I have always loved the look of the Nixie tube and as an amazing Christmas gift from my better half, I got a Nixie clock kit to build.
The kit was from pvelectronics , also included in my gift was a GPS time receiver, Plexiglass case and PSU, assembly instructions for the main parts are below:
The packages came quickly and the contents were well packed as you would expect, assembly instructions and user guide are downloaded as no documentation comes with the kit.
The assembly instructions are incredibly comprehensive, the build is designed in such a way that ‘stop and test’ points are used, enabling verification before moving on to the next build stage.
Fig 1 for example shows the components mounted to test the 5v regulation stage once 12v is applied.
The only element of the build I struggled with was ensuring that the Nixie tube sits above the PCB by 5mm as per the instructions.
The problem is once all the Nixie tube wires are threaded through the PCB, I needed a way of not only getting the correct gap, but to ensure the tube is level in all planes, to solve this I used the 12 way SIL Socket Strips which come in the kit.
NOTE – This does mean going slightly ‘off-book’ to complete as otherwise you will have already soldered them to the main PCB.
I discovered is you slide SIL sockets from both sides through the Nixie tube wires between the PCB until the black plastic is touching the glass and PCB and then using light pressure on the PCB allows soldering knowing that the tube will be spot on.
Completed clock looking brilliant and I’m very please with how it looks and all the features it has, for example the LEDs under the tubes can have there colour set to change every hour if you wanted too, as it is, I’ve set mine to orange (Red-3, Green -1 & Blue-0).
The only build variation from original, was to reduce the brilliance of the green power led, I replaced resistor R7 from 270Ω to 3.3kΩ.
The additional GPS module only had 4 components to solder, the main GPS processor was already mounted on the PCB.
The GPS module connects to the Nixie clock and its a bit unnerving waiting for the green ‘sync’ led to come on 🙂
The Plexiglass case finishes the kit off in my option, giving that ‘class’ look as well as functionally keeping dust of the board.
I have no hesitation in recommending this kit and no, I’m not sponsored.
