I’m in a sorting, organizing, and labeling mode just now. Hard to create with too much clutter or when it takes too long to find the right tool.
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After a couple hours of trial and error and way too much time troubleshooting a busted potentiometer (it was basically adding no resistance causing it to output over 400V) I have finally got a prototype power supply for my nixies.
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I’ve been told to watch my ass on playing with Nixie power supplies.
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Too true. I go in the “office” now, take a look, heave a sigh, and sit with the laptop on the sofa. Is de-cluttering and organizing a craft topic, I wonder?
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Power! The tube lights up.
You will get a lot more efficiency using a PC board with near-zero lead lengths on the parts. This guy put a lot of effort into making an efficient design.
http://desmith.net/NMdS/Electronics/NixiePSU.html
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Well, we’ve not got 5 weekends into our new kitchen, and I forgot to take pictures yesterday, but even with 2 coats of mud, things don’t look terribly different from last weekend:
I’m sooo loking forward to that dishwasher…
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Wow, that’s beautiful. I definitely plan to shorten my leads as much as possible when I move it to a permanent board. My first interest was just to get something lit up.
I went with the 555 timer design which I know isn’t anywhere near as efficient as the MAX1771 based design you linked to but as a first effort I’m pretty happy with it (and those MAX1771 chips aren’t cheap!)
This weekend I’m going to start attempting moving to a permanent board. I plan to laser cut an acrylic case for displaying everything.
This is all stuff I’ve done before in a much smaller scale so I’m definitely going outside of my skill comfort zone which I find exciting. It’s enough to be a good learning experience without being completely daunting at the same time.
I’ll post more pics once I have made more progress.
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Just had my first encounter with a tree. 
No biggie; the plane dropped right out and the only damage was a loose aileron servo (reglued in seconds once I got home). The new wooden engine bay came through without a scratch; I’d got sick of having to rebuild the foam one after every second crash.
Plane #2 will be ready to go as soon as I glue in the servos and vertical stabilisers:
I’m in no rush to finish it, though. It’s both more fragile and a lot faster than the other plane, so the more flight time before I put it up the better.
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I avow that it is!
Unfortunately, they don’t ship to my state. Also aren’t there a lot of counterfeit goods on there? Or is that more Amazon/eBay?
I’ve bought a fair amount of electronics from there and the vast majority works the way it should. Just don’t expect fast delivery, instructions and tech support. Your money is held in escrow until you confirm delivery and that it isn’t DOA, but after that you’re on your own.
I’m not sure you can call it counterfeit if you’re buying direct from the place that western retailers get their stuff in the first place …
How come they won’t deliver to your state?
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Here is another method for straightening control rods. http://flitetest.com/articles/how-to-straighten-wire-for-making-control-rods
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Some sort of regulatory pissing match between Aliexpress and Washington State.
http://komonews.com/news/local/washington-residents-shut-out-from-mega-e-tailer-alibaba
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Unfortunately, it sounds from that like Washington State is correct. Aliexpress do indeed provide an escrow service —that’s what makes it safe enough to buy from suppliers that list with them— and if that requires licensing and taxation at the State level then they are trying it on. Plus attempting to evade State taxes as well …
Shame, they’re a good source of hard-to-find stuff.
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