Kit or Fully Assembled: Which Nixie Clock Should I Buy?
What actually differs between kit and assembled
Every kit and assembled version of a given model is built from the same board design, the same tube stock, and the same firmware - there's no "assembled-only" feature or "kit-only" limitation. What changes is entirely in the build: with a kit, you receive the components, PCBs, and a manual, and you do the soldering yourself; with an assembled unit, that same soldering and testing happens in our workshop before it's shipped. Functionally, once both are built, they're the same clock.
The practical trade-off is price versus time and risk. A kit is cheaper because you're supplying the labour, but that also means any soldering mistake, missed component, or mis-seated tube socket is now something you have to diagnose yourself rather than something caught before it left the workshop.
Who the kit is a good fit for
The kit suits anyone who's comfortable with through-hole soldering - not necessarily an expert, but someone who's built at least a simple kit before and can follow a defined build order rather than improvising one. See How hard is it to solder a Nixie clock kit? for a fuller breakdown of the skill level involved. It's also the right choice if part of the appeal for you is the build itself - a lot of buyers want to have assembled the thing on their desk, not just own it.
If your model has a separate high-voltage tube-driver board, building the kit means you will be assembling and powering up that HV section yourself, so read Is Nixie tube voltage dangerous? before you start, and follow the power-up sequence in the manual rather than skipping ahead.
Who should buy assembled
Assembled is the straightforward choice if you'd rather not solder at all, if the clock is a gift and you want it working the moment it's unboxed, or if you're simply not confident handling a board with a high-voltage section. It's also worth choosing assembled if you want the shortest possible path from order to a working clock on your desk, since there's no build time or troubleshooting step between delivery and first power-on.
The hardest part of the build is assembling the High Voltage supply that needs to make 180V from a low voltage. If you stumble on anything, it is likely to be this. The "assembled" boards include a pre-assembled and tested HV supply unit, and this single factor cuts out 90% of problems people might encounter.
What we test before a unit ships assembled
Every "assembled" unit is checked before it leaves the workshop rather than shipped straight off the production line untested. We check the voltages and test fit the LEDs on a rig to make sure that the controller is working as expected.
The test process means we mount the HV Supply unit to the boards and power them up using a current limited power supply. We check the diagnostic flashing of the on board LED, and the supply rails. We then test fit (using "pogo pins") a set of backlight LEDs and check that they show the diagnostig display.
See the full store listing for kit and assembled pricing across every model, or go straight to the MNC6 V2, which ships fully built and tested.