jwp@cupcake.sal.wisc.edu (Jeffrey W Percival) (01/20/90)
(Previous posting cancelled... shouldn't have gone to alt.sources...) In article <26101@cup.portal.com> thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan) writes: >I've put together a prototype system that does just what Karl describes. My >time reference is a HeathKit GC-1000 "Most Accurate Clock" which locks onto >NIST's (formerly NBS') WWV at 5, 10 or 15 MHz to provide +/- 10 mSec Universal >Time Coordinated on its RS-232c port. I've been testing the setup since: > >If you'd like to install and provide such a service on your system, you need >an accurate time reference (the Heath clock is my recommendation: kit price >from their Winter 1990 Catalog No. 219 is $249.95 for the clock and $49.95 for >the RS-232 interface (see page 28)), and: I just finished building this kit, and the clock is very neat. But imagine my surprise when I plug it in and find the digits in the display are all messed up! After a bit of debugging, imagine my astonishment in finding an error in the printed circuit board layout!!! Two of the digit anodes were shorted together, not by any impurity or solder bridge, but by a neat, straight, designed-in board trace. A flash of the exacto knife, a severed trace, and now the clock works fine. Anybody from Heath on the net? -- Jeffrey W Percival (jwp@larry.sal.wisc.edu) (608)262-8686
grr@cbmvax.commodore.com (George Robbins) (01/21/90)
In article <810@cupcake.sal.wisc.edu> jwp@cupcake.UUCP (Jeffrey W Percival) writes: > > I just finished building this kit, and the clock is very neat. But imagine > my surprise when I plug it in and find the digits in the display are all > messed up! After a bit of debugging, imagine my astonishment in finding > an error in the printed circuit board layout!!! Two of the digit anodes > were shorted together, not by any impurity or solder bridge, but by > a neat, straight, designed-in board trace. Mine didn't have this feature, but it was maybe 2-3 years ago. Give them a call and ask to talk to their QA department and let them know about it. The only problem I had was I missed the part about it taking 5-10 minutes before it would display any time. I though I needed a better antenna to get any action and ended up setting it aside for a few months... -- George Robbins - now working for, uucp: {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!grr but no way officially representing arpa: cbmvax!grr@uunet.uu.net Commodore, Engineering Department fone: 215-431-9255 (only by moonlite)