High voltage is low

[akitchens]

Just finished assembling the kit and not getting any clicks. Checked the high voltage at TP2 and am getting 167-315 volts at either extreme of the adjustment pot.
I believe this is too low for the tube to operate.
What would cause the voltage to be low?
I have already reflowed all solder joints and verified part placement according to the assembly instructions.
Any help would be appreciated.

[mightyohm]

How are you measuring the voltage?

Unless you use a large (1 Gigaohm) resistor in series with your DMM you will get a false reading.

If you take a piece of wire and short across the tube, do you get clicks?

[akitchens]

Well, I reseated the 555 timer and now sometimes I get soft beeps and clicks 1/sec.
Sometimes when shorting the tube I get beeps or clicks. And the LED stays on constant after shorting sometimes.
Other times it just sits there doing nothing.
Very erratic behavior.

[akitchens]

I was using a Craftsman DMM rated for 500V to measure the HV.

[mightyohm]

Do you know what the input impedance of your DMM is? Most likely it is 1 or 10 MegaOhms, too low to measure the HV supply used in the Geiger Counter kit.

If you are seeing erratic behavior, it's probably not a voltage issue, but more likely there is a bad solder joint somewhere.

[akitchens]

OK I'll reflow everything and see what happens.
Thanks for the help.