PV clock kit - word of caution

[Kevin A.]

Just wanted to put a PSA out there for anyone planning on building a PV electronics nixie clock kit.

I recieved my kit for an "elite" clock recently, and inspecting the tube driver board revealed some poor soldering of the 44-QPF HV5622 drivers. One chip had a solder bridge between two legs, the other was not soldered on square with the pads.

Now, if you have hot air like I did, you will be able to rework the chips off the board, dress the pads, and resolder them correctly. If you don't, or are not comfortable with fine pitch surface mount soldering, this could spell trouble.

Just something to keep an eye out for. I will let PV know so that this hopefully does not occur moving forward.

[Kevin A.]

Images highlighting the problem. This is how the boards arrived. 

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[Kevin A.]

*Correction, 44 QFP (Quad Flat Pack)

[lokn...@gmail.com]

First let me say I am in no way affiliated with pv-electronics. 

  I built the same clock about a year ago and there were no issues with the solder points for the HV driver QFPs. I am unsure what is up with the one you got, but I am sure it was a fluke. I would definitely let them know about the potential QC problem. I know I would want to know if It were my business. 

Here is the one I built.

Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 20, 2019, at 01:40, Kevin A. <ka...@scarletmail.rutgers.edu> wrote:

*Correction, 44 QFP (Quad Flat Pack)

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[lokn...@gmail.com]

From closer inspection using my poor man macro lens (iPhone/jewelers loop) the joints are clearly hand soldered and the right row is a little questionable. I guess if your driver is lined up properly just use a flux pen and refresh your joints. I assume these are added by the board manufacturer so I would suggest PV-Electronics have a talk with them or find another source.

Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 20, 2019, at 01:40, Kevin A. <ka...@scarletmail.rutgers.edu> wrote:

*Correction, 44 QFP (Quad Flat Pack)

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[Kevin A.]

Very nice work with your kit. The curly wood finish is gorgeous. 

I did rework mine off and resolder them. I'm not IPC certified but I think I did an alright job (see attached).

I hope that mine was a fluke. If they're selling a kit, why not make these chips a part of the assembly too? With a chisel tip and lots of flux, it should be manageable to solder and would be a good learning experience.

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/15EF0157-1353-4AEB-9D33-6DFA31E45C08%40gmail.com.

[lokn...@gmail.com]

If they're selling a kit, why not make these chips a part of the assembly too? With a chisel tip and lots of flux, it should be manageable to solder and would be a good learning experience.

I completely agree,  although from a business standpoint I suspect he wouldn’t sell as many kits, as many hobbyists are still  afraid of working with SMD components. I know I was until I discovered liquid flux pens on eBay. 😁

Sent from my iPhone

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[Nicholas Stock]

You may want to check that the bridge isn’t deliberate before removing it.....

Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 20, 2019, at 07:10, lokn...@gmail.com wrote:

If they're selling a kit, why not make these chips a part of the assembly too? With a chisel tip and lots of flux, it should be manageable to solder and would be a good learning experience.

I completely agree,  although from a business standpoint I suspect he wouldn’t sell as many kits, as many hobbyists are still  afraid of working with SMD components. I know I was until I discovered liquid flux pens on eBay. 😁

Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 20, 2019, at 09:56, Kevin A. <ka...@scarletmail.rutgers.edu> wrote:

Very nice work with your kit. The curly wood finish is gorgeous. 

I did rework mine off and resolder them. I'm not IPC certified but I think I did an alright job (see attached).

I hope that mine was a fluke. If they're selling a kit, why not make these chips a part of the assembly too? With a chisel tip and lots of flux, it should be manageable to solder and would be a good learning experience.

On Sat, Jul 20, 2019, 9:48 AM <lokn...@gmail.com> wrote:

From closer inspection using my poor man macro lens (iPhone/jewelers loop) the joints are clearly hand soldered and the right row is a little questionable. I guess if your driver is lined up properly just use a flux pen and refresh your joints. I assume these are added by the board manufacturer so I would suggest PV-Electronics have a talk with them or find another source.

<image1.jpeg>

<image2.jpeg>

Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 20, 2019, at 01:40, Kevin A. <ka...@scarletmail.rutgers.edu> wrote:

*Correction, 44 QFP (Quad Flat Pack)

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[lokn...@gmail.com]

You may want to check that the bridge isn’t deliberate before removing it.....

That is also a very good point.

Sent from my iPhone

[lokn...@gmail.com]

You may want to check that the bridge isn’t deliberate before removing it.....

While, I agree with the spirit of this statement. If you look at my photos they do not appear to be bridged at all. There is just solder debris between the joints that could present an issue.

Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 20, 2019, at 10:14, Nicholas Stock <nick...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Kevin A.]

Nick,

As far as I can tell, there are no two adjacent circuits that should be bridged on an HV series serial to parallel converter. I've implemented this chip in several of my own designs. 

(Unless its a bodge fix for a board layout error, in which case the board should be fixed before being sold as a working product)

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[Nicholas Stock]

I just checked my elite boards and there are no bridges, so chalk this one up to an erroneous solder job.

The number of people who can adeptly do fine pitch SMD work pales in comparison to those that can adequately solder through hole.....i’m sure Pete does not want to deal with the inevitable messes some people will make with these.....just my 2 cents.

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[jwalton.mn]

I hope that you contacted PV about the issue prior to posting here.  Pete has been a long member of the community and has produced well respected product for years. I would think that he'd appreciate direct feedback if something that is not up to par gets out to a customer.  

Anyone that is making an honest living based on good service and a quality product will probably go out of their way to fix the issue AND the cause.  But they need to hear about it directly.  If they just dismiss you, then post away!  

Jeff 

[Kevin A.]

Yes I did send an email to PV detailing my concerns. I am currently underway with the rest of the build and it is progressing smoothly. I have no doubt that it will be another great nixie clock to enjoy for many years. 

My intention here was to encourage others to double check their kits before proceeding with the build. It is much easier to spot and fix this before populating other components. 

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[Mac Doktor]

On Jul 20, 2019, at 10:10 AM, lokn...@gmail.com wrote:

If they're selling a kit, why not make these chips a part of the assembly too? With a chisel tip and lots of flux, it should be manageable to solder and would be a good learning experience.

I completely agree,  although from a business standpoint I suspect he wouldn’t sell as many kits, as many hobbyists are still  afraid of working with SMD components. I know I was until I discovered liquid flux pens on eBay. 😁

I'm not afraid of SMD, I just can't see well enough and my hands shake when I'm stressed out. I have several kits sitting here waiting for the day when I can sit down and work on them comfortably, whenever that will be. Building kits is supposed to be fun and the fewer fiddly bits the better. For me the main advantage of a kit is that it's cheaper and having all the SMD already in place really greases the skids.

OTOH, if you're comfortable with SMD work more power to you. As for myself, I'm highly myopic and I used to be able to see things VERY close up. Now that I'm in my late 50s presbyopia has robbed me of my near vision. Furthermore, I have strabismus which causes my eyes to fail to converge properly and create a proper sense of depth. For me it's poor at a distance and improves as I move closer to an object but then just as I'm almost there everything starts to go out of focus. A binocular microscope wouldn't help me because when I look into one it's the same as looking at something in the distance so I can only use one eye at a time.

When I was a kid I didn't realize that when you looked into a ViewMaser you were supposed to see a stereoscopic image. Later in my teens I found some reels for sale that were old stereoscopic pictures from the 19th Century. I bought the ones with trains, stuck them in the ViewMaster, and with great effort finally managed to see something in 3D for the first time. I was probably 15 or 16.

Needless to say I'm not a big fan of 3D movies. The only one I've seen (partially) was Werner Herzog's Cave Of Forgotten Dreams and I had to sit in the front row to even...well, I forgot to mention that my glasses have such a low (negative) power that they make everything I see MUCH smaller than life size. Objects appear smaller than they actually are, to borrow or perhaps mutilate a phrase. And because my retina is stretched out slightly the neurons in my fovea are farther apart than normal which reduces the acuity of my sight even further. 

I used to be able to glance at a resistor to read the value. Now I HAVE to use an ohmmeter to be sure. And yes, I can see well enough to drive even at night. I have a very good ophthalmologist.

I hope this doesn't sound too much like a rant. As I said if you're comfortable with SMD work more power to you.

Do you want to hear about the floaters?

Terry Bowman, KA4HJH
"The Mac Doctor"

"If only you could see what I've seen with your eyes."—Roy Batty, Blade Runner

[Kevin A.]

And it lives! Definitely a fun kit to build, and highly recommended. 

[martin martin]

Looks great!

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[Terry Kennedy]

On Saturday, July 20, 2019 at 5:05:56 PM UTC-4, Terry Bowman wrote:

I'm not afraid of SMD, I just can't see well enough and my hands shake when I'm stressed out. I have several kits sitting here waiting for the day when I can sit down and work on them comfortably, whenever that will be. Building kits is supposed to be fun and the fewer fiddly bits the better. For me the main advantage of a kit is that it's cheaper and having all the SMD already in place really greases the skids.

Do you want to hear about the floaters?

I sympathize. I am nearsighted and when the MOD-6 kit came out in 2011, I asked for PDFs of the assembly instructions so I could print them at 11 x 17. The title of my email was "blind man trying to solder". At the time I could get by with one of those lens-and-a-ring-lamp magnifiers.

Given that I could do this by hand under that lamp:

  I would definitely declare the board shown in the OP as unacceptable. Perhaps someone returned the kit after trying to re-solder the parts for some reason?

[Kevin A.]

Thanks! Here it is all buttoned up, with the PIR sensor option. 

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[Bill Notfaded]

I thought the same thing until I discovered metcal soldering stations. I love my MX5000.

Bill

[Bill Notfaded]

Looks good the final outcome!