Tube not illuminating

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dneglia
 
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Tube not illuminating

Post by dneglia »

When I finished building the clock everything worked perfectly except that the time wouldn't advance because I had c8 and c9 in the wrong orientation. So I desoldered them and replaced with 2 new 20pf caps. The soldering does not appear to be cold jointed anywhere but not the tube does not light up at all. The buzzer comes on at power up and then beeps 3 intermittent times following the initial beep. (???) is there a problem with the tube ? or is it somewhere in the board circuitry. Volts at D3 with the VFD and tube installed is only 4.6 volts (?)

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dneglia
 
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Tube not illuminating

Post by dneglia »

by the way, I forgot to mention that the C8 & C9 caps were replaced with 2 20pf 1kv ceramic caps does the voltage rating matter on these crystal circuit caps?

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Tube not illuminating

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

Post some photos of the front and back of the main board and the solder side of the tube board and we'll check it over.

For the capacitors, the voltage rating is not a critical parameter.

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dneglia
 
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Re: Tube not illuminating

Post by dneglia »

I'm sorry about posting my question in the other forums. And I have tried everything to copy and paste the board pictures here but it just won't happen. Do you have a suggestion as to how I can accomplish this on my ipad? Since I'm not big on picture taking the ipad and iphone are the only cameras I have....
Thanks!

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Re: Tube not illuminating

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

Below the message editing window is a "Choose File" and a "Add The File" button. You can use these to select and upload photos. There is a 1 meg limit, but if you re-size them to about 800x600 you should have no problems.

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dneglia
 
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Re: Tube not illuminating

Post by dneglia »

Thanks for the help and here are the pics you requested, sorry but I think they are the best I can do so I hope that they are of some help to you.
Attachments
The mess here is not scratches  I just made a bit of a mess with my shakey hands.. No bridges or cold solder joints I scoured the boards with a jewelers loop and couldn't see any problems.
The mess here is not scratches I just made a bit of a mess with my shakey hands.. No bridges or cold solder joints I scoured the boards with a jewelers loop and couldn't see any problems.
image.jpg (918.29 KiB) Viewed 737 times
sorry about the focus again no scratches or bridges
sorry about the focus again no scratches or bridges
image.jpg (371.95 KiB) Viewed 737 times
image.jpg
image.jpg (483.68 KiB) Viewed 737 times

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Tube not illuminating

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

There are a few slightly suspicious joints there, but the one thing that stands out is the missing pin on the VFD controller chip. Is that pin completely mising from the socket?

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dneglia
 
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Re: Tube not illuminating

Post by dneglia »

yes that pin is completely missing I just thought that, that is the way it was suppoed to be and thats why I didn't comment about it.

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dneglia
 
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Re: Tube not illuminating

Post by dneglia »

Like I said before that all the voltage tests during the building stage were past and when it was completed and fired up every thing worked except for the time not advancing. It stopped working completely after I corrected C8 and C9.

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Re: Tube not illuminating

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

Looking at the scematics and board layout, that is the VCC pin for the VFD control chip. I don't see how it could work without that connection. - unless possibly the pn is bent and is (was) contacting the solder pad on the top side.

http://datasheets.maximintegrated.com/e ... AX6931.pdf
https://github.com/adafruit/Ice-Tube-Clock

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dneglia
 
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Re: Tube not illuminating

Post by dneglia »

Thanks! I will pull out the VFD chip and check it again and will take a pic of it for you on Monday...thanks again!

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dneglia
 
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Re: Tube not illuminating

Post by dneglia »

Well I tried everything, short of causing damage to the VFD chip, to remove it from the socket but I don't have the right tool to accomplish this and it appears to be very tightly in place. But, by using a heavy duty magnifying glass and a sharp miniature pin light I was able to see into the very slight gap between the socket and the board. This gap is even all the way around the socket and is too small to have allowed a bent pin, and there isn't one, also I ran a solid wire into the vacant hole in the board and the wire went right into the socket. I thought about soldering this wire into place but thought better of rigging this chip like that and possibly causing permanent damage to it.
So what do I do next to get this product working?
Thanks again for your help!

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Re: Tube not illuminating

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

If the socket is missng a pin, then it is a defective socket. It is nearly impossible to de-solder one of these without specialized equipment. Please contact [email protected] with a link to this thread for a replacement Ice Tube kit.

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