Icetube clock showing all 8's 88 88 88

[matphillips]

My kit arrived and I've just finished building it, when powered though every element in the tube lights up and the buttons do nothing. Any ideas?

Many thanks.

[adafruit_support_bill]

If you can post clear photos of the front & back of the boards, we will take a look.

[matphillips]

Thanks, I've taken the pictures but cant upload them (getting an image file invalid message) but here's links via mu dropbox account anyway:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2217478/IMG_0112.png
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2217478/IMG_0113.png

Hope they're clear enough to see something I've missed,
Thanks.

[adafruit_support_bill]

The left-most pushbutton pin looks like it is not completely soldered. But that wouldn't cause the 8's.

icetube_solder.png (188.22 KiB) Viewed 1456 times

I suspect the problem is closer to the tube. Can you post a shot of the tube board too? (solder side)

[matphillips]

Thanks, I noticed that one too after I posted! I've fixed that and reflowed a couple of others that looked not great. When power is applied to the boards, the unit beeps and then there's a long delay before the tube lights up, about 20 seconds before everything lights and then it's like I say, all 8's and all the dots.

Here's the tube board.
Thanks.

[edit: looking at that, I really should get some flux cleaner!]

[adafruit_support_bill]

Soldering there looks good (I wouldn't worry about the flux. It always looks worse under magnification)

The microprocessor is running. Otherwise you would not get the beep - or any voltage boost. Usually this symptom is due to a short of some kind causing more than one digit to be selected at a time. Check carefully around the headers that connect the tube & main board - as well as the soldering on the VFD chip socket. If you could get some clear close-ups like the one of the tube-board, we'll take a closer look too.

[matphillips]

Thanks, good to hear it's likely not totally broken, I spent a little time with it and a magnifying glass but found nothing. Here are some more photos, they're better and hopefully you can see something I'm missing.

dropbox links as they're too large to attach:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2217478/IMG_0118.JPG
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2217478/IMG_0119.JPG
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2217478/IMG_0120.JPG
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2217478/IMG_0121.JPG

[adafruit_support_rick]

Are you sure you've got the tube leads oriented correctly? Check that again against the tutorial, or post a picture and we'll have a look.

You may have a tube that does not have 3 not-connected wires. in this case, the spacing will be different in front and you'll see two wires that seem 'farther' than the others. They are right in the front of the tube and are the two pins in the 'middle' of the front plate (which has 4 connections). Make sure you have identified the correct wires, please click the photos to the left to see larger detailed images as its much easier to see than explain.

[adafruit_support_bill]

Thanks for the nice clear photos. Overall, the soldering looks very good. There are a couple of stray drops of solder you should pick off before they work loose and cause a problem. But other than that I don't see anything that would be causing all 8's.

Double check the tube orientation as suggested by Driverblock. Other than that, I think we may need to start swapping out parts.

[matphillips]

more pictures, I do love the camera on the iphone 5

[matphillips]

update: the fault's changed. Now there's no display at all
I've rechecked the voltage between ground and the positive side of D3 and where there previously was 59v, there's now around 13v so that'd explain why the display isnt lighting.

I'm looking at the schematics now but cant see what would case the boost circuit to show this reading. Ideas welcome!

[adafruit_support_bill]

I've rechecked the voltage between ground and the positive side of D3 and where there previously was 59v, there's now around 13v

That is actually fairly typical. The unloaded boost voltage you measured during the build process was before the VFD chip was installed. With the chip installed, it typically drops to the 12-16v range.

The two most likely suspects here are the tube and the VFD chip. We do test the tubes prior to shipment, but they are easily damaged by rough handling. Inspect the tube carefully and look for anything that looks like it might have been knocked loose inside.

[adafruit_support_rick]

I'm leaning towards the VFD chip myself. Humor me for a moment, and make sure that the chip is firmly seated in the socket.

Give it a good shove.

[matphillips]

Thanks for all the advice. I did suspect the seating of the driver chip and pressed it in quite firmly earlier on, oddly that was between the display working, and not working. I'll try prying it out and re installing it to see what happens. I'll recheck the voltage while it's out too.
The tube looks fine but I'll re-examine that too with a good light source and magnifier. I have been quite careful with what happened to it between Adafruit's labs and the UK is anyone's guess! Thanks again.

[adafruit_support_bill]

Use care removing the chip. It is easy to bend those socket contacts. And you don't even want to think about the pain involved in trying to remove and replace one of those sockets.