So I just finished putting together an ITS1-A clock from Mr. Nixie's kit. I ordered the tubes separately on fleaBay.
The kit is very well done, but I ran into a couple of pain points I thought I'd share. The first has resulted in a finished product that pains me a bit from a cosmetic perspective. I was not aware of any size differences in individual ITS1-A tubes based on manufacture date (or whatever else). I'm not sure if ITS1-As vary from 1-Bs and if somehow I got a mix of both on my eBay order but some of the tubes slid cleanly into the cutouts from the kit, and some did not. Unfortunately the first ones I was working with did not, and it was not until I got to the 3rd digit that I realized some did. Since I was not up for attempting to resolder the tubes already done with their leads clipped, I am left with different depths on the digits and the angling is not perfect on the ones that did not fit flushly into the sockets. It does not look horrendous, but I am kind of a perfectionist with these things, so it is driving me a bit crazy. I've tried to make my peace with it though, and have moved on for the most part. I still love the clock, and am just happy it is working at this point, which leads me into... The manual specifically calls out how fragile the leads can be on these tubes, and prone to breaking. I had ordered 8 tubes originally to have some spares. Despite my best efforts in babying the leads while straightening them out, it was with much horror that I saw one break off near the glass. I spent a very long time attempting to jury rig the broken lead back on but eventually gave up as I could not get conductivity after soldering it back into the board. After giving up, I used one of my spares as a replacement. I continued to solder away and got to the final tube of 6. After hooking up the clock for testing, I was dismayed to see two of the segments refusing to light. I doublechecked all connections on the leads, resoldered, etc. and despite everything I tried I could not get those segments to light. I eventually admitted defeat and hooked up my last spare, which of course did not light (I did not have a tube tester at the time of purchase). At this point, I was pretty frustrated with the experience. To add insult to injury, I had also gotten sloppy when moving the live board during testing and managed to give myself a nice 270V shock when I made contact. After ordering two more tubes on eBay, I waited patiently for them to arrive from overseas. They just arrived, and after carefully bending the leads outwards, and soldering in the last one, I am now the proud owner of a slightly askew working ITS1-A clock! This turned out to be a very expensive project. I am happy with the unique nature of the tubes and the wonderful kit from Jurgen though. -- 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 neonixie-l+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send an email to neonixie-l@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/CAJrqPH-YoS1WxmeTZ9SgYs8i4nH3f2e722S05oa8GsfB4MXRLg%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
