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... Try covering about 3/4 of the window with heatshrink for now. A software mod will probably be needed though in future kits. [SOLVED] As Tony suggested, the addition of the heat-shrink to reduce the sensitivity of IC4 fixed it. Some experimentation was need regarding how much to cover up, but re...

One of the cylinder clocks I built has a curious issue: the IR transmitter/receiver circuit for the menu system seems to "be too sensitive". It can trigger if sunlight flashes on it, I pass by, or even it would look like it happens spontaneously! I have tried turning it off, waiting a few ...

A beginner's advice: Practise assembly!! When everything is built and the end-caps finished and the perspex cylinder washed: doing a first assembly then is a disaster: the boards are a very tight fit and could so easily scratch the perspex cylinder. Yes: the cylinder is extremely sensitive to scratc...

Two of the cylinder clocks I built during the COVID-19 pandemic. Note the mods: more flexible & longer USB power lead, but more importantly the GNSS module mounted underneath that supplies time to the clock and to the USB data lines. If connected to my PC, when running ntpd, it could be a stratu...

XXXsnipXXX So I conclude that the maximum voltage to T1 is somehow lacking in the "dim" buttons. Yet how it is lacking I am baffled. Tony, could you please advise? A thought: I have read a tiny bit about transformer windings and the effect of the secondary being wound in the opposite dire...

[SOLVED]

jmmcg wrote:XXXsnipXXX
I tried shorting out the two blue leds under the tubes in question. This had no effect.

A replacement nixie display PCB kit was supplied and that fixed this problem.

XXXsnipXXX I have tried swapping T1, the diode and the PIC chip from either the working button or spares, successively, none had any effect on the "dim" nixie. Into the base of T1 I see a nice 5V square-wave at 111kHz for both "dim" and "bright" (i.e. that part of the ...

[SOLVED]After replacing the PIC chip with the one sent, I have re-started the phone 5 times in the past 7 hours and on no occasion has it not started correctly, updated the time from the GNSS module and appeared to work correctly. It would appear replacing the PIC chip enabled this.

With the GNSS module attached when I power up the clock it often displays this behaviour: it shows "15[+/-]15" for about 10 seconds (and responds to the IR) then the display changes to "5~~~5" where "~" means the nixie is not lit and the clock no longer responds to the ...

The first thing to eleininate is the LED - the blue LED is in series with the MPSA42 base and can sometimes cause problems. Just bridge it for now to see if there's any change. The high voltages and resistances can make taking readings a bit confusing so replacing suspect transistors is the easiest...