Synchronar MK1 Redux; assembled from ebay purchased parts

[J Thomas]

[Sully008]

Nice job, Jeff! So you transferred all of the parts from the old board to a bare board? Segment drivers and everything? That's really impressive, I don't think I've got the Kung Fu for that amount of work.

It's too bad that solar cell is no longer available. It looks like a perfect alternative to the originals. It looks beefier too. Welcome to the world of Synchronar ownership.

[J Thomas]

[clockace]

awesome job jeff. great photos. now if we just had more red tops and bottoms, not to mention the sc's peter

[bucko170]

WOW superb work

Would it be possible to make one with a green or a blue display using a clear case?

Or adding a flick display, I recall reading a thread where it had been done before although due to space limitations the switch would only worked when moved side to side instead of up and down?

[J Thomas]

[bucko170]

Cheers Jeff, very Interesting, although I have to admit a lot of the technical details went over my head a bit, I did appreciate the great photo's though!

The flick display sounds more 'doable' than the green\blue display.

Maybe you will stun us with a photo's of a green or blue display Synchronar with a flick wrist feature one day!

[charger105]

Hi Jeff.
Nice work. There seems to be a few good MkI/II boards from Barry lately (in various stages of assembly), but very clean with no corrosion and no "plier" damage....Renozumi got a pile of them.

I notice yours doesn't have a trimmer. Did the chip come from a module with no trimmer ? If so, I think that would make it a MkII. There's some way of adjusting the oscillator electrically on the MkII, but it's not displayed as a number (like on the MkIII/IVs).

I like the soalr cell. Looks nice and robust. The original ones are pretty brittle.

Rgds,
Andrew.

[charger105]

........here are the details. You might need a friend to help !



Rgds.

[clockace]

that's the page i referenced on my post of setting instr. what i do, is take off the s/s top and set the slider magnets in their respective positions and slide the rear magnet back and forth what i think are enough times to get me closer. i also take the rear magnet off of its guidewire. that way you do not need any additional hands/fingers. works for me. peter by the way, the instruction booklet i have refers to this as a synchronar 2100, no mk this or that. the booklet i have for my original that i bought in 1975 just says synchronar on it. no mk this or that. i have another booklet that says synchronar 2100 mkIII on it. this shows the display with the day of week and running seconds. the one that says synchronar 2100 on it shows the display with the leap year and running seconds. i am not sure what the difference is between the mkI/II, but there must be something or there would be no need for a separate designation. peter

[J Thomas]

[clockace]

without beating up on howard, unless there are company archives to access, he may not be all that knowledgeable about the early ones either. he is only[?] 36 or maybe 37 yrs. old. that would make his birthyear about 1973 or 74. he told me himself that by the time he became involved with his fathers company they were already on the mkIII/IV's. they[the company] at that time considered the mkI/II's as archaic, as much as old junk. they were always trying to get previous customers to upgrade, either as nonfunctioning models came in or on a customer contact basis. i, too, wish that howard could add more either in his defense or for clarification. i have not had any emails from howard for over a month and he told me on one of his last that he no longer had much interest in coming back to the forum. i would bet tho' that he and his brother barry are viewing the forum comments even tho' they cannot[at least howard} post. maybe he will reconsider, because a little more info would really be appreciated by the synchronisti that populate this portion of the forum. howard??? are you able to do that? peter

[charger105]

Hi Peter.
I loaded that instruction book into the Gallery, and as far as I know it's a MkII instruction book. From what I know all the Mk revisions are referred to as 2100s, and I'm guessing that when the MkII came out, they decided to not publicly give it a Mk designation.

My understanding is the main difference between a MkI and a MkII is the MkI has a trimmer cap, and the MkII is electrically trimmed. Howard thought I had a MkII module, and as soon as I showed him a photo, he said "That's a MkI, it's got a trimmer".

Regarding Barry's MkIII/IVs, I think he's only recently realised the chip difference between MkIII and MkIV boards. He's now mentioning it in his ads.
I haven't bought anything off him in at least 12 months, but I did get MkIII and MkIV boards. They were all beyond repair (except one), but I did get both. Oh, and I did get 2 or 3 encapsulated MkIV chips that fired up straight away.

Rgds,
Andrew.

[clockace]

hi andrew, i guess that will help clear up a few things. my original that i bought in 1975 must be a mkI. it shows a 0 with the running seconds. however, it has a bar segment display. i have the original inst. booklet as well. the cover shows a dot display. it says synchronar on it. it also says ragen with a arlington, n.j. address. i have a second booklet that says synchronar 2100. the display shows the leap year/running seconds. it is ragen semiconductor with a whippany, n.j. address. i have several of this model module. some have a dot display, others a bar segment. i have one that looks like a bar segment but under higher magnification it is really a dot display. the other booklet i have says synchronar 2100, mkIII. it has rtc on the lower right corner, and riehl time corp, whippany, n.j. the display on this one shows the day of week/running seconds. i do not have one of these modules. the 2 i had were trashed by corrosion. they also had the wirebonded chip. you may be right on the mkII designation not being used. my original has a trimmer. the 2100's have electronic trim with the rear slider, but do not show a numerical rate. the stuff jeff got from barry has several different trace layouts for either mkI/II as well as trimmers and displays. he has one that he got running with a dot display with a 0 with the running seconds. there appears to be a wide variance on how these were produced, even under the same mk designations. peter

[charger105]

Hi Peter.
A lot of these details have been lost over time, and as you said, Howard only got into the business during the MkIII days, so even he isn't 100% on everything.

I know both MkIs and MkIIs came with dot and bar style displays. I think they started using bar displays late with the MkIs, and then when the MkIIs came along they just used whatever was handy.....bar and the leftover dot style. Howard used to say they had a lot of trouble with quality control, and the workers just used whatever they could get their hands on.

In my mind there are 2 differences between the MkI and MkII. Speed adjustment (either trimmer or electrical), and the leap year cycle display. MkIIs display a number with the running seconds, and the MkIs show a dot to indicate leap year (Howard told me this). I think this dot indicates you're in the year with 29 days in Feb.
Hang on, I've just though of a 3rd difference.......you can adjust the month on a MkII as well

Rgds.

[J Thomas]

[redcar66]

[clockace]

hi redcar, another from '75. i bought mine in '75. i still have it. my ser # is 46,xxx. i do not have it in my hand so i do not know the final 3 digits. to charge it i would start out under a 100w incandescent bulb at no closer than 10 inches. let it sit there for a couple of hours. if everything is ok you should get some lite on pushing the sliders. if so, let it sit under the light for 10-15 hours. that should give you enough charge to finish it up by wearing it. you probably have a mkI. it is possible that there is some leakage of the cells at this age. they are probably ni-cads. if it will not charge they will need to be replaced. there are many posts on this forum dealing with this project. i did it on mine and my posts start about the end of feb. 2008. good hunting. however, i hope yours turns out to be just needing a charge. peter

[redcar66]

[clockace]

kevin, neither is that difficult to do physically or technically for that matter. it really boils down to what equip and tools you have and your own skills. a number of posters on the forum are capable of doing it or explaining how. i would recommend getting on the synch forum and reading all of the posts from the various members who have successfully done it. i think most of the informative posts are from the last couple of years, but there are some that go back before that. i personally have read most of them and found them to be very helpful and positive. the synchronisti on this site are really into the watch for the most part. there are also some great photos in the photo gallery. welcome to the forum. ed runs a great site here. peter

[redcar66]

[clockace]

thought i would change the thread back to this one. redcar, where are you located. batteries+ has the varta v80's. they can also do the solder tabs. opening the module can be kind of tricky and tedious. some members have had success going around and around the seam with a box cutter type of blade/knife. i have had success using a small hobby type screwdriver, the blade of which i have ground to a very thin tip. this may be safer than a box cutter. if you slip, you will more than likely need stiches. the screwdriver blade will do the same as a knife blade. just work on the sides of the module and across the back. the seam is not very deep and you will break thru on the sides first in the area right next to the cells on each side. once you have done this you should have a nice groove around the 2 sides and the back. try to carefully do the same across the front display area, but go very shalow with your groove. the red plastic in this area is very thin. once you have a small groove across the front, use a larger blade in the openings you have made next to the cells. carefully pry with a slight twisting to spread the halves apart. go slowly, be careful and the 2 halves should crack apart fairly clean. once you get enough space to insert the blade and do this it should be easily opened. you will need to file the edges to clean them up to put it back together. once you have accomplished this why don't you post and maybe we can walk you thru the next steps. peter