 2019

Fun to build

I enjoyed building this clock. It's got loads of functionality and with the possibility of additional shields there's plenty of room to keep on changing it up if you wanted to. I like the way the tubes solder to the board with the wires going into slots rather than through holes as this would make replacement much easier.

Dave | Dec. 26, 2017

Easy to assemble and works great.

The Clock board was easy to assemble, however there are errors in the documentation that need correcting.
Resistor color codes for example. Calls for a 1K and lists the colors as brown black orange gold, when it is brown black red orange. A 10K is listed as brown black yellow gold, and it is actually brown black orange gold. I know my color codes and caught this error however a novice might miss this and install the 10K into the 1K position. Also R6 was shipped the wrong value, as the manual calls for a 0.2 ohm resistor and the only one of that size was a 43 ohm.
Other than that it worked first try. You can see the build of this on my youtube channel here:
https://www.youtube.com/edit?video_id=Huu2eYouKb4

Manuel | Feb. 6, 2017

Excellent little clock

This clock is simply amazing. Tiny, yet powerful and flashy.
Assembly was a breeze, with clear instructions and well packaged parts.
It worked as soon as it was powered on.
The documentation is a little bit old and not much maintained, so it is missing some newer features, but, since the source code is open source, quickly could find whatever I was missing.
Communication with seller was very good. I ordered additional shield to use with the clock.
This device is going to have a special place at home.

Daniel | Oct. 20, 2014