Nixie Tube Clock Project
Who doesn’t love the look of nixie tubes? Oh, and if you’re playing Fallout 4, you’re gonna see nixies, whether you know it or not. Well, after years of wanting a nixie project and just simply getting my hands on some nixie tubes, the time has come. The kit I have uses IN-14 ( ин-14 on the tubes as they are Soviet new old stock) and comes from PV Electronics. It seems to be a popular kit for good reason: it’s a 6-tube kit, not just 4 like many others (and you can source the tubes separately to save some money), they supply new old stock tubes, not used, if you wish, and the layout of the PCB is nice and compact, but isn’t too terrible for a less-than-pro solderer.
One thing I have run into is that the instructions, if followed in the order in which they are presented, will have you soldering the tubes onto their QTC boards (quick tube change, a very nice feature which allows for easy replacement of tubes should one fail) and then the connectors for the QTC. Well, with the tubes in place, it is exceedingly difficult to solder on the connectors, if you’re new to or out of practice with soldering. Finer solder and a very fine point tip come in very handy here. 
Yup. And, of course, this is discovered after soldering all the nixies to all the boards. Ah, well, lesson learned. Only five more to go. Glad things like desoldering braid exist, eh?
It also seems that interest in nixie tubes is contagious. The arrival of this kit has caused a number of people I know to start ordering tubes and kits. Since there will be more tubes in my life soon, I’m hoping to try an Arduino-driven project sometime next year.
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