Has anyone bought, built or evaluated this kit?

[Dave]

Any reviews or comments?

ebay in-14 clock kit

[threeneurons]

No, but at that price, it could be worth a look ! From what I see, it looks like its multiplexed. That turns off some, but I don't have a problem with it. Basically looks good, and I'm direct competition ! 

[blkadder]

I just ordered one, so we will see when it arrives.  I figure it's worth the $30 just to give it a go.

[Quixotic Nixotic]

On 18 Jun 2013, at 18:54, Dave wrote:

Any reviews or comments?

ebay in-14 clock kit

I think a bare PCB and microcontroller is stretching the kit idea a bit. 

A bare pcb and a programmed chip for 29 dollars isn't a huge bargain. Especially as you have to source the exact switches etc that he used, or kludge it.

The whole clock kit is actually 129 dollars: ebay 271169083384

John S

[pewter]

This kit uses a opto isolator instead of the usual transistor interface which is nice. At the price you are paying a bit for the work in producing the code and pcb so if you take that into account I think it is fair. Obviously of you design a board and code code yourself then you can do it for less. You takes your choice.

[threeneurons]

Yes, I took a closer look at the board. The silkscreen indicates EL817, but if those are the anode drivers (muxed), then they really need to be the EL816. The EL817 can only tolerate 35V, and that's too small of a difference for switching nixies ON & OFF. The EL816, can tolerate as much as 80V, making it a better choice. It uses one 74141, from the pinout of that one 16-pin chip. So its clearly 1x6 muxed. Also, there's an area to stuff the HV switcher. Given, that you have to get the parts yourself, and there are some parts that most people don't have in their hobby bin (Beefy coil, power FET, ultra high speed rectifiers, ...), you could just get a pre-made switcher (Taylor ?), and just mount it over that location.

Being muxed, and using uC, does significantly reduce the part count, making it easier for a newbie. Of course using a pre-programmed uC doesn't teach the newbie anything other than maybe his soldering skills. Hey, its all depends on what you want. There are all kinds of kits out there. Get the one one that suits you. If you're ambitious, search eBay, and buy one of each !