You've described my experience with this clock to a "T". If I hadn't made a custom enclosure around these electronics and its 'unique' tube spacing, I would abandon it in a heartbeat and substitute NixiChron electronics, but this would basically require building a whole new enclosure. It was my 1st enclosure build so I'm a bit attached to it. So I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope I can come up with a solution to this anomaly. Suggestions welcome
On Saturday, April 6, 2019 at 7:55:19 PM UTC-7, Roger Brinkman wrote: > > I have one of these clocks too and it fails every three years or so on > average. It’s all down to C6. Sometimes just F1 fails and other times the > inductor L1 goes short circuit as well. > The Equivalent Series Resistance (ESR) of C6 goes through the roof, > causing it to effectively be a capacitor in series with a resistance. This > result is ringing in L1, and instability in the output voltage which > increases L1’s heat dissipation and untimely failure. Ambient temperature > is definitely a factor in C6’s lifespan, i.e clocks running in cooler > climates may run longer before failing, but the real mechanism of failure > is C6’s ability to withstand the internal heat generated by the pulse > current as its ESR rises with age. The higher it’s ESR, the warmer it runs, > then the quicker its electrolyte dries up. > High quality, low ESR 105 degree electrolytic capacitors designed for > pulse applications like the Panasonic WL-R series will have a longer life > than ‘ordinary’ electros but eventually even they will fail. I have thought > about substituting a Multilayer Ceramic Capacitor in place of electrolytic > C6, but currently waiting for the next failure (which is about due!) before > I experiment with them. Perhaps another person can comment on their > suitability for such an application? > > Regards from Australia! > > On 7 Apr 2019, at 11:59 am, Mac Doktor <themac...@gmail.com <javascript:>> > wrote: > > > On Apr 6, 2019, at 9:36 PM, MichaelB <badn...@badnixie.com <javascript:>> > wrote: > > I used a higher voltage capacity electrolytic this time, maybe I’ll > this'll give me another year or so :-). > > > Are you using 85°C or 105°C? > > > and I will try your idea of adding a heat sink to the VREG, since heat > seems to be the culprit here. Thx Nick > > > Never turn your back on a 78xx. You could try using a 317 instead > (requires a resistor). > > > Terry Bowman, KA4HJH > "The Mac Doctor" > > -- > 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 neoni...@googlegroups.com <javascript:>. > To post to this group, send email to neoni...@googlegroups.com > <javascript:>. > To view this discussion on the web, visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/0DFF2801-AAC9-4780-9779-E01A35F1612D%40gmail.com > > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/0DFF2801-AAC9-4780-9779-E01A35F1612D%40gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > -- 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/c55b7b6b-a7d7-4f50-8eb8-10bb79c6a208%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
