Bitcoin Forum

I submitted for the Bitcointalk Art Contest an idea that would be a type of Shoutbox; however, the idea was not completed in time.

My submission is:  Bitcointalk 10th Anniversary Art Contest (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53143508#msg53143508)
Youtube video of the submission: https://youtu.be/qcuYOATEeP4 (https://youtu.be/qcuYOATEeP4)
Serveral pictures on imgur:  https://imgur.com/a/C2VZksM1 (https://imgur.com/a/C2VZksM1)

The Poll for voting is currently at: Art Contest Voting Poll (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5204528.0) (Feel free to vote for me or any other member.)
Also take a look at: Bitcoin Numitron Rocket - Price Ticker (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53052455#msg53052455)

The goal of the submission ideally was to allow people to post a name/sentences to a web UI and have it reply with a snapshot (img) to either imgur or twitter feed.
Although this still is the goal, I thought because of some requests, that I would post here that I am willing to take requests from anyone that would like their name in alphanumeric Nixies.
And reach out for ideas of what else I should do with the display (background, etc).

https://i.imgur.com/i11cpXY.jpg

The top part:
The Bitcoin ticker portion is a custom designed circuit board to socket modules available in the open market.  The 8x Nixie Tubes are IN-14 and require 180volts which are obtained from ebay and a nixie forum.  The custom board sockets a very efficient nixie power supply to boost from USB 5v to 180v.  Also there is a socket for a WeMos Mini D1 to control everything.  The WeMos is Wifi enabled, so it pulls the price every minute to update the price indicated on the tubes.  These are for sale at: www.VoltageGoat.com (http://www.VoltageGoat.com).

The bottom part:
This section is made up of 11x B-5971 Alphanumeric Nixie Tubes.  These are very rare and only 1 seller on ebay has them.  Currently he lists them for $85 each or a batch of 6 for $370.  Smartsockets is a project that sees very little traffic, because the tubes it's meant to drive are costly.  The B-5971, being so rare, means that NO ONE has pre-made or even kit version of the smartsocket available.  We had to have the boards manufactured and parts acquired from eBay, Mouser, and Digi-Key.  Each 'smartsocket' is about $20 each in parts.  These are capable of so much more than displayed here, or even in the video, but we ran out of time posting this on the last day where few people will get to see it anyway.  Finally, the power source is another very efficient nixie power supply, but this time boosting from 12volt to 180v in order to have enough ummpfff (amps) to drive 11 tubes.  The controller again is a WeMos mini D1.  This time though only acting as communication to talk to the smartsockets via serial.

The concept on smartsockets is that during power up, they negotiate their order in the chain.  Each smartsocket having it's own identity and microcontroller means they can handle the tasks of dealing with the respective tube individually.  The main controller (WeMos) simply passes a command string to a socket to complete and moves on to the next.  So, tube 1 could be told to display a letter A crossfading from a different character at a certain speed and font, while the next socket could be told to something completely different and so on.  The word  BITCOINTALK could be set to display with each character showing up at different speeds, fonts, and even effects (like spinning (different directions), brightness or order).  Serial speed at 115200.  So, it's quite fast enough for any task especially since it offloads commands to each socket.  

WeMos Mini D1 - This microcontroller is an ESP-8266.  Programmed with Arduino IDE.

The 'intent' here was to have a WEB based device which can accept messages and/or feeds (news/twitter/etc) to have it either take pictures or video to be live streamed.  Ran out of time to complete this for the Art Contest.  We may continue the project.

If you have any questions, I will be happy to answer.