Moving right along with the nixie tube experiments... I decided to add a 74595 shift register into the mix and attempt to shift out some data to two of my nixie breakout boards through a 74141 nixie driver.

Here’s the schematic:



I needed to break out my bigger breadboard for this one. I’m probably going to add a few more nixes to it if it works. I’ll just have to order another set from OSH Park.



I connected a DS3231 RTC module and hooked up my power supply.



After a few hours of playing around with some code, I figured it out. (For the most part.) It’s pretty tricky stuff.



Sometimes it pays to look at other people’s projects for inspiration. I found some sample sketches online and was able to figure out how they did it, and what I needed to do to pull in the seconds from the DS3231 real time clock module and pass it to the nixies through the 74595 shift register.

Silly me, I was basically just goofing around and never actually saved my sketch. Once I get some more breakout boards for the minutes and hours, I’ll put together a “real” sketch. (And save it this time!)

See this project from start to finish:
Nixies!
Got My Nixies Powered!
IN-12 Nixie Breakout Board, Part 1
Flashing a Nixie with an Arduino
IN-12 Nixie Breakout Board, Part 2
Driving a Nixie with a 74141 BCD Decoder
More Nixie Tube Experiments
Nixie Clock 5V / 12V Power Supply
Nixie Clock PCBs / EAGLE Upgrade
Nixie Clock Main Board PCB Build
Nixie Clock Main Board PCB Build
Nixie Clock Final Build, Part I
Nixie Clock Final Build, Part II
Nixie Clock Final Build, Part III
Clock Button Panels