Lixie Labs

724 orders since Nov 20, 2014

FRUIT HEIGHTS, UT, United States of America

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Overall Rating:

Review Breakdown

Average Ratings

Product: (4.53)

Documentation: (4.16)

Shipping: (4.45)

Communication: (3.78)

All Reviews

Bruce | Aug. 29, 2024

Best Sound Controlled Device Around!

For Sensory Bridge // An Advanced LED Music Visualizer

Love my Sensory Bridge. Everyone that sees it, wants one of their own. When will they be restocked???

Later,
Bruce

Harry | Aug. 25, 2024

[Never turned up] - IT'S TURNED UP, no response from Lixie

For Emotiscope // A Music Visualizer From The Future

I am thrilled to report that the actual product is as amazing as everyone else says it is!

BUT - two MONTHS of chasing and not a single response. on any platform or via any channel. That's miserable, and managed to avoid a chargeback by the skin of their teeth.

THAT said - my word - this thing looked like it had been to china. One measly roll of bubblewrap with no end protection, and it survived! That's a testament to build quality if nothing else. Extract of shipping log:

Delivered UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND August 27, 2024, 1:06 pm

Out for Delivery UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND August 27, 2024, 9:07 am

Processed through Facility LANGLEY HWDC, UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND August 24, 2024, 8:05 pm

Processed Through Facility UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND August 24, 2024, 4:52 pm

Processed Through Facility CHINA June 23, 2024, 1:26 pm

Departed NEW YORK, UNITED STATES June 19, 2024, 9:48 pm

Arrived NEW YORK, UNITED STATES June 19, 2024, 6:04 pm

Processed Through USPS Regional Facility LOS ANGELES CA DISTRIBUTION CENTER June 18, 2024, 9:38 pm

Arrived at USPS Regional Facility LOS ANGELES CA DISTRIBUTION CENTER, UNITED STATES June 18, 2024, 7:59 pm

Jeffrey | July 4, 2024

Awesome music visualizer

For Emotiscope // A Music Visualizer From The Future

Like the other reviews mentioned, this visualizer produces amazing colors and is super responsive. I couldn't be happier with the performance and visuals it produces. The build quality is fantastic and I'm impressed with how small of a package the device is.

Highly recommended for anybody looking for a compact visualizer for their desk, shelf, or other space that could use some extra flare.

A few things I would like to see implemented in the future:
* Custom presets - I've found a few setting combinations I really like and would like to easily switch to them after messing with the sliders in the GUI
* Default preset/factory setting - something to return the settings to the out-of-box state
* Desktop friendly GUI - the current GUI is great for smartphones but a little cumbersome to navigate on a desktop

Thomas | June 7, 2024

Who does not like blinkenlights?

For Emotiscope // A Music Visualizer From The Future

Nicely done. Go get one!
The Emotiscope gives a high quality impression.

Thank you Connor for open sourcing Sensory Bridge and Pixie. I've built them, with the stuff available in my project bins. :D
Feels good to support you by buying a Emotiscope.

Karsten | May 8, 2024

Fantastic audio visualization device

For Emotiscope // A Music Visualizer From The Future

This is an amazing device! If you like LEDs and audio visualization it is the product you need to have. The overall build quality of the housing and the outside look is really good. Especally the dark LED cover improves the look so much. The LED display itself is very fluid and reacts fast with no delay on the room audio. I love it!

Jay | May 3, 2024

Amazing device that takes LED audio visualizers a step above

For Emotiscope // A Music Visualizer From The Future

Though the Emotiscope isn't the least expensive device of its kind, it's one of the best I've seen and used. Using the diffuser in front of the LEDs is a genius move, as it really does look like large, soft, smooth pixels flowing back & forth instead of the typical sharp pinpoints of light. Convenient touch controls can change modes or cycle through colors, and it's overall a well put together piece of electronics.

The different modes are really fun, especially the metronome based ones. And using color and light intensity some of the modes give the illusion you're looking at a moving waveform through frosted glass.

The built in mic works great, but I am interested in a future option or mod to allow line in (in some applications I'd rather it not respond to sounds or speech in the room). Also the ability to send commands over http to manage colors and settings (as in, programmatically from a computer) will be great and I believe that is an upcoming feature.

This isn't a large device, but the form factor is perfect for a small desktop, or in my case, the desire to integrate it into a computer chassis.

I can't wait for further polish and new features for this fun little device...

Stephen | May 1, 2024

Incredible!

For Emotiscope // A Music Visualizer From The Future

I have to say this is a very well made and thought through device. I was rather impressed buy the colors and smoothness! Picks up sounds well and seems to adjust well to different volume levels. The app and on device touch controls are also very well done. Hats off to you Lixie Labs. Highly recommend!

Response from Lixie Labs | May 2, 2024

Thank you Stephen! I'm glad you enjoy the smooth display. One of my goals was to create a display that looks less like LEDs and more like some kind of magic phosphor or gas, and I'm glad that work paid off. If you're interested, you can see the FPS at the bottom of the screen when the Top Menu is open in the app. I worked *very* hard to get Emotiscope in the 250-450 FPS range!

If you DM me anywhere you'd like with your order number, I can get you a $10-off your next purchase code in exchange for your honest review!

Andrew | April 15, 2024

Glorious; crank the color range and delight in the rainbow!

For Emotiscope // A Music Visualizer From The Future

Fantastic aesthetic with great responsiveness to music and a fun variety of visualizations with the ability to keep things novel by easily cycling the colors via the physical touch interface.

While there is an initial setup step of telling the device about your WiFi network, once that's done, being able to plug the device into USB-C for power and place it basically anywhere and have the internal mic start cranking out the visuals without having to worry about cables is quite nice. I suspect I will be buying more of these soon!

Response from Lixie Labs | May 2, 2024

Thanks Andrew! While I want to pursue a hard-lined audio input accessory in the future for those that want it, it's a pretty damn good microphone with a bunch of DSP going on to help Emotiscope react the same whether music is near, far, quiet or loud. My general observation is that as long as Emotiscope can hear the music slightly louder than any other dialog or noise in the room, you'll get a great show.

If you DM me anywhere you'd like with your order number, I can get you a $10-off your next purchase code in exchange for your honest review!

Danny | Sept. 30, 2023

11/10

For Sensory Bridge // An Advanced LED Music Visualizer

I bought this thing years ago, sans led mast (which looks awesome and I do want), a long time ago but it sat on a shelf until a few days ago. Within a few minutes of using it, I'm back on tindie to join the waitlist to buy another one. I ended up using these concentric rings w 128 leds. They work perfectly.

I can't personally recommend it any more strongly -- it's the bomb. Hopefully, more masts are on their way, too.

Erna | Sept. 3, 2023

Fun, hypnotic easy-to-use product. Worth every penny.

For Sensory Bridge // An Advanced LED Music Visualizer

It's easy to set up and it's excellent at what it was made for. I plugged in a WS2812B 144pixels/m LED strip, added power and then...pretty lights (joy). Although it took a little longer to receive the product, I didn't mind as Lixie Labs explains their production and shipping process. Be patient - it's worth the wait. Initially, I had a problem with the sensory bridge having constant disconnects with my PC. I swapped out the USB-C cable and plugged the unit into a different USB port, and voilà, the connection remained stable, allowing me to dive into the configuration page for the controller. Note: the developer provides a helpful step-by-step troubleshooter guide. I also appreciate the handy 'Getting Started' guide to, well, get me started and in the configuration page, hovering over settings offers helpful insights about what they do. The rest of it, just play around with the buttons and knobs, and you quickly get a feel of how it works. It would be nice if there was a way to wirelessly change the visualizations on the fly, but nothing really beats the tactile feel of physical controls. Lots of ways to tweak the visual effects to go with your favorite songs. In summary, two things: blinky lights + music. It's beautiful, mesmerizing - it's therapy. Thank you Lixie Labs for all your hard work in developing not just hardware but the software too, and then bringing such cool, enjoyable products into the world (I'm talking about the Pixie Chroma, too). Looking forward to updates (and other products) planned for the future.

Chad | May 20, 2023

this thing is awesome. buy it.

For Sensory Bridge // An Advanced LED Music Visualizer

Waited through two restocks and instant sellouts to get my hands on one and it was worth the wait.

I just got it hooked up with a WS2812B strip and power, no fancy configurations yet. just plugged it in, turned on some music, and started fiddling with the knobs.

it blew me away.

I've been stuck in govee land for a long time, and the nuances and smooth animations of sensory bridge, even with zero configuration, make govee look like the 3 channel Christmas lights color organ I made in 7th grade shop class.

can't wait to add some longer led strings and dig into the settings and config more!

Lachlan | May 1, 2023

Looks amazing

For Sensory Bridge // An Advanced LED Music Visualizer

My kids love it.. does what it says on the label, very easy to set up and configure ! Easy to get lost watching it

Matt | Feb. 27, 2023

Met my (admittedly high) hopes!

For Sensory Bridge // An Advanced LED Music Visualizer

Sensory Bridge is a joy to use. Shipped with the 3.1.0 firmware, which appears to be a fairly robust update (based on version history).

Since the mini-masts were not an option, I chose to use Adafruit's "Ultra High Density DotStar LED PCB Bar" (for the native 128 LED matching of Sensory Bridge), with a few other options as a back-up.

Instant gratification upon inserting the LED bar and powering up.
The "Noise"-cancellation works a treat, and the performance / responsiveness of the Sensory Bridge, its physical control knobs OR the web-based settings page is inspiring.

Final thoughts: the product seems constructed well, and I am now an eager fan; I am waiting to see the next features, but completely satisfied with the current state.

(P.S. -- communication through Tindie and Twitter was quick and painless. Thanks, Connor.)

Richard | Dec. 12, 2022

Of 4, one failed. No response over 3 months from seller

For Sensory Bridge // An Advanced LED Music Visualizer

I like the effects but there is not support.
I have tried to return the failed unit with
over 10 emails, yet no response.

Tobias | Dec. 4, 2022

I'm loving it and you will too!

For Sensory Bridge // An Advanced LED Music Visualizer

Tldr: If you like music and flashing lights you won't be disappointed.

Let me start off, by saying that I often have music running in the background, while I'm working, relaxing or playing games.
At the time of writing this review, I've had my unit for about 2 weeks and I regularly find myself just getting lost in watching the colors and fiddling with the settings. And not just me, I've had members of my family asking me about it and making me play specific songs so they could see the light show it produced.

Another really cool thing is the fact that both the hardware and software are open source. Now, I get that this might not be a big deal to a lot of people, but if you're like me and like to check out the inner workings of a design, or even go one step further and build your own unit, all of this is possible! Now, granted some of the documentation could be improved a bit, such as schematics or the addition of a bill of materials, to make part sourcing easier.

Communication with the seller was also great! When I asked about the release of the Rev.1.1 PCBs, because I wanted to build myself a second unit, he immediately provided me with the design files and instructions on how to update the firmware to get access to new features like syncing of multiple units.

So if you couldn't tell by now, I really like my Sensory Bridge and can't wait to have a second unit!

Bela | Nov. 18, 2022

No communication from company

For Sensory Bridge // An Advanced LED Music Visualizer

I have a few questions about the device and the functionality they mention. No response at all. Their documentation is lacking in terms of all the features it says it can do. No method to contact outside of twitter and they have not responded to my questions.

John | Nov. 15, 2022

Arrived this afternoon and I'm already in love

For Sensory Bridge // An Advanced LED Music Visualizer

Before I start, I should declare that I love flashing lights, and I listen to a lot of music while I work. So this is the perfect item for me. It came a few hours ago (shipped from the US to the UK) and I'm amazed. It's even better than the online videos, and I'm already thinking of buying another so I can have one in the office and one in the living room. Plus others for my sons for Christmas.

Please don't buy any, as the release schedule tends to coincide with those of us in the UK being in bed and missing out! :o)

I'm joking - it's wonderful, I just wish I could pre-order as I really want more of them!

Alexander | Nov. 7, 2022

Amazing product

For Sensory Bridge // An Advanced LED Music Visualizer

Awesome product, works striaght out of the box and had a QR code for instructions.
Quality is great.

John | July 1, 2022

Pixie Chromas are fantastic

For Pixie Chroma // Smart 5x7 LED displays

I've been really enjoying working with Pixie Chromas. They're very easy to setup, minimal fuss with both wiring and software. The library is well documented and I've found things just work. My order was processed promptly and arrived quickly without any issues or hassle which is more than I can currently say for some big companies. All in all a great experience!

Christian | May 5, 2021

Absolutely fantastic. Truly plug and play.

For PIXIE PRO - Chainable Dual 5*7 Micro-LED Displays!

Unbelievably well done code and documentation! Bought these a year ago and regrettably didn't even open the box until now. Within 2 minutes of opening the box I had these scrolling text on my 40+ year old displays. I have a huge stash of MAN2A led displays I got at a flea market years ago which I never got around to using, but not anymore-now that I have these fantastic Pixie drivers up and going I'm gonna make a scrolling stock ticker display. I'm buying more.

Brian | April 23, 2021

Great little display, well documented

For PIXIE PRO - Chainable Dual 5*7 Micro-LED Displays!

I bought 6 Pixie displays (12 characters total). The first thing I built was a 60 channel (bin? level?) audio spectrum analyzer. I used a Teensy 4.0 and PJRC Audio board to do the FFT. The Pixies look great, and were really easy to use. I wrote code, using the Pixie online character generator tool, to control each column individually, so instead of 12 characters, I can control 60 vertical bar graphs.

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/Ir67gHBZ2hA

I am very happy with these and will buy 6 more when they are back in stock, hopefully in a different color. I like the red I have but would like to try other colors.

Brad | Feb. 9, 2021

Great build quality + great documentation = awesome product

For PIXIE PRO - Chainable Dual 5*7 Micro-LED Displays!

I picked up 2 Pixies to start playing around as I embark on an adventure of continuing to tinker with things, and these little displays are just the ticket. The build quality of the displays is great, and the fact that the display matrices are replaceable as an added bonus. I plan on picking up three more to build a display I can send messages and other things to. Thanks for a great product!

Matthew | Nov. 14, 2020

Brilliant both figuratively and literally.

For PIXIE PRO - Chainable Dual 5*7 Micro-LED Displays!

Really pleased with my Pixies; I've made two small "time/appointment/notification" displays for my partner and I while we're working, which can also be nameplates if/when we ever get back to office life. Interfacing and programming was straightforward, especially with the Github examples, and everything's working a treat.

Shipping to Canada was no better/worse than any other shipping to Canada, dispatched promptly, and arrived at the pleasure of Her Majesty's Customs.

Pretty excited about the SMD 'pixies' especially if there was to be a 595nm 'true amber' -- or (even better?) a bare PCB to source and make my own! Thanks for the work to make these things so great at what they do!

Dale | Oct. 10, 2020

Really nice, but could use a better connection scheme

For PIXIE PRO - Chainable Dual 5*7 Micro-LED Displays!

These are great, but I wish you could just plug these into each other without all the jumper wires.
I would at minimum like an option to buy these without the headers so I could wire them up neatly myself.

I love the internet clock program!

Response from Lixie Labs | Oct. 10, 2020

Thank you for the input, Dale!

I will add a pulldown in the near future to have the headers optionally omitted, and have already considered a design for "jumper PCBs" with female headers to be used as well for connections, but the pin layout I chose made that idea a bit more difficult to account for, so it hasn't been released yet.

Feel free to reach out on our Twitter if any questions come up!

www.twitter.com/lixielabs

Junmin | Aug. 7, 2020

Pixies - excellent on all fronts!

For PIXIE PRO - Chainable Dual 5*7 Micro-LED Displays!

The Pixies arrived via USPS fairly quickly after ordering them. They were well packaged and arrived in good condition. The displays themselves are beautiful and simple. The added 3D-printed mount was pretty high quality and I set up and wired my Pixies in less than 20 minutes. I bought these for use on the Raspberry Pi as a display for my ADS-B receiver, though I know most of the documentation is for Arduino. I had messaged Connor on Twitter ahead of time, and he was kind enough to write a Raspberry Pi driver for me to use. Unfortunately, it didn't quite work properly on my Raspberry Pi Zero (still not sure why), and I was getting a jumbled output on the Pixies. I let Connor know, and we worked through several steps to reach a solution. The Pixies work perfectly now. Lots of thanks to Connor for his time and effort spent troubleshooting with me. I would definitely recommend these!

Joshua | Nov. 25, 2019

Great Product and Customer Support

For LIXIE II - The #NewNixie for Arduino! (Digit Kit)

Loved it! Fun build and a great conversation piece! I thought it would be difficult but the end code worked great and now the Lixie Clock sits in my place, as it should. ;)

Harsh | Oct. 21, 2019

Lixie 2.0: A disappointing revision

For LIXIE II - The #NewNixie for Arduino! (Digit Kit)

I was a big fan of the original lixie design. A sleek, modern, compacted look. I bought 6 of them to start and was immediately a big fan (despite issues with the structural integrity of the part). This new lixie 2.0 has left me less than pleased. They instead made the pcb and overall lixie part structure bulkier and added a thicker period/dot as an extra acrylic panel. Never truly understood the point of this. If I wanted a customizable panel, I could've just replaced one of the digits with my own printed design. Also, while the hot-swappable acrylic panels were nice in theory, they fail in practice. They look misaligned every time they are on the stand which lends itself to a less uniform look. Lixie 2.0 is definitely more difficult to prototype with and use. On top of it all, they seemed to pretty much END production of the original design. I wanted to buy a couple more Lixie 1.0's but they apparently are no longer making them and just dropped support for it all without any warning.

And don't get me even started on the documentation available. The Github repo's for Lixie 2.0 hasn't been updated in months and emailing the Lixie Lab team will often yield little to no response. Honestly, with the price of building a 6+ digit display which goes up to $200+ in parts and the lackluster support I get from the team, it's just not worth it. Next time I work on/try to build a LED Nixie display, I will not be turning to Lixie Labs to purchase a kit. I'd probably be better off designing my own or buying the other acrylic display kits that exist on the market.

Robert | Aug. 9, 2019

2 out of 6 dont work

For LIXIE II - The #NewNixie for Arduino! (Digit Kit)

It would be nice to hopefully get a reply from Connor.

I bought 6 and 2 dont work.

I have taken the 2 apart and it looks like they have already been tried to be fixed.

What I am hoping for is some direction on how to determine whats wrong so I can fix them. I don't want to return them, just want to fix them

Response from Lixie Labs | Aug. 10, 2019

I'm so sorry to hear this, Robert! Please email us at lixielabs@gmail.com with your original Order Number and some photos if possible, and I'll be able to help quite quickly! If we can't figure it out together, I'll just mail you some new boards!

Neil | July 14, 2019

Lovely

For LIXIE II - The #NewNixie for Arduino! (Digit Kit)

The Lixies arrived in a couple of weeks which was pretty good to get them all the way to the UK. I had them up and running in no time with an ESP8266 - although I needed to step up the data voltage to 5V with a logic level converter which I got from Sparkfun. One had arrived damaged but Connor was happy to send me a replacement after I'd sent back the original (and he kindly included a Wemos D1 Mini too).

Now I have all six working, they look absolutely fantastic.

As other reviewers have mentioned, they are quite delicate so I am keen to make some sort of case to protect; and that's going to be the only hard bit!

Ty | July 2, 2019

Very Nice

For LIXIE II - The #NewNixie for Arduino! (Digit Kit)

THIS REVIEW WAS FOR THE ORIGINAL LIXIE, NOT THE "NEW LIXIE II"
I have no idea why the title was changed to LixieII.

I ordered 6 of these and will probably use them to build a clock. They arrived here (USA) in 8 days, which I consider decent for something that's probably built to order. They were packaged quite well and were not damaged in transit.

Build quality is great. I didn't have any of the quality issues that some earlier reviewers experienced. The units are inherently somewhat fragile but nothing was falling apart or misaligned or anything. All acrylic parts are clean and clear, no film remnants at all, no finger prints, no dust.

I got all 6 hooked up to an Uno and running some test routines in less than 30 minutes. Couldn't be any simpler: daisy chain power and ground to all units, run the data line into the first one, then chain Data Out (DO) to next unit's Data In (DI) all down the line. Load up some code in the Uno and everything just works. Others have reported problems with certain color LEDs not lighting on some digits, I had no such problems. All LEDs on all digits of all units look healthy.

The library documentation is pretty minimal and leaves you to make assumptions. I've already had to go into the source a couple times for clarification on how things work, which might make non-programmers rather unhappy. For example, filling the display with zeroes ("000000") doesn't work the way you might think it would.

I will nitpick one small thing: some of the nuts on the machine screws that hold the displays together were loose out of the box. Probably vibrated loose in transit. It's not a big deal to tighten them back up but this could have been avoided by putting star washers under the nuts at a cost of about $0.10 per display.

PS - it forced me to rate Communication even though I've had no need to communicate with the seller. So I don't know if he deserves the 5 stars I gave him or not.

Rob | June 30, 2019

Lixies, a unique number solution to impress your friends...

For LIXIE II - The #NewNixie for Arduino! (Digit Kit)

There's a reason these Lixies are are often sold out...because they bring a cool, unique element to any project. So when they came back in stock, I jumped at my chance. Connor shipped my order very quickly, unfortunately the USPS lost the package in transit. When the tracking number showed the package had stalled out, communication was a bit of a challenge to attempt to resolve the issue. However, once both Connor and myself were on the same page, we both sought a resolution which would satisfy both parties. In the end, Connor shipped me four new Lixies for my project and they arrived without problems and well packaged.

There are several versions of edge lit acrylic numbers on the market, but Connor's Lixie, I felt, was the best executed for my purpose. It provides such a wide opportunity to customize what information they display and the Lixies don't limit you to ONLY timekeeping. For those consumer's who believe the Lixies are "too expensive" consider the research, development, time, testing, programming, etc that Connor has been through to bring this working, ready-made product to market. While he has made these items "open source", he's earned the patronage you give him by purchasing a Lixie. Additionally, he has continued to try to produce them less expensive. If you've picked up on his post, Connor was able to optimize the toolpaths used to create the Lixie parts which costs less to make without sacrificing quality...and has passed the savings on to the customer. That's not just marketing, that's commitment to the product and customer.

I haven't been able to set up the Lixies in my project yet to confirm they all work but based on the videos posted on Youtube, these will bring a cool factor that I couldn't have achieved elsewhere. Overall, once Connor and I synced up on the shipping issue, we drove to a satisfactory resolution and I have been very pleased with the transaction. My Lixies are patiently waiting for me to build them a base and if/when I'm ever in the market for a Lixie again, I won't hesitate to purchase from Connor again.

Daniel | March 20, 2019

Nice product, but fragile and no help from seller

For LIXIE II - The #NewNixie for Arduino! (Digit Kit)

They look great, but the lixies themselves are very fragile (one of mine fell apart) and the seller has not responded to questions.

The library works well. I wish there were more of a reference so I didn't have to dig through the example files to find out what's possible.

Bruce | Oct. 21, 2018

NIcely made. No Instructions.

For LIXIE II - The #NewNixie for Arduino! (Digit Kit)

Lixie looks great. Nicely laser cut and etched. PCB looks nicely made. But there wasn't ANY documentation with it. I could probably figure it out if there was an input lead for each number, (0-9) but there are just two 3 pin connectors: one labeled 5v, GND, DIN (I'm deducing Digit(al) IN) and one labeled 5v, GND, DOUT (Digit(al) OUT?). Have no idea how to wire or program it. I disassembled it to see if I could figure out the traces. Mistake. Re-assembly requires a degree of manual dexterity I seem to be deficient in. I'm assuming he has a jig to make assembly easier. After finally getting the plexi lined up and in place I over tightened the nuts (with just hemostats!) and broke off the little retaining tabs. That's not a design flaw. This is just a heads up if anyone else takes it apart. The lixie isn't designed to be taken apart or I guess, used separately from an Arduino. My bad for assuming 1 trace per number which was my intended use. I should have thought to ask first. So I guess I'll never know how it looks in person.

Lisa | Sept. 24, 2018

Best "Not A Nixie" out there!

For LIXIE II - The #NewNixie for Arduino! (Digit Kit)

Very impressive displays, I can even read them without my contacts. Also far cheaper than a old Nixie tube that's even close to being this large. Some clocks online (with smaller tubes than these Lixie) seemed to cost $900-1,200. Wouldnt want those to get their cables yanked!

There was a slight delay before the Lixies were shipped due to an supply issue, but still arrived fairly quickly so that's OK.
However, I did have one faulty LED on a display upon arrival, but a quick message to Conner and he sent a replacement PCB free of charge.

With that small trouble out of the way, I got to cutting/drilling a base directly into my work desk. Not the most portable option, but definitely the cheapest as I already owned the cheap desk! The code was also easy for an Arduino first timer (I only had previous experience with PIC), just had a little trouble figuring out how to add NodeMCU support to the Arduino IDE at first. (Conner was very nice to help me with this) I programmed it with the Wordpress visitors example from Github and it's all working now. :-) Thanks!

* Super contrast, even in daylight
* Easy to both wire and code for with the chaining-LEDS
* Safe low voltage (5V) around my kids! (Can't be too cautious with little ones around)
* Much, much cheaper than Nixies of the same size
* One slight functionality issue that Conner immediately resolved for me for free

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