Temperature/Weather Station

I've always been fond of the popular Nixie clocks made from old surplus Soviet nixie tubes. Nixie tubes are no longer made, so they're hard to acquire. Instead, I took inspiration from "Lixie" displays and made my own Nixie-inspired, LED-powered display. And in an unusual twist (for me, anyway), I didn't make a clock this time! It's a weather/temperature display.

I made the parts myself, starting with the electronics. These circuit boards were created on the CNC machine. The "brains" are an ESP8266 chip, which grabs the current weather from the Internet.


I made the housing using laser-cut plywood. It turned out well, but I should have used some wood putty to fill in tiny voids in the sides. Still, it looked good.


The numbers are made from clear, 1/16" acrylic. The laser cuts on these are sharp and beautiful. They're crystal clear when the protective film is removed (with gloves, to prevent fingerprints).


It turned out great! Little LEDs shine light at the bottom of the panels, highlighting the individual numbers. The color indicates the current weather condition: yellow for sunny/clear, blue for rainy, etc.