I broke down and bought another fully assembled clock; Dieter Waechter’s  new V600-RT using the increasingly rare ZM1042 Nixie (will also drive the Z566M’s).  http://www.tube-tester.com/sites/nixie/nixie-clocks/v600/v600.htm This clock does not come with colon separators, so I built some out of brass and added them. ( see pics from the Garage Nixie Factory below) I chose brass because I liked the effect it created against the brushed stainless case. This is a direct drive clock that REALLY does light up those Z1040’s or Z566M’s. They are extremely bright...in fact, brighter than any of my other direct drive clocks. The clock’s  PCB is very clean and professionally laid out and almost all components are SMD’s.  Menu structure is a little hard to remember (for me, at least) and it has 4 alarm clock settings (not real sure most Nixie buyers will ever use this as an alarm clock!). Also no DST capabilities. This is a real pain! I would also like to see GPS as an option on this clock. Are you listening, Dieter? All in all, a nice clock that will drive the ZM1040/Z566M, but a little pricey considering the feature set. Build quality is TOP notch!

Click on the big pics to see this clock driving both the ZM1042’s and the Z566M’s