Nixie Clock Copyright (C) Moose O'Malley, ----------- May 2010. +===========================================================+ | T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S | +===========================================================+ | * Introduction | * Why I wrote this program ? | * Credits / WEB Page Links | * Installing and Using this Program | * Uninstalling this Program | * The Future | * Reviews / Awards / CDs | * Freeware Information | * Warranty | * Amendment History | * Contacting the Program's Author +===========================================================+ Introduction : -------------- Nixie Clock is for Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, etc. This program is free software. Anyone - any person, any company, or any business - can use this program for free. No fees or payment is required. See "Freeware Information" below. Nixie Clock is a "for fun" program that displays a re-sizable clock made out of images of Nixie Tube digits. The program currently has the following digit styles available : - Valvo ZM1000 Nixie Tubes - Z568M Nixie Tubes - Red and Green LED clock digits - Unknown Nixie Type - ZM1020 Round Nixie Tubes More digits / styles will be made available in future versions of this program. (If you have a set of images for each digit - then please email them to me, and I will add them into the program). I would particularly like to add the following images this program : - Burroughs B7971 alphanumeric nixie tubes - East German Z856 nixie tubes - and others The normal Windows style menus are turned off in this program (so they don't detract from the clock), however, everything can be accessed via a right mouse click popup menu. Developed using 32-bit Delphi. This program will **NOT** run under Windows 3.x (even with Win32 installed). Why I wrote this program ? -------------------------- I wrote this program because my electronics genius, super geek brother, Francis, got me interested in Nixie Clocks several months ago. ;)) Sadly, what I know about electronics can be written on the back of a postage stamp (leaving plenty of room for glue and lickin' !! ;), so building such a real hardware Nixie Tube clock for me is pretty much out of the question at the moment. However, developing computer software is something I know very well and thoroughly enjoy, so I developed a software based Nixie Clock instead. Unlike the hardware based Nixie Clocks, this software one will never wear out. Credits / WEB Page Links : --------------------------- *** Valvo ZM1000 Nixie Tube Images : The initial set of Valvo ZM1000 Nixie Tube digits were obtained from a on-line Nixie Clock WEB site : http://www.fortunecity.de/wolkenkratzer/westend/696/nixieclock/nixstart.htm The "colon" Valvo ZM1000 Nixie Tube image was created by me by hand editing the digit 0. I also hand edited the images to create a Red set of Nixie tubes as well. Electronics Purists probably consider both of these activities to be sacrilidge ... ;) *** Z568M Nixie Tube Images : The Z568M Nixie Tube images were obtained from the Giant Nixie Clock WEB Page : http://www.hanssummers.com/electronics/clocks/nixie/ *** LED Digits : The Red and Green LED clock digits were created by me from scratch. (I have actually created complete sets of 5 different styles of LEDs - but included with the program are what I consider to be the best style). *** Unknown Nixie Type : Were contained in a GIF animation that was on a WEB site somewhere. (I have retraced my steps trying to find the WEB site again, but have not been successful yet. If anyone knows about these Nixie Tubes, please email me and let me know). I extracted the frames out, touched up them images, and made them into an animation strip and loaded them into my Nixie Clock program. - ZM1020 Round Tubes Image These images were originally obtained from a GIF animation on Peter H. Wendt's Nixie Clock Project web page : http://www.fortunecity.de/wolkenkratzer/westend/696/nixieclock/nixstart.htm The images required extensive editing and touching up. I extracted the frames out, and then did extensive editing and touching up and manually edited each digit (there was a strange blue background on the digits, the bottom half of the round Nixie "button" was truncated, and they were all damaged due to resolution reduction and colour reduction). However, after a couple of hours of hand-editing, they were in infinitely better shape (but still far from perfect). I then made them into an animation strip and loaded them into my Nixie Clock program. Special thanks also go to these pages for inspiring this project : Nixie Clock Gallery http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~wwl/nixclock.html http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~wwl/electric.html Cathode Corner http://www.cathodecorner.com/ and especially to my brother Francis for letting me know about these cool Nixie clocks and tubes, and inspiring me to create this program. Installing and Using this Program : ----------------------------------- To use this program, unzip the contents of the ZIP file to a directory - such as c:\Clock\ - and run the executable file : Nixie_Clock.EXE. You can also drag and drop shortcuts to this program onto your Desktop or Start Menu using Windows Explorer. If you want the program to run automatically when Windows starts up, then select this option under the "File" menu in the program. I hope you find the program easy to use and useful. Uninstalling this Program : --------------------------- At the present time, there is No Uninstall function. If you ever want to delete Nixie Clock from your computer, then : 1. Exit the program, and delete it from wherever you installed it on your harddrive. Simple as that ! (Before deleting the program, you should turn off the auto-running of this program under Windows - if you have previously enabled it. See the menu option under the "File" menu in the program to achieve this - or righ-mouse click and choose the option from the pop-up menu). The Future : ------------ In the future, many improvements could be made to this program, such as : - Add more digits. - Add more types of tubes. - The ability to display the date as well. - The ability to create and/or use your own digits. - Maintain Aspect Ratio - so you cannot get digits that are stretched too far out of shape when you re-size the Nixie Clock's main window. - Automatically Resize Nixie Clock's main window to suit the digits being displayed. e.g. resize for optimal viewing conditions (size), aspect ratio, etc. - Anything else ? If you would like any of these improvements, or would like to suggest more, please email me and let me know. How much more work I do on this program depends entirely on what support I get, how many people use the program, etc. Reviews / Awards / CDs : ------------------------- None so far. Freeware Information : ----------------------- This is free software. Anyone - any person, any company, or any business - can use this program for free. No fees or payment is required. However, if you find the program useful, then please consider making a PayPal donation to support my efforts. (To make a donation, please run the program and select the "About" option under the Help menu, and then click the PayPal link on the "About" screen). Warranty : ---------- This software and the accompanying files are provided "as is" and without warranties as to performance or merchantability or any other warranties whether expressed or implied. The user assumes the entire risk of using this software. If you do find any faults with this program, email me and let me know. Amendment History : ------------------- Vers Date Description 1.0 18-Oct-2002 First Public Release. (29,324 lines of code / comments.) 1.1 22-Oct-2002 Add in additional digit types : - Z568M Nixie Tubes - Red and Green LED clock digits Add in a settings screen to enable the user to choose the digit graphics and whether to display HH:MM, HH:MM:SS, or HH:MM:SS:hh. Improve the timing routines and program efficiency - use as little system resources / CPU as possible. Update the screen 25 times a second if hundreths of seconds are being displayed, or less if only seconds are displayed, etc. (29,753 lines of code / comments.) 1.2 07-Nov-2002 Add in additional digit types : - Unknown Nixie Type - ZM1020 Round Nixie Tubes Enable you to change the digit type (on the settings screen) and see the results immediately (in the main window). (29,908 lines of code / comments.) 1.2b 20-Nov-2002 Fix a program start / video update issue on super fast PCs. Bring the program up to date with my latest code libraries. (35,166 lines of code / comments.) 1.2f 3-Sep-2007 This program is now FREEWARE - see "Freeware Information" above. 1.3 29-May-2010 Enable the user to change between a 12 and 24 hour clock. Change done specially for Dietmar. If this program was not downloaded from my Home Page, then it is possibly an old version. The latest version of this program is available from my WEB page - see below. Mike "Moose" O'Malley ____________________________________________________ Moose's Software Valley - Established July, 1996. WEB: http://move.to/moose ____________________________________________________