Thoughts on building an ITS1-A clock from Mr. Nixie's kit

[Dylan Distasio]

So I just finished putting together an ITS1-A clock from Mr. Nixie's kit.  I ordered the tubes separately on fleaBay.

The kit is very well done, but I ran into a couple of pain points I thought I'd share.

The first has resulted in a finished product that pains me a bit from a cosmetic perspective.  I was not aware of any size differences in individual ITS1-A tubes based on manufacture date (or whatever else).  I'm not sure if ITS1-As vary from 1-Bs and if somehow I got a mix of both on my eBay order but some of the tubes slid cleanly into the cutouts from the kit, and some did not.  Unfortunately the first ones I was working with did not, and it was not until I got to the 3rd digit that I realized some did.  Since I was not up for attempting to resolder the tubes already done with their leads clipped, I am left with different depths on the digits and the angling is not perfect on the ones that did not fit flushly into the sockets.  It does not look horrendous, but I am kind of a perfectionist with these things, so it is driving me a bit crazy.  I've tried to make my peace with it though, and have moved on for the most part.  I still love the clock, and am just happy it is working at this point, which leads me into...

The manual specifically calls out how fragile the leads can be on these tubes, and prone to breaking.  I had ordered 8 tubes originally to have some spares.  Despite my best efforts in babying the leads while straightening them out, it was with much horror that I saw one break off near the glass.  I spent a very long time attempting to jury rig the broken lead back on but eventually gave up as I could not get conductivity after soldering it back into the board.  After giving up, I used one of my spares as a replacement.

I continued to solder away and got to the final tube of 6.  After hooking up the clock for testing, I was dismayed to see two of the segments refusing to light.  I doublechecked all connections on the leads, resoldered, etc. and despite everything I tried I could not get those segments to light.  I eventually admitted defeat and hooked up my last spare, which of course did not light (I did not have a tube tester at the time of purchase).  At this point, I was pretty frustrated with the experience.

To add insult to injury, I had also gotten sloppy when moving the live board during testing and managed to give myself a nice 270V shock when I made contact.

After ordering two more tubes on eBay, I waited patiently for them to arrive from overseas.  They just arrived, and after carefully bending the leads outwards, and soldering in the last one, I am now the proud owner of a slightly askew working ITS1-A clock!

This turned out to be a very expensive project.  I am happy with the unique nature of the tubes and the wonderful kit from Jurgen though.

 

[gregebert]

Would love to see a picture. How is the brightness under normal room-light ?

[Dylan Distasio]

The brightness is really good under normal room light.  Apologies again for the soldering job on the tubes, but here's my ugly duckling:

​

On Wed, Sep 30, 2015 at 5:29 PM, gregebert <greg...@hotmail.com> wrote:

Would love to see a picture. How is the brightness under normal room-light ?

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[John Rehwinkel]

> The brightness is really good under normal room light. Apologies again for the soldering job on the tubes, but here's my ugly duckling:
>

> <its1a clock.jpg>

It came out nice, and all those spare tubes had to be expensive! What are the colon separators?

- John

[Dylan Distasio]

Thanks!  The separators are a plastic rocket shaped red LED.  They can be set to blink also, or just turn on for AM / PM.  The clock has a lot of nice features overall including temperature, light sensing, and the ability to set any rgb color on the backlight LEDs. 

On Sep 30, 2015 9:53 PM, "John Rehwinkel" <jre...@mac.com> wrote:
> It came out nice, and all those spare tubes had to be expensive!  What are the colon separators?
>
> - John
>

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[MichaelB]

I'm with you William, the hardest part about this clock is dealing with all the irregularities of that little tube. It's a beautiful little clock though when it's up and running! Congrats.

[Dekatron42]

I haven't built this exact clock but when I used these tubes I used a piece of clear plastic which I drew both horizontal and vertical lines on that corresponded to the four rivets inside the tube as well as the segments and then used a piece of double sided tape on the front of each tube to fasten them to this piece of plastic so they stayed aligned when soldering, I also used paper shims between the tubes and rubber bands to keep the tubes grouped together. I also used standoffs on the PCB so that I could put the tubes face down on the table with the PCB above them at the right height.

The original Russian designs I have seen usually used silicone glue around the tubes to completely encase them so they stayed in place and then the pins were bent and soldered to solder posts at the back of the PCB, the pins usually had a plastic sleeve to make sure that there were no short circuits.

/Martin

[MichaelB]

Good Idea using standoffs to equalize the tubes. Because the tubes are SO irregular, I found it worked best to eyeball them and take measurements with a 6" steel rule. I really like these little tubes though! Built 3 of them and am considering buying/building another

http://www.badnixie.com/Jurgen_Graus_ITS1A_B_Thyratron_Clock.html

[Dylan Distasio]

I agree, I do love the tubes.  I wish they were a bit more affordable, but that's a lament across the board on most of our stuff.  I always learn something new on each build whether it is from a kit or scratch.  I did not know how irregular the shape was on these until I got started on this one.  

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[Nick]

I have one of these waiting for assembly - I hadn't realised that a) the lead-ins are fragile and that b) they differ much in size - thanks for the heads-up on that.

It's about #6 on the to-do list - have to finish a set of near-field speakers this weekend, then veneer them....

Nick 

[MichaelB]

Actually, for the most part I did not find the leads to be brittle on the majority of the nice NOS tubes. However, I did find the leads brittle on a small batch of tubes that actually had corrosion on them. See attached. You may want to watch out for those.