NixieBot: a Nixie tube robot sculpture #ArtTuesday #Robotics

Tavis at Sideburn Studios has created an electronic robotic head. Two rare Russian Nixie Tubes in the forehead convey what’s on the robot’s mind while dual 8×8 LED matrices from Adafruit provide the eyes. A sound board from Adafruit gives voice to the automaton.

This was a collaboration between me and my pops. He did the artwork and I did the electronics. The sculpture plays random machine sounds, has blinking LED eyes, and two weird Russian Nixie tubes embedded in his forehead. It’s got a rechargeable lipo inside with a USB-C charging jack hidden in a sliding door under the frame. Runtime is about two hours or you can leave it plugged into a charger and run continuously.

The Nixie tube controller board is the same PCB I designed for the Nixie Dice but with different firmware loaded into it. The board can be freely downloaded from OSH Park here.

See the clock in the video below and more on Hackaday.