Ice Tube Clock (Tube has no display)

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Ice Tube Clock (Tube has no display)

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

So your bias voltage is good too. Post photos of the front & back of the main board - as well as the solder-side of the tube board.

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tforster
 
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Re: Ice Tube Clock (Tube has no display)

Post by tforster »

Here's a series of shots that should capture enough detail. Let me know if you need a better one? And thanks for being so quick on the answers!

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Ice Tube Clock (Tube has no display)

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

OK. Solder looks good. Your bias voltage is good. No obvious build issues. But 2 bad displays would be highly unlikely.

Are you getting the beep at power up? I assume that the processor must be running, or you would not have a boost voltage.
If you look at the display in a dark room (give your eyes a few minutes to adjust to the darkness), do you see any faint glow from either the digits or the tube heater filament?

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jarchie
 
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Re: Ice Tube Clock (Tube has no display)

Post by jarchie »

When you ordered a new tube, did you get a new side PCB or just a new tube? By my eye, the side PCB is chipped, taking out the VBIAS trace.

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Re: Ice Tube Clock (Tube has no display)

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

By my eye, the side PCB is chipped, taking out the VBIAS trace.
Good eyes! That does look like a chip. If you (carefully) run a jumper from the header side of R3 to the pin to the left of the chip, does the tube light up?

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tforster
 
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Re: Ice Tube Clock (Tube has no display)

Post by tforster »

adafruit_support_bill wrote:
By my eye, the side PCB is chipped, taking out the VBIAS trace.
Good eyes! That does look like a chip. If you (carefully) run a jumper from the header side of R3 to the pin to the left of the chip, does the tube light up?
@jarchie I'd say great eye! @adafruit_support_bill I just ran the jumper as suggested and I see gorgeous green glowing numbers. To answer your question I ordered both the tube and the side PCB. I suppose I could solder a permanent jumper from R3 to that terminal? Which would look a little odd, or order another tube/PCB combination.

FYI, the original tube still doesn't work. It differs from the (now understood) working tube in that it is a 19 wire. The working one is a 22 wire. Not sure if that makes any difference to debugging a possible cause with the original?

If I order a replacement so I don't need to solder an unsightly jumper from R3 what is the probability that I will receive a 19 wire tube and not a 22?

And again, thanks both of you for helping me out. It's greatly appreciated.

Troy

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tforster
 
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Re: Ice Tube Clock (Tube has no display)

Post by tforster »

Careful inspection of the original tube shows a really tiny chip in almost exactly the same location. Tried the jumper trick and that tube lights up too.

I'm pretty sure both PCBs were chip free when I started. I'm suspecting that when I cleaned up the leads after soldering that the chips were introduced. Interesting they are both in the same place. Could it be that the PCB is a little weaker near the top?

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Re: Ice Tube Clock (Tube has no display)

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

The 19 wire tubes are equivalent. They just omit the 3 unconnected leads.

I will look into the chipping issue. I've never seen that before, but It seems strange that you would have two boards chip in the same place. In the mean-time, if you follow the trace from the other side of the chip, you will see that it leads to the top-right pin on the header. You could a a slightly less unsightly jumper to there to get your tube lighting.

Or - since it appears that you may have sufficient soldering skills, you could scrape the solder mask from the top of that trace and run a very short fine-gauge jumper to bridge the chip. Some 30AWG wire-wrap wire is ideal for this type of repair.

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