This is a driver board for 6 Nixie Tubes in two break-apart sections. The Tubes are driven by K155ID1 (7441/74141 compatible) BCD drivers on the first section. The inputs into first sections are 5V-level BCD signals for each tube. A separate +170VDC power supply will be needed to power this board.

The second section includes a 24-bit shift registers (comprised of three 74HC595 8-bit shift registers) that can be driven by Arduino (or other) using only 3 digital signals (serial clock, serial latch, serial data). Use this serial interface to shift 6 BCD nibbles (one for each digit) into the shift register. The two sections are designed such that they plug into each other. Power the second section requires +5VDC power.

Use the following function to send data to the board:

void outputData() {

 // take the latchPin low so

 // the outputs don't change while you're sending in bits:

 digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);

 // shift out the bits:

 for (int i = 0; i <= 2 ; i++) {

  shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, 16*digit[2*i] + digit[2*i+1]);

 }

 //take the latch pin high so the outputs will update:

 digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);

}

Initialize the digits array like this:

byte digit[6]; // The 6 digits to be displayed by outputData();

In your main() routine, set the elements of the digits array to the values (0-9) you want to display with each tube. Then call outputData() to update the display.