Hi nix, I have read this thread with interest; first let me say that I really like your clock's case graphics!
The issue you are having with the RTC module is, to summarise what others said, due to very poor power and signal distribution. This is caused by improper/inadequate circuit board layout. To quote a friend: 'PCB design is not just going from A to B'. It is not just the RTC that is 'suffering', your arduino and those driver chips are too. In your next driver board revision you can study more and improve upon (search terms in parentheses): 1) Related components being close together (PCB component aggregation) 2) Traces to be thick enough to support the current they are carrying and generally as thick as possible (PCB trace width) 3) Clearances (gaps) between traces and pads to be big enough for these high voltages. (PCB trace creepage distance) 4) General trace routing guidelines (an introduction here<http://alternatezone.com/electronics/files/PCBDesignTutorialRevA.pdf> ) To show off your clock as quickly as possible I suggest you stop trying to fix it. You see, changing/adding one component here and there might get the clock to work eventually, but only marginally. You will find that after a month it fails again and even the arduino might get damaged. I was going to suggest you buy an arduinix but then I saw their schematic and layout. So I suggest you buy a small HV nixie power supply like the ones linked which will give you a robust HV power supply. Then use your own (temporary) board, removing the HV supply components, connecting the PSU module to your '+170V' point and the grounds from the two boards together. That will give you a robust clock and the time to design a new board (pun intended). As a side-note, if you are recently starting in electronics and/or CAD design, Fritzing is a not a good choice as it has a very small community. Alex. On Monday, May 13, 2013 12:19:05 PM UTC+1, nix wrote: > > Hello I just build my own Nixie clock with input from Arduinix.com and a > power supply from ledsale (Build a nixie power supply - > LEDsales<http://www.google.ch/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=nixie%20power%20supply&source=web&cd=5&cad=rja&ved=0CEEQFjAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ledsales.com.au%2Fkits%2Fnixie_supply.pdf&ei=-smQUbLsKvD24QSX9IDgDA&usg=AFQjCNEiqKM6Acf_mlaSDuBrhUqL2A5Uvw&sig2=Bi2PdGfH0ERKhqQkk5wFQA&bvm=bv.46340616,d.bGE> > ) > > Attached find the circuit and the pcb from fritzing. The clock works fine > but when I adjust the high voltage with R36 the ds1307 module from Twig > http://shop.boxtec.ch/twig-ds1307-p-40355.html starts to flicker because > on the serial interface it shows strange numbers like *165*:*165*:85. > After a while it does not return the time over the i2c interface at all. A > restart of the nixie clock starts showing the time again. With an > oscilloscope I can see that after a certain position on R36 the SDA puls > disapear and it shows a flat line. I think it is at high level. Not so > shure how to read the oscilloscope. > > Any Idea why? I don't see a direct link from the high voltage power supply > to the 2 wire interface. (see attached circuit) > > Kind regards > > Sergio > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/716c8e0a-1e58-48f2-8b61-abf05ec07c43%40googlegroups.com?hl=en-GB. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
