Nice work! I'm not sure if it is just your picture, but they look over-driven to me. It's perhaps just the exposure - I guess D1 is a Zener to provide some stability on the drive to the filaments, maybe you need to drop the voltage on that. The Zener is a pretty wasteful way of stabilising the voltage - you're going to need to provide for about an amp at full blast (42 segments at around 20mA = .84A), and to dump the excess over the life of the clock amounts to a lot of energy.
That's also a fairly hard set up you have there to find a nice case for, with the big dev board standing way up. Also for kits, you're going to want to put those drivers in sockets and they will also stand proud and too close behind the tubes to make an attractive casing easy. Here's my take on it - feel free to nab a few ideas there. (These are not for sale at the moment - stock trouble). https://www.nixieclock.biz/StoreNumitron-6Digit.html https://www.nixieclock.biz/StoreNumitron-4Digit.html BTW, when I was still delivering these, I would usually deliver them with the USB connector and the NeoPixels already soldered and tested. On Fri, 9 Dec 2022 at 05:21, Moses <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Everybody, > > I'm happy to say the first prototype PCB has arrived and has been > assembled! Some pictures here: > > http://www.neonixie.com/IV-9-6D-RR/ > > Some details.. > - I purposefully picked all through hole parts as this will be in full kit > form. > - I ended up choosing the TI TPIC6C596N driver. It does everything I need > and is pin compatibility with PN '595N and possibly a few others. I've been > testing software that keeps the unlit segments 'warm' by PWM'ing them to > just barely invisible.. not so sure if this is going to make a big > lifespan difference. These are being driven by a 74AHCT125 for the logic > level shift (3.3v to 5v). > - The controller is a ESP32 original dev board from Espressif, the same > one I use for my previous nixie clock. This gives me a known good working > part number and software carry over from my prior nixie clock. Most of the > features of that clock will carry over directly to this one, including the > BH1750 lux module and AHT20 temperature/humidity sensor. > - Input is 5v via a common DC barrel jack. I did order a few USB-C input > jacks, even found a through-hole one. I decided against using it in a kit > due to the more delicate soldering required, as well as the unknown quality > of all the USB cables and power supplies I generally run into. This runs > the IV-9s directly and optionally through a diode to run them at a slightly > lower voltage of ~4.2v if desired. > > I am ordering more parts and should have a few beta boards out before the > holidays. Hopefully production kits will be ready sometime in January! > > Thanks to everyone who provided advice and feedback! > > Regards, > -Moses > > On Thursday, November 17, 2022 at 3:06:41 AM UTC-8 [email protected] > wrote: > >> If Richard is in-So am I š >> >> Peter..insidiousnixies:Utube >> >> >> >> *From: *'Ian' via neonixie-l >> *Sent: *Thursday, November 17, 2022 5:52 PM >> *To: *[email protected] >> *Subject: *Re: [neonixie-l] Re: Any interest in IV-9 numitron clock kit? >> >> >> Iām in >> >> On 17 Nov 2022, at 04:28, Richard Scales <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> I have built several numitron kits from nixieclock.biz and am a big fan >> of numitrons, I have only had them running far a couple of years and then >> for only half a day at most. I have heard that their tube life is 'long' >> but have not seen any actual numbers. I have also re-worked the design for >> other numitrons like IV-19 and DTF104B. >> >> >> <RCS_5954.jpg> >> >> - Richard >> >> >> On Wednesday, 16 November 2022 at 22:26:36 UTC [email protected] wrote: >> >>> Hi Everybody, >>> >>> I seem to have enough IV-9 tubes to where I can produce a batch of 100 >>> or so 6 digit numitron clocks. Thinking ESP32 powered like my last one >>> (Thank you to all those who gave suggestions, the kit came out great!). I'm >>> thinking maybe try for a full through-hole solder kit with some shift >>> registers. >>> >>> I know nixies are more popular.. but anyone interested in a numitron >>> clock kit? >>> >>> Oh, one question I do have, anyone have long term experience (ie, >>> years?) running this particular tube? How do they fare? >>> >>> Thank you! >>> >>> Regards, >>> -Moses >>> >> -- >> 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 view this discussion on the web, visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/421b1cfd-f165-49ad-a63b-1afae649b1ebn%40googlegroups.com >> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/421b1cfd-f165-49ad-a63b-1afae649b1ebn%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >> . >> >> <RCS_5954.jpg> >> >> -- >> 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 view this discussion on the web, visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/6975019D-E714-4B91-94DC-878BE396B531%40yahoo.co.uk >> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/6975019D-E714-4B91-94DC-878BE396B531%40yahoo.co.uk?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >> . >> > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the > Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. > To unsubscribe from this topic, visit > https://groups.google.com/d/topic/neonixie-l/KK9P2jsFon8/unsubscribe. > To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to > [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web, visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/dbf54f53-6b8c-4a09-8766-a7c4c9b2b887n%40googlegroups.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/dbf54f53-6b8c-4a09-8766-a7c4c9b2b887n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- 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 view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/CAGgg%3DS23D0ksPRvG1kEiUpU%3DE4yNDfKhaG-caeA8fe3ad8OWBg%40mail.gmail.com.
