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High voltage 12 volts applied to 5 volt Nixie clock - damage? Can it be fixed? ?

Barry54

Nov 6, 2022
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Hi All,
My daughter reconnected my precious Nixie clock to a 12 volt charger instead of 5 volt.
It lit up the tubes and then shut down. Now it is dead.
Would any kind person have an idea of what damage has been done and can it be fixed.
I was rather fond of it! Thankyou
 

kellys_eye

Jun 25, 2010
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Hope you love your daughter more than the nixie clock! It's very unlikely a simple repair could be done. The logic circuitry is 5V +/- 10% so a 100% (and more) application of the supply would 'blow' a lot of the chips.

Do you have a schematic or reference we can view/download. At a stretch there might be some kind of 'buffer' circuitry that prevented the surge going too far but any repair at all will involve some decent soldering and a test meter - do you have the equipment necessary?
 

bertus

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Nov 8, 2019
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Hello,

As said with a schematic we can see wich parts could not handle tha 12 Volts.

Bertus
 

crutschow

May 7, 2021
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If you get it working again you might want to add an input overvoltage crowbar circuit, or an ultra LDO input regulator to keep the internal voltage at no more than 5V.
 

Barry55

Nov 7, 2022
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Hope you love your daughter more than the nixie clock! It's very unlikely a simple repair could be done. The logic circuitry is 5V +/- 10% so a 100% (and more) application of the supply would 'blow' a lot of the chips.

Do you have a schematic or reference we can view/download. At a stretch there might be some kind of 'buffer' circuitry that prevented the surge going too far but any repair at all will involve some decent soldering and a test meter - do you have the equipment necessary?
 

Barry55

Nov 7, 2022
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Thankyou. I’m afraid I’m not techno savvy enough to fix this Cheers
 

Barry55

Nov 7, 2022
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Nov 7, 2022
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Hello,

As said with a schematic we can see wich parts could not handle tha 12 Volts.

Bertus
I’ll try to get one .. Thankyou

If you get it working again you might want to add an input overvoltage crowbar circuit, or an ultra LDO input regulator to keep the internal voltage at no more than 5V.
Thankyou for your help. I reckon she has fried it! I’ll hang to it in case I get a future opportunity to get it fixed.
 

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kellys_eye

Jun 25, 2010
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Thankyou for your help. I reckon she has fried it! I’ll hang to it in case I get a future opportunity to get it fixed.
Shame really. Most of the active devices are in sockets so they could have easily been changed...

Please post a close up of the area around the power socket. There are components there that might form some sort of input voltage protection, in which case all may not be lost!
 

Harald Kapp

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Nov 17, 2011
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Knowing the make and model of the clock may help us find a schematic...
 

Alec_t

Jul 7, 2015
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It's refreshing to see component values clearly marked on the pcb. Is this a kit-built clock?
 

notny41

Apr 24, 2023
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I actually built my own nixie clock and I know how you feel about it. I LOVE LOVE LOVE mine! I made mine with an arduino, realtime clock module, a bridge rectifier diode set, a step up 12v to 150v power supply converter module, and a buck converter to take the 12v down to 5v for the arduino. It would definately help to know where the clock came from to be able to answer your question. What size tubes does it use?
 
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