Ice Tube Clock Lighting Difficulties

[AppleSky]

Hi! I've been working on putting together the Ice Tube kit, and everything was going great until I got to the point when you test the tube itself for the first time. None of the tube lights up at all. The only other odd thing that I've noticed is that without the VFD chip inserted, the D3 voltage reads around 57 volts, and 17 volts with it inserted (which I understand to be within the right range) but jumps back to 57 volts if the tube is inserted as well. I've check the boards for bad solder joints the best I could, particularly on the small tube PCB, and touched up a few, but I didn't notice anything different afterwards. If just the small PCB is plugged in without the tube, the voltage on D3 stays at around 17 volts. Here's a link to some pictures of the boards (http://www.imgur.com/a/cGJzQ), let me know if there's anything I can do to make them more clear, or any readings I can get that will help.

Thanks!

[adafruit_support_bill]

the D3 voltage reads around 57 volts, and 17 volts with it inserted (which I understand to be within the right range) but jumps back to 57 volts if the tube is inserted as well.

I've never heard of that symptom before. It sounds like probably a bad solder joint somewhere.

It looks like none of the tube leads are soldered yet. The other photos are a little dark to see the soldering well. Next to a window in the daytime typically has good even light. Try to get a better shot of the main board.

[AppleSky]

Aha, I'd kept reading ahead in the instructions to see what was coming up, and convinced myself you tested the tube before soldering it in place for some reason. I'll go ahead and solder the tube in place later today when I've got some time and see if that fixes it. In the meantime, here's some better shots of the main board, just in case. I'll let you know if I get it working.

http://imgur.com/a/2kJjy

[AppleSky]

Just finished soldering in the tube all the way, but still no luck. Also, the voltage still jumps like I described earlier.

[AppleSky]

Aha! Found a small, thin bridge on the top side of the board underneath the little Q3 transistor. Some solder must have managed to jump the gap through the board. Everything is working great now!

Thanks!

[adafruit_support_bill]

Good diagnostic work! And thanks for the follow up. It is unlikely we would have been able to spot that in a photo.