Designing A Nixie Tube Clock - Part 2: Digital Interface

In this part I show how the Raspberry Pi Pico interfaces with the Nixie tubes, as well as some things I forgot to mention in the last video and plans for the future. Stay tuned for the next parts!
Also, if anyone knows where I can find retro-style buttons or switches, let me know in the comments.
Here’s a list of parts used in the video in case you want to follow along:
IN-14 Nixie Tubes x6
IN-3 Nixie Tubes x2
74141 BCD Decoders x8
1N5819 Diode
Piezoelectric Buzzer
Raspberry Pi Pico WH
MCP23017 GPIO Expander x2
LM7805 5V Voltage Regulator
NCH8200HV 170V Voltage Regulator
1/4W 10K Ohm Resistors x6
1/4W 150k Ohm Resistors x4
Some Breadboards
Variable DC Power Supply

[@mchang0828]

I demand a walkthrough of a wiring diagram!

[@Waluigi4Smash2018]

I’ll be sure to post the wiring diagram when I have one lol. Currently the whole project is just this breadboard. But, if you want to follow along, I’ll put a parts list in the description!

[@natealbatros3848]

hi there, newbie electronics hobbyist here, shouldnt you ground the circuit somehow? 170V sounds dangerous

[@Waluigi4Smash2018]

Hey! I’m also a bit of a newbie electronics hobbyist myself, my area of expertise is more with digital components. Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but grounding the circuit won’t make the 170V safer for me necessarily. I also don’t think I’ll use it in the final design, I’ll just use a regular 12V barrel jack AC adapter. It works without a separate ground already, so rather than make it more complicated I’ll just keep the design as is.

[@ggeoffk2228]

@@Waluigi4Smash2018yeah “grounding it” doesn’t really mean anything here. You want to ground components that might accidentally carry charge i.e. metal casings, housings, etc. That way if they accidentally encounter live wires they have a path to ground and shouldnt build up charge that could harm you

[@Waluigi4Smash2018]

@@ggeoffk2228 Yeah, that’s what I thought. The housing is either going to be plastic (acrylic?) or wood so no chance of getting shocked there. But there will be metal standoffs holding the two halves of the boards together, I’ll have to remember not to connect those to the circuit when I do the PCB design