You told me to get equipped before I fried something. Done.
Last week you guys told me to stop messing around and get properly equipped before frying something. Message received.
Picked up an anti-static wrist strap, a proper multimeter (KAIWEETS KM100s) and a digital caliper. Grounded and ready now. The strap is clipped to the board, no more working off a carpet with bare hands like an animal.
The setup is a NCS314-6 v3.4 with 6 IN-14 plus the IN-1 separator, sitting on the GRA & AFCH ASTRPA v2.1 adapter. Pi is a 3A+ for now, just my dev board to get first light, the production unit will run on a Pi Zero 2W.
Next on my list is actually measuring instead of guessing. I want to check the real anode resistor value on the board and confirm whether this thing drives the tubes statically or multiplexed. That changes a lot for how I think about lifespan.
Which brings me to the thing I keep losing sleep over. This is going to be a KPI dashboard, so it will sit on a number like a revenue figure for hours, sometimes the same digits all day. Cathode poisoning feels like a real risk here, way more than on a clock that cycles through every digit naturally.
For those of you running tubes long term, what is your actual anti-poisoning routine? Full 0 to 9 cathode cycling a few times a day, slot machine style, or something lighter? Curious what actually works in practice versus what just sounds good on paper.