Ice Tube Clock boosting to only 14V

[jaystevens]

Hello,
I am assembling an ice tube clock kit and have run into a problem with the boost inverter. Where the online instructions say the expected measurement is between 40V and 70V, I only measure 14V. Initially, it was measured at 30V, lower than the documents stipulate, but I continued to populate the board. However, when it came time to install the VFD tube, the tube did not light and I found the boost inverter's output had fallen to the 14V.

The 7805 is regulating to 4.95V from a 9V wall adapter, and the board beeps on power up each time.

As of now, all of the components have been placed in the board with the exception of the tube itself.

Any help with this matter is greatly appreciated,

Jason

[adafruit_support_bill]

The voltage naturally drops somewhat when you install the tube, but 30v is low to begin with, so there wouldn't be enough left to light the tube.
With the tube removed, are you getting the 30v again?

Post some photos of the front & back of both boards and we'll check for any assembly problems.

[jaystevens]

Thank you for the reply, but when I put the tube in to test the voltage, it flashed 12 00 00 and began timing, albeit dimly. The voltage was closer to 13.5V with the tube in, and 13.95V without.

Upped the brightness using the menu option, assembled the case, and now it works beautifully.

Guessing it was just a bad contact or solder joint. Curious as to what the problem was, but it works so I'd sooner not poke around.

Excellent kit,

Jason.

[adafruit_support_bill]

Glad you got it working. If your intermittent connection comes back to haunt you, post some pics and we'll hunt it down.

[Agent24]

Shouldn't that be:

When your intermittent connection comes back to haunt you...