I agree with Terry S, I would start by re-seating the MCU. I have never seen this behavior and i have built over 30 of Jeff's wonderful clocks in various forms, but it sounds like an MCU issue. You'll need a chip extractor (they're cheap) to remove it if we need to go further, but just the the pressure of your thumb may do it. If worse comes to worse I have all the parts for Jeff's clocks in stock, including a few MCU's if it comes to that. Doubtful though. TIp: Seems obvious, but never hurts to be safe...when opening the case, the AM/PM NE-2 must be removed 1st to slide the PCB out of the case and in his later units it was siliconed in. Takes a bit of finesse to remove if it is so use care. Any questions email be directly if you want at [email protected].
On Thursday, May 5, 2016 at 9:33:45 AM UTC-7, Quincy wrote: > > My much loved Jeff Thomas NixiChron began behaving oddly last night. And I > haven't a clue how to get it fixed. Who does one hire in this sort of > situation, how do you find someone? > > The problem the clock is exhibiting is pretty weird. It began to beep > every few minutes (it's supposed to only beep on the hour) and the display > began to show impossible times, like "25:34:12", and the digits would > change in ways not consistent with the normal passage of time. I tried > powering off and powering on, and it still seems like it's trying to be > sort of normal. Normally when you power it on it cycles the tubes back and > forth, and beeps, and tries to get a lock on GPS satellites to get the > time. And when I power it on it does cycle the tubes and does beep as it > does when you turn it on, but all the tubes don't cycle normally, some are > out, at least partly, others are on but locked on numbers, some are showing > multiple digits at once. > > I bought it assembled. I haven't yet opened up the clock. Sometimes I > can do more harm than good, so I try to explore other options first before > turning myself loose on the problem. Occasionally I manage to fix things, > but I've also lost parts, ruined components with weak soldering skills, > shorted out things. I want to be handy with electronics, but am more used > to working in computer code where a serious error can be instantly fixed > and undone, not real life where a slight screw up can effectively ruin > something you care about forever. > > The clock is important to me, so I'd like to get it fixed by someone who > is highly likely to be successful and not cause further damage. I'm outside > Frederick, MD (just north of Washington, DC), should that matter. > > Any recommendations? > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/2850f4f2-9fec-497e-aa47-6406aa5bc5fd%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
