Trouble
shooting
If you hear any angry sounding buzzing turn the power off immediately and check
the orientation of C1!
The circuit should run almost silently, with only a very faint
“crackling” sound.
If you can't reach the target voltage, turn off and check the polarity of your components,
especially C1. If you have an oscilloscope, you can check the voltage at the gate of the
MOSFET, and it should show pulses of high frequency square wave: this is the driver
waveform to the HV generator, which is being turned off and on by the voltage detection,
trying to achieve the target voltage (180V default).
Be careful, we are dealing with high voltages now!
The voltage may be significantly higher than 170V at
the moment, because the high voltage generator is powerful and the output is not loaded. Once you add a
load, (by connecting the tubes), the voltage should oscillate around 170V – 190V, and might have a slight
“sawtooth” appearance if you view it with an oscilloscope.
Note also that the “Power” header also has high voltage exposed on it!
This is for if you want to drive
neons instead of LEDs for the colons. Be careful handling the board, it is easy to touch the “Power” header
by mistake. If you are sure you won't be needing it, you can snap the extra pin off and populate only the
bottom 3 pins on the connector.
Test Step
Check the voltage at the 170V test point. You should read a voltage in excess of 170V.
You can also test using an old neon lamp if you have one. Temporarily connect the neon
lamp between the “GND” test point and the “170V” test point with an appropriate ballast
resistor (turn the power off first). Turn the power on and the neon lamp should come on.
Trouble
shooting
Q1 can get warm,
but should not get too hot to touch
. If it gets hot, you need to check
the orientation of the components and that there are no solder bridges.
If you don't get the expected voltage reading
:
•
Check your soldering that there are no bridges or dry joints.
•
Check that the external power supply is able to supply the power needed to
achieve the high voltage: check that the VIN voltage is stable and not fluctuating.
•
Temporarily connect the LDR and re-test.
•
Temporarily connect the button and do a factory reset
Hint:
Mounting the 28 pin socket
Mounting the 28 pin socket can be a little
difficult. A good trick is to fix it in place
with a small piece of tape, and the solder
one leg in place. You can hold the socket
firm while you “wet” the solder again,
which will hold the socket firmly enough
to solder the remaining pins. One leg is
usually enough to hold the socket in place
while you solder the others.
Mounting 28 pin socket
Содержание nixie v41
Страница 1: ...Arduino Nixie Clock v41 Operating Instructions Construction Manual Document V0041a...
Страница 12: ...Schematic Below is the schematic for the clock...
Страница 16: ...At the end of the low voltage circuit build your board should look like this Low Voltage Circuit...
Страница 19: ...At the end of the high voltage circuit build your board should look like this High Voltage Circuit...
