Worse case I guess I could trim the edge of the PCB where it sits in the card edge connector, so that it sinks a bit lower...
Very nice Vince.
Looks like an easy fix for aligning the nixies: Just take a small round file to the PCB and turn the mounting holes for the nixie sockets into slots.
Nooooooooo!!!
If one of your children's ears is lower than the other, do you trim some off the lobe to make them symmetrical? Love them as they are!
Rob's idea ('thanks Rob), sounds great to me !
100% reversible, 100% invisible (the black plastic bit is covering the screw holes anyway. Better yet : you can modify the alignment at will, nothing is set in stone, so if you like crooked displays, you could on purpose adjust the Nixie alignment to "draw" patterns on the display... a sine wave, a triangle, Morse code, what ever find your fancy... that would DEFINITELY give it a unique "character" eh ?!
As for ears, I can talk about that, because a kid mine got "reworked" so to speak... originally they were like satellite dishes pointing forward, à la " Serge Gainsbourg "... I would be mocked at primary school, and kids are cruel, they know no limit nor finesse. Fixing my ears was a true saviour. My life would be 10 times shittier than it already is, had that not been done.
However, because I am not Putin and I am willing to compromise... I will not do anything right now, I declare a cease fire... no rush. I will first fix the counter from an electrical point of view, then clean it and do the cosmetic restoration... which will probably take many months or two years, given how many things need doing in the lab and elsewhere in or around he house. Chances are that by that time I will have completely forgotten about the alignment problem altogether, or I would have grown to like it like you do, or I just would not be arsed to fix it....
Does that sound like a reasonable compromise to your ears ?
Thanks for the internals pics Vince, it's interesting to see how two manufacturers approach the same task and end up with two very similar and yet different answers. I'd guess that once you re-seat the boards they'll stay in place as long as you don't move the instruments around too much.[/color][/size][/b]
Unfortunately I spoke too soon I am afraid !
The wobble in the boards disappeared as soon as I put the cross beam back in place, as it pushed onto the boards right behind the Nixie sockets !
With the beam in place, boards don't move yet are still misaligned..
Only the MSB/leftmost board somehow still has a (little) bit of movement to it.
To finish, took some piccies of the FRB power socket at the back, and the power cord, just for you, because I thought the professional and conscientious Sparky in you would approve the quality of the work