SparkFun Forums

[notaduc]

I have been looking at all sorts of microprocessor info all day and I am getting crosseyed.

I am looking for someone to point me in the right direction to get started on a very simple first project.


I want to make a Nixie bulb indicator, triggered by either 2 hall or reed sensors, up and down.

Figure its pretty simple first project to get my feet wet.

Links, advice etc, all welcome.

Thanks.

[follower]

I want to make a Nixie bulb indicator, triggered by either 2 hall or reed sensors, up and down.

Figure its pretty simple first project to get my feet wet.

Nixie's require high voltage to work, don't they? If so, in my mind, high voltage does not match with "simple first project".

I'm partial to the Arduino and somewhat biased (I helped with some of the supplied manual for the kit) but you might like to consider the SparkFun Inventor's Kit to get started with.

--Philip;

[qema]

I agree the arduino is an excellent starter kit for several reasons.
- You don't need to buy an ISP (in system programmer)
- The arduino environment is nice and simple for beginners (yet powerfull).
- Once you get more experienced you can move onto any programming enviroment that outputs .hex files (which they all should).
- Has a lot of stocked hardware.

As for building a nixie, its a fun project but unless you have some expeience with high power I would advice leaving it for a later project. The potential for blue smoke and scorch marks is a bit too high on this project for beginners. You could however, start by building a 7 segment LED display and use what you learned building it as a stepping stone to the nixie.