Nixie clock In-16 User manual

Warm Tube Clock

Assembly Instructions for the „IN-16 Nixie shield“

Document Version: 2011-01-05

www.elektronika.ba

-1-

Warm Tube Clock

Assembly Instructions for the “IN-16 Nixie shield”

Introduction

Congratulations on your purchase of OSH Nixie Tube Clock. In this document you will see all steps

you need to follow in order to successfully assemble the “IN-16 Nixie shield” of this device.

Before we start, please make sure that you have all required parts that come for the “IN-16 Nixie

shield”:

Qty

Value

Device

Parts

2x6 MALE PIN HEADER

PINHD-2X6

PIN_MAL_1, PIN_MAL_2

3k9

R-EU_0204/2V

10k

R-EU_0204/2V

10nF

C-EU025-024X044

47uF/16V

CPOL-EU-HORI

100nF-1uF

C-EUC0805

910k

R-EU_0207/10

R1, R2

IN-16 NIXIE TUBE

IN-16-X-NEW-NODOT

NIX1, NIX2, NIX3, NIX4

LED 1210 COMM ANODE

LED-TRICOLOR

LED1, LED2, LED3, LED4

NIXIE-DOT

NIX-LDOT, NIX-UDOT

TLC59401

IC1

TLP627 SMD

TLP627V1

OPT1, OPT2, OPT3, OPT4

List of all parts for the “IN-16 Nixie shield”board

All parts should be assembled in correct order, starting from SMD components to low profile

components and finally to high profile ones. Component locations are not marked on PCB because a

“clean look” of the shield is very important. So, component (Part) locations are in the following image

and their values are in the above table.

Note: The assembly of this shield PCB implies that you have already successfully assembled the

“main board” of the Warm Tube Clock.

Warm Tube Clock

Assembly Instructions for the „IN-16 Nixie shield“

Document Version: 2011-01-05

www.elektronika.ba

-2-

Assembly

Heat up your soldering iron, take a deep breath and go for it. The assembly of this PCB is easier than

“main board” PCB since it has very small component count but requires a steady hand. Also, take

your time when soldering the Nixie tubes because you wouldn’t want to solder them crooked.

Step 1

First you need to solder the TLC59401 SMD IC (IC1). This IC should have came already soldered on

your shield PCB so you can skip this step, or read it FYI and see how easy it is to solder complicated

SMD parts at home.

1. Make sure the PCB pad where IC goes is clean from

grease. Rub it with some alcohol just in case.

2. Apply some amount of liquid solder paste. I can’t give

you the exact amount of solder paste to use, as this comes

with experience and pure sense.

Just put the amount you think that will be enough to

solder the entire bottom pad of the TLC59401 IC and not

too much to make a problem.

3. As you can see, it doesn’t look pretty and it doesn’t

have to! You can also put some solder paste on the pin’s

locations so you don’t have to use a soldering iron after

“hot-plating” the IC. You will see what “hot-plating” is

later on.

Warm Tube Clock

Assembly Instructions for the „IN-16 Nixie shield“

Document Version: 2011-01-05

www.elektronika.ba

-3-

4. Now, using your tweezers gently place the component

in its position. Push it all the way to the PCB so it kind of

“glues” itself. Make sure it is centred and placed correctly!

5. It looks something like this before “hot-plating”.

6. Now, find your favourite “hot-plate”. As you can see, I

am using a clothing iron! It works excellent.

7. Turn it around and secure it in place!

Warm Tube Clock

Assembly Instructions for the „IN-16 Nixie shield“

Document Version: 2011-01-05

www.elektronika.ba

-4-

8. Place the PCB onto the “hot-plate” and turn it ON to

pre-heat. Don’t turn the “hop-plate” to maximum

temperature just yet. First put it to half, wait a minute,

and then turn it up to the maximum. The maximum

temperature for a clothing iron is around 210 degrees

Celsius which is just enough to get the job done.

9. Now, what you can (should be able to) see in this

picture is that the soldering paste we previously applied is

slightly starting to melt and liquefy. It might also start to

smoke a bit (depends on the type of your liquid solder) –

so don’t worry that is normal.

The end of the soldering process is when the solder paste

fully melts, just like in the following picture.

10. Now it is time to remove the PCB from the “hot-plate”.

I usually don’t leave it there until it cools down totally, so

after turning the “hot-plate” off I wait about half a minute

and remove the PCB with hands, but very slowly, and

place it on the desk to cool down.

Now it is time to inspect the solder-work. If the pins don’t

look like they have enough solder on them, feel free to fix

the work with your soldering iron. If there are short-

circuits between pins –fix with soldering iron!

The “hot-plate” kind of soldering is required because the

TLC59401 has a bottom GND pad that needs to be

soldered and this is the only way to do it (actually you

could also do this with the hot-air soldering station).

Warm Tube Clock

Assembly Instructions for the „IN-16 Nixie shield“

Document Version: 2011-01-05

www.elektronika.ba

-5-

Step 2

Now we need to solder the RGB LEDs LED1, LED2, LED3 and LED4. We could have done it at the same

time, together with TLC59401, but since it already came soldered on the PCB we have to do it with

the soldering iron.

1. The LEDs are not that small, so soldering should take a

minute or two.

2. Place the LED in the position but keep in mind about its

common Anode pin. The common Anode is marked on the

PCB as you can see –the upper right corner has a white

mark. The first pin on this RGB LED is actually a Cathode of

the RED LED-part, so by following the IC marking

convention the common Anode is the fourth pin of this

RGB LED.

3. After placing the LED in its position, you can hold it in

place using tweezers while firstly soldering it’s any pin

(“tacking” it actually). After “tacking” it into place with

some solder, you can solder the remaining pins and then

go back to solder the “tacked” pin. While soldering these

LEDs, you actually don’t need to touch the LED with the

soldering iron. It is enough to touch the PCB under the

LED’s pin and it will solder it.

Warm Tube Clock

Assembly Instructions for the „IN-16 Nixie shield“

Document Version: 2011-01-05

www.elektronika.ba

-6-

4. Your finished work should look like this.

Warm Tube Clock

Assembly Instructions for the „IN-16 Nixie shield“

Document Version: 2011-01-05

www.elektronika.ba

-7-

Step 3

Now find the “103”C3 capacitor (10nF = 0.01uF). It is used to filter voltage spikes for the TLC59401

IC. It must run flawlessly since every flicker will be visible on the Nixie tubes.

1. Place it and solder it –piece of cake.

Warm Tube Clock

Assembly Instructions for the „IN-16 Nixie shield“

Document Version: 2011-01-05

www.elektronika.ba

-8-

Step 4

Now locate the resistors R3 and R4: 3k9 (3.9k) and 10k, respectively. The 3k9 resistor defines the

current that will be provided to the RGB LEDs (and also to the opto-couplers) –for more information

about this LED current, see the TLC59401 datasheet. The 10k resistor is simply a pull-up resistor for

the BLANK line of the TLC59401 IC. It is there to make sure all LEDs are turned off in case Atmel AVR

doesn’t have the correct firmware loaded.

1. Put them in place and solder them. Left one is the 3k9,

the right one is the 10k.

2. So it looks like this from the bottom view.

Warm Tube Clock

Assembly Instructions for the „IN-16 Nixie shield“

Document Version: 2011-01-05

www.elektronika.ba

-9-

Step 5

Now locate the “2x6” male pin headers: PIN_MAL_1 and PIN_MAL2. These connect the “main board”

and the “shield board”, so make sure they get soldered correctly.

1. Put these into the female pin headers on the “main

board”, all the way in. Now place the shield board on top

of the “main board” like in the picture. This way you will

know that it will fits perfectly!

2. Push it all the way down while soldering, so it doesn’t

“float”! Simply solder both connectors while the PCB is on

top of the “main board” like in the picture.

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.

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