Arduino Digital Clock

A configurable Arduino clock firmware, and a family of printed cases for it, covering nixie tubes and LED displays.

After building my first clock kits involving Nixie tubes, I went looking for one that was based on an Arduino so I could customize how it worked – and found hardware by RLB Designs in the UK.

Robin was kind enough to share his original code, but I ended up writing my own firmware from scratch, for better or worse. I added every feature I could think of, and ultimately added support for more display types, so the project became arduino-clock (itself now a misnomer, since ESP32 support has been added).

A Nixie clock based on RLB Designs’ Universal Nixie Driver Board and Soviet-era IN-12A and IN-17 tubes, and an LED clock using a series of MAX7218 arrays. Both clocks are driven by an Arduino Nano running my firmware.

To house Robin’s lovely hardware, I developed a 3D-printable case inspired by a vintage IME KB-6 calculator controller. It’s available on Printables here.

Cases featuring the IN-12A/17 and IN-1 variants of the RLB Designs UNDB.

Back to top · Back to Projects