What The Builders Say
Kindly supplied by some of my builders:
So, this is a post to show off my new numitron clock but more so in recognition of my gratitude to Richard Scales. The, now quite rare, DTF-104B numitron tubes came from Richard as did the board. Had an issue when soldering up the board due to my heavy handed soldering and without hesitation Richard offered to take the board back, desolder everything and solder back onto a new board which he promptly had back to me in the space of 2 days. A truly great service provided and high quality workmanship. I have no affiliation with Richard but feel it important that I let others know what a great service he provides. I urge anyone to buy from Richard, I know I will again very soon! Thanks again Richard, I hope you don’t mind me promoting you like this!
Ken Gorman
DTF-104B BUILDER
“I built this clock in the winter of 2025 after Richard and I brainstormed some ideas we had napkin-sketched together in the winter of 2024 and spring of 2025. Working with Richard was a pleasure and he was super helpful and responsive to my requests, and had some amazing insights and ideas as well.
Currently, the clock is sitting on a bookcase in our living room. The assembly was very straightforward except for having to fish the ribbon cables one by one through the 6 small lasercut holes in the lid of the base while lowering the lid onto the base.
The kit was well laid out. I really enjoyed putting it all together and having it light up once I got around to it.
The clock consists of six NL-8091 tubes mounted in remote Cinch SK-137 sockets. The sockets are mounted to a salvaged piece of sheet metal from an original piece of equipment. This is then fastened to a bespoke acrylic display case pedestal. Power conversion is done internally in the case in a separate compartment from the controller board. The back of the case has a standard PC power socket and separate rocker switch which is then fused and runs to a Meanwell RS-35-12 which supplies the Volts needed for the clock.
I intend to incorporate a large format 5 by 7 by 20 character VFD display inside of the case at some point, which should take up the rest of the space. The third tube from the right has a little bit of poisoning on the 3 and 4 digits, but I am keeping the tube in this position to be able to explain this phenomenon.
This clock is dedicated to my mentor and electronics teacher.
