[Repeater-Builder] Talking clock has failed on our RC-85 V5.2 FW Fixed!

[wa6mha_glen]

Thanks to all of you for your replies.
 It seems it was the Y2K issue. After reading all the replies here, and the 
info in the links given, the "fix" was tried and it worked! This was done many 
years ago by a past member and it was forgotten about until this month! I guess 
it may have been July, 1999 when it was done last? No dates were recorded when 
it was done.
To make the operation easier, the required numbers and symbols were typed into 
an audio editing program that has a DTMF tone generation option. This was used 
to program the changes over the air and phone. It was fast and easy. We learned 
2 new things from all this.
It's been suggested that we have a spare v 5.2 eprom on hand for the future. A 
newer controller is still being considered with this being a working spare. We 
still offer an auto-patch so some research has to be done first.  
I'm told that there is a daughter board that allows a newer eprom to be used. I 
would like more info on wiring/building this board and the replacement eprom to 
use. Does one have to read the current eprom, or is that data posted somewhere? 
I have access to a high end programmer as well as someone to use it if I run 
into trouble. I would rather not disturb a working eprom by reading it.
I've joined the ACC group and will post future rc-85 issues there first.

Thank you all for your help.
Glen
wa6mha

Re: [Repeater-Builder] Talking clock has failed on our RC-85 V5.2 FW.

[Mike Morris WA6ILQ]

At 10:02 AM 07/28/09, Glen Roe WA6MHA wrote:
>I've searched the forum and the internet for info on the talking 
>clock option on our rc-85 w/ v 5.2 firmware but found nothing so 
>far. Our rc-85 is still in use at 4000 ft so I'm collecting data 
>before we visit the site.
>Our manual and upgrade data was not been kept up to date over the 
>last 20+ years so I'm starting from scratch.
>The paperwork I do have shows an upgrade to v5.2 firmware but no date.
>It mentions 2 IC's were installed. One I'm sure was a new EPROM and 
>the other mentions a battery backed up clock chip if I read it 
>right. Is it possible the Y2K issue kicked in, or that the battery 
>backup on the clock chip has failed?
>Everything I can find about the clock is how to add a RS talking 
>Clock, not much about the onboard option?
>We will go to the site and document the current chipset on our rc-85 
>when time permits. It can be sent out for repairs but we don't have 
>a spare controller so the machine would be down during that time, 
>something we're trying to avoid. I did get the feeling that this may 
>be a warning sign that the EPROM's may be failing and this is only 
>the start. A newer replacement may be the way to go as a last resort!
>Thank you for any help you can give us.

It's a known bug with the Year 2000 code.  The cure is to set the
calendar to 28 years ago (28 is due to the day of week and leap
year sequences repeating every 28 years), and re-enabling the
cloak-calendar chip.
If your ACC is still running in 2027 you would set it to 56 years
ago (as far as ACC goes it's always 1971 to 1999).

See 

>Are there any "groups" dedicated to ACC Controllers?

Yep, two.
See the top of the page at 

>Glen wa6mha

Mike WA6ILQ

RE: [Repeater-Builder] Talking clock has failed on our RC-85 V5.2 FW.

[kf0m]

Yes there is an ACC group and there is a lot of info on the clock in the
archives. see below:


Know an ACC owners not on this list? Please let them know about it!
Email commands:
Subscribe:  acc-subscr...@yahoogroups.com
Unsubscribe: Mailto:acc-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com
List owner:  Mailto:acc-ow...@yahoogroups.com

If the clock has rolled beyond the year 2000 and disabled the v5.2
enhancements you will loose the clock and the female voice.

If the female voice still works then you probably have a specific clock
issue.  If you have lost the female voice as well you can try entering the
secret code to reenable the functions.  The best thing for the clock on  an
RC-85 is to subtract 28 years from the current year and set that for the
date.  28 years will allow the calendar leap years and day of the week to
track correctly while avoiding the Y2K bug.  Before the end of the year 2027
you will need to set the clock back to the year 1971 again to keep it going
another 28 years.


John Lock
kf0m at arrl.net

> -Original Message-
> From: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com
> [mailto:repeater-buil...@yahoogroups.com]on Behalf Of wa6mha_glen
> Sent: Tuesday, July 28, 2009 12:03 PM
> To: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [Repeater-Builder] Talking clock has failed on our RC-85 V5.2
> FW.
>
>
> I've searched the forum and the internet for info on the talking
> clock option on our rc-85 w/ v 5.2 firmware but found nothing so
> far. Our rc-85 is still in use at 4000 ft so I'm collecting data
> before we visit the site.
> Our manual and upgrade data was not been kept up to date over the
> last 20+ years so I'm starting from scratch.
> The paperwork I do have shows an upgrade to v5.2 firmware but no date.
> It mentions 2 IC's were installed. One I'm sure was a new EPROM
> and the other mentions a battery backed up clock chip if I read
> it right. Is it possible the Y2K issue kicked in, or that the
> battery backup on the clock chip has failed?
> Everything I can find about the clock is how to add a RS talking
> Clock, not much about the onboard option?
> We will go to the site and document the current chipset on our
> rc-85 when time permits. It can be sent out for repairs but we
> don't have a spare controller so the machine would be down during
> that time, something we're trying to avoid. I did get the feeling
> that this may be a warning sign that the EPROM's may be failing
> and this is only the start. A newer replacement may be the way to
> go as a last resort!
> Thank you for any help you can give us.
> Are there any "groups" dedicated to ACC Controllers?
> Glen wa6mha
>
>
>
> 
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>

Re: [Repeater-Builder] Talking clock has failed on our RC-85 V5.2 FW.

[DCFluX]

Try to replace the DS1216E Clock Module, It is sandwiched in between
the board and I believe the RAM chip but I am not 100% on that, look
for the chip that has an extra thick socket in between

It Must be enabled after installation by entering "9213528835". This
"secret" code sets the tens year inside the clock chip to 5. The
controller should respond to the code by saying "OK". If the DS1216E
is not initialized properly, the following features in V5 will not
work: female vocabulary, time, date, HF remote base. These are side
effects of an effort to prevent software (firmware) piracy.

On Tue, Jul 28, 2009 at 10:02 AM, wa6mha_glen wrote:
> I've searched the forum and the internet for info on the talking clock option 
> on our rc-85 w/ v 5.2 firmware but found nothing so far. Our rc-85 is still 
> in use at 4000 ft so I'm collecting data before we visit the site.
> Our manual and upgrade data was not been kept up to date over the last 20+ 
> years so I'm starting from scratch.
> The paperwork I do have shows an upgrade to v5.2 firmware but no date.
> It mentions 2 IC's were installed. One I'm sure was a new EPROM and the other 
> mentions a battery backed up clock chip if I read it right. Is it possible 
> the Y2K issue kicked in, or that the battery backup on the clock chip has 
> failed?
> Everything I can find about the clock is how to add a RS talking Clock, not 
> much about the onboard option?
> We will go to the site and document the current chipset on our rc-85 when 
> time permits. It can be sent out for repairs but we don't have a spare 
> controller so the machine would be down during that time, something we're 
> trying to avoid. I did get the feeling that this may be a warning sign that 
> the EPROM's may be failing and this is only the start. A newer replacement 
> may be the way to go as a last resort!
> Thank you for any help you can give us.
> Are there any "groups" dedicated to ACC Controllers?
> Glen wa6mha
>
>
>
> 
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>

[Repeater-Builder] Talking clock has failed on our RC-85 V5.2 FW.

[wa6mha_glen]

I've searched the forum and the internet for info on the talking clock option 
on our rc-85 w/ v 5.2 firmware but found nothing so far. Our rc-85 is still in 
use at 4000 ft so I'm collecting data before we visit the site.
Our manual and upgrade data was not been kept up to date over the last 20+ 
years so I'm starting from scratch.
The paperwork I do have shows an upgrade to v5.2 firmware but no date.
It mentions 2 IC's were installed. One I'm sure was a new EPROM and the other 
mentions a battery backed up clock chip if I read it right. Is it possible the 
Y2K issue kicked in, or that the battery backup on the clock chip has failed?
Everything I can find about the clock is how to add a RS talking Clock, not 
much about the onboard option?
We will go to the site and document the current chipset on our rc-85 when time 
permits. It can be sent out for repairs but we don't have a spare controller so 
the machine would be down during that time, something we're trying to avoid. I 
did get the feeling that this may be a warning sign that the EPROM's may be 
failing and this is only the start. A newer replacement may be the way to go as 
a last resort! 
Thank you for any help you can give us.
Are there any "groups" dedicated to ACC Controllers?
Glen wa6mha