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Electronics Repair (sci.electronics.repair) Discussion of repairing electronic equipment. Topics include requests for assistance, where to obtain servicing information and parts, techniques for diagnosis and repair, and annecdotes about success, failures and problems. |
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Help - 1960's vintage quartz clock in need of repair
Hi, I wonder if anyone might be able to help me figure out the most
likely reason an old 1960's battery clock has stopped working. The clock has an unusual battery powered movement so i can't just swap it out for a more modern one. It's such a nice old retro design I don't want to bin it either. I have a link to a .jpg of the clock's circuit board below. My first guess is that it is the capacitor but I am unsure how I would go about testing this (I have a multimeter) or any of the other components. Runs off a single D cell battery, battery and contacts are fine. http://home.btconnect.com/metaluna/clock/clockcirc.jpg Thanks Hannahblot |
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"Hannahblot" wrote in message ... | Hi, I wonder if anyone might be able to help me figure out the most | likely reason an old 1960's battery clock has stopped working. | | The clock has an unusual battery powered movement so i can't just swap | it out for a more modern one. It's such a nice old retro design I | don't want to bin it either. | | I have a link to a .jpg of the clock's circuit board below. | | My first guess is that it is the capacitor but I am unsure how I would | go about testing this (I have a multimeter) or any of the other | components. | | Runs off a single D cell battery, battery and contacts are fine. | | http://home.btconnect.com/metaluna/clock/clockcirc.jpg I'm betting the pendulum plunges through the coil? In that case, not a quartz clock, but a mechanical clock that uses the oscillator to power it instead of a spring. The coil is the most critical part, and I would check for continuity - how many ohms is it? The rest of the parts are easy, but if the coil is open or shorted you are in big trouble. N |
#3
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"Hannahblot" wrote in message ... Hi, I wonder if anyone might be able to help me figure out the most likely reason an old 1960's battery clock has stopped working. The clock has an unusual battery powered movement so i can't just swap it out for a more modern one. It's such a nice old retro design I don't want to bin it either. I have a link to a .jpg of the clock's circuit board below. My first guess is that it is the capacitor but I am unsure how I would go about testing this (I have a multimeter) or any of the other components. Runs off a single D cell battery, battery and contacts are fine. http://home.btconnect.com/metaluna/clock/clockcirc.jpg Thanks Hannahblot Just replace the blue electrolytic capacitor, they're cheap and they dry out over time, if it still doesn't work go from there. |
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On Tue, 23 Nov 2004 11:36:47 +0000 (UTC), Hannahblot
wrote: Hi, I wonder if anyone might be able to help me figure out the most likely reason an old 1960's battery clock has stopped working. The clock has an unusual battery powered movement so i can't just swap it out for a more modern one. It's such a nice old retro design I don't want to bin it either. I have a link to a .jpg of the clock's circuit board below. My first guess is that it is the capacitor but I am unsure how I would go about testing this (I have a multimeter) or any of the other components. Runs off a single D cell battery, battery and contacts are fine. http://home.btconnect.com/metaluna/clock/clockcirc.jpg Thanks Hannahblot I'm very famillar with this design, no quartz, it uses the magnetic impulses in both directions and hair spring (thin, fine coiled spring with slot in the finger for the hairspring for setting clock (slowing balance wheel down or speed it up to correct timing error). Coil has two windings, trigger and impulse. Couple caps is to give nice proper impulse to the magnets in the balance wheel. Resistor limits the current or to bias the transistor off. The triggering energy is done from one trigger winding that was generated by the magnets when passing through that coil. This biases the transistor on for a pulse to impulse winding to repel (or attact?) magnets (balance wheel had moved sufficent by then trigger-impulse happened). Happens on both directions. I use to collect those type of movements when I was younger when they were plentiful back then (1980's). Unfontunely don't have them. Try the older clock/watch shops, they may have a bunch of those in all kinds. The red one is poly cap, reliable. The blue one is electrolytic and tend to dry out. Change this one, watch the polarity. Black one with 3 legs is transistor. I think generic NPN transistor should do. That coil, be very careful and gentle. Windings is made of very fine gauge. Cheers, Wizard |
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On Tue, 23 Nov 2004 17:43:49 GMT, "NSM" wrote:
"Hannahblot" wrote in message .. . | Hi, I wonder if anyone might be able to help me figure out the most | likely reason an old 1960's battery clock has stopped working. | | The clock has an unusual battery powered movement so i can't just swap | it out for a more modern one. It's such a nice old retro design I | don't want to bin it either. | | I have a link to a .jpg of the clock's circuit board below. | | My first guess is that it is the capacitor but I am unsure how I would | go about testing this (I have a multimeter) or any of the other | components. | | Runs off a single D cell battery, battery and contacts are fine. | | http://home.btconnect.com/metaluna/clock/clockcirc.jpg I'm betting the pendulum plunges through the coil? In that case, not a quartz clock, but a mechanical clock that uses the oscillator to power it instead of a spring. The coil is the most critical part, and I would check for continuity - how many ohms is it? The rest of the parts are easy, but if the coil is open or shorted you are in big trouble. N Thanks for the tip, I'm going to check out the capacitor first and hope it's not the coil ! Hannahblot |
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On Tue, 23 Nov 2004 20:35:03 GMT, "James Sweet"
wrote: "Hannahblot" wrote in message .. . Hi, I wonder if anyone might be able to help me figure out the most likely reason an old 1960's battery clock has stopped working. The clock has an unusual battery powered movement so i can't just swap it out for a more modern one. It's such a nice old retro design I don't want to bin it either. I have a link to a .jpg of the clock's circuit board below. My first guess is that it is the capacitor but I am unsure how I would go about testing this (I have a multimeter) or any of the other components. Runs off a single D cell battery, battery and contacts are fine. http://home.btconnect.com/metaluna/clock/clockcirc.jpg Thanks Hannahblot Just replace the blue electrolytic capacitor, they're cheap and they dry out over time, if it still doesn't work go from there. Do the specification numbers of the capacitor (as in photo) have a modern part number or equivelant - ie. I don't want to start looking for something that is no longer made if you know what I mean. Thanks Hannahblot |
#8
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"Hannahblot" wrote in message
... On Tue, 23 Nov 2004 20:35:03 GMT, "James Sweet" wrote: "Hannahblot" wrote in message . .. Hi, I wonder if anyone might be able to help me figure out the most likely reason an old 1960's battery clock has stopped working. The clock has an unusual battery powered movement so i can't just swap it out for a more modern one. It's such a nice old retro design I don't want to bin it either. I have a link to a .jpg of the clock's circuit board below. My first guess is that it is the capacitor but I am unsure how I would go about testing this (I have a multimeter) or any of the other components. Runs off a single D cell battery, battery and contacts are fine. http://home.btconnect.com/metaluna/clock/clockcirc.jpg Thanks Hannahblot Just replace the blue electrolytic capacitor, they're cheap and they dry out over time, if it still doesn't work go from there. Do the specification numbers of the capacitor (as in photo) have a modern part number or equivelant - ie. I don't want to start looking for something that is no longer made if you know what I mean. Thanks Hannahblot Yupp!!! Those markings are all you need to find a replacement. It's a 33uF, 6.3Volt electrolytic capacitor. You can buy one from Mouser.com. http://www.mouser.com/index.cfm?hand..._pcodeid=64701 Cheers!!! -- Dave M MasonDG44 at comcast dot net (Just subsitute the appropriate characters in the address) Never take a laxative and a sleeping pill at the same time!! |
#9
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"Hannahblot" wrote in message ... | Do the specification numbers of the capacitor (as in photo) have a | modern part number or equivelant - ie. I don't want to start looking | for something that is no longer made if you know what I mean. Any cap that's similar will work - about the same capacitance +/- 50% and the same or higher voltage than the battery. NM |
#10
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On Wed, 24 Nov 2004 14:52:58 GMT, "Tweetldee"
wrote: Do the specification numbers of the capacitor (as in photo) have a modern part number or equivelant - ie. I don't want to start looking for something that is no longer made if you know what I mean. Thanks Hannahblot Yupp!!! Those markings are all you need to find a replacement. It's a 33uF, 6.3Volt electrolytic capacitor. You can buy one from Mouser.com. http://www.mouser.com/index.cfm?hand..._pcodeid=64701 Cheers!!! Thanks for the help Hannahblot |
#11
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On Wed, 24 Nov 2004 17:58:35 GMT, "NSM" wrote:
"Hannahblot" wrote in message .. . | Do the specification numbers of the capacitor (as in photo) have a | modern part number or equivelant - ie. I don't want to start looking | for something that is no longer made if you know what I mean. Any cap that's similar will work - about the same capacitance +/- 50% and the same or higher voltage than the battery. NM Thanks for the help Hannahblot |
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