Info Orbs Dev Kit

I bought this for myself cause it looked cool and then when I'd made it I bought 2 more so that I could build another myself and my son (14) could make one too. All 3 assembled flawlessly. This was one of my son's first soldering projects. He learned a TON from it and had a blast. He's hooked now on soldering projects.

Super kit. Delivered to the UK in no time at all. Thank you so much Brett!

Wife is always asking what the weather is so I puchased this. Took about 3 hours to assemble and set up. Had to flash twice as I forgot to comment out the metric line. Works great. Even made a special shelf just for it to sit on. Stock ticker isn't working for some reason but meh, didn't get it for that.

I got my kit yesterday, it took about 30 minutes to assemble.

My only serious comment is regarding the use of sockets. On the one hand, it's a good idea because removing failed or damaged thru-hole components from a board with plated through holes is definitely not for everyone. But it makes the product a bit less tidy. Brett thoughtfully includes a spare display, he probably has experience that not all of them work off the bat. Maybe having a spare socket in the back of the board to test displays before they are soldered in their normal position would help?

But once finished, the kit looks beautiful. I am amazed at the quality of the Nixie look. Someone must have spent a few evenings getting that so right. In general, those round displays are quite impressive, and the pictures on Brett's website do not make them justice, they are a lot brighter than they look.

Now I want to get in the software and make it talk to my Home Assistant setup via MQTT to display status and alarms...

Found this on accident while looking for another Nixie Tube project. The price sold me and the simplicity keeps me.

Using Visual Studio is the only part that some people might get stuck on, but if they research a little, it's not too bad {I had to look because I didn't see where you had to hold down the boot button when flashing.

I plan on building some sort of case for his as the screens are a little floppy and don't easily stay in line. Nothing some 3D printer fun or a little while in the garage can't fix up.

Good stuff, I hope to have time to look around for more excellent projects like this one.

I purchased the PCB and added my own ESP32 and displays I had on hand. It's going in a 3D printed case but it already looks amazing. Thanks Bret for sharing this project with others!