Warm Tube Clock
Assembly Instructions for the „IN-16 Nixie shield“
Document Version: 2011-01-05
www.elektronika.ba
-10-
Step 6
Now that we have all required parts soldered for TLC59401 to operate, we can test it to see if it
works. This is the first time we can verify our TLC59401 SMD soldering work!
1. Make sure your desk is clean of all wires and solder
remains, and plug in the DC supply to the “main board”
and the LEDs should start blinking in blue after few
seconds!
WARNING!
When you now connect the DC power supply, the
booster circuit will generate around 200V DC. Don’t
touch any part of the device, including the upper shield
PCB!
Now, disconnect the DC power supply, wait a minute for
the high voltage capacitor to empty, and continue
soldering.
But what if it doesn’t work properly?
1.
Turn off the DC power supply
2.
Make sure you have Atmel AVR placed in its socket on the “main board”
3.
Make sure your Atmel AVR has a valid firmware programmed for the Warm Tube Clock with
IN-16 Nixie shield
4.
Take your soldering iron and re-solder all pins of TLC59401 IC. Yes, they are tiny but soldering
these pins is really no problem if you use a good soldering flux. That way the solder will stay
only on the pins of TLC59401 making sure they got soldered. Make sure there are no short-
circuits among pins!
5.
If after the step 2. didn’t help solve the problem, you really need to use the hot-air station to
re-solder the bottom GND pad of the TLC59401 since clearly your “hot-plate” method didn’t
go as planned.
6.
If the LEDs do blink, but not in blue colour – it seems that your LEDs are not the same as ones
I used, so you will need to edit the Warm Tube Clock
wt.h
file a bit, and recompile the
firmware.
