Project 1 Research

I started looking for ideas for this project by reading over the background information of various components we were using on Wikipedia. Which led me to this image the humble Vacuum Tube.

I really liked intricate mechanical look it had, which gave me the idea of looking at other similar era electrical components to perhaps create some kind of pseudo future artifact, as in a futuristic artifact, that had been built in the 1970s. Like something out of a Cold War Spy Movie of that era. Upon further exploration of this idea I came across some really awesome looking stuff such as Nixie Tubes and Dekatrons.Nixie TubesDekatron

These pieces had just the sort of Soviet feel I was looking for. Perfect! But Unfortunately, Upon further research I found the neither of these components had been in production for decades, and are now quite difficult to obtain, They weren’t available anywhere in New Zealand, and the cheapest they went for on eBay was around US$ 15-20 + shipping, To make matters worse, they both required much higher Voltage than what we are using (120V) Also the IC's to run the tubes were equally difficult and expensive to obtain. So I decided to shelve this idea for now, and look and look for something a little simpler.