Speed settings on a MK2 4 reed.

[egomon]

Ok my MK2 4 reed is gooing to fast. The back reed is on the right side. How to I slow down the speed of the watch?

Egon

[Sully008]

As per clockace:

to speed up: turn on and HOLD the SEC-YR display switch; turn on and HOLD the DATE switch. slide the rear switch left for each step faster. each slide is 16 secs/yr

to slow down: turn on and HOLD the SEC-YR display; turn on and HOLD the TIME display. slide the rear switch left for each step slower.

Worked on my MkII that was running way too fast. Also note that once it's within tolerance a "–" will appear between the Leap year indicator and the seconds.

[clockace]

yes, and just to reiterate, left & right is with the rear of the watch facing you. the rear reed is then actually on the left. and if the "-" between the leap year and running secs goes away you have gone out of range on the adjustment the other way. if it still runs too fast you probably need to replace the qc. peter

[egomon]

In my MK2 case the rear reed is in the right side -if looking form the rear of the watch facing me...

[clockace]

that's a new one to me. what does your display look like? is it a dot segment or bar? does it show the leap year with the running secs or a zero? to change the hour do you just push the left slider back or do you need to turn on and hold the time display also to get it to advance? i haven't seen one with the rear reed on the right. anyone else here seen that? peter

[J Thomas]

[clockace]

that is an odd one. it also presents a bit of a dilemma. the inst booklet i have for the mkII[i think it is a mkII] shows the running secs and leap yr # on the display. in the inst for adjustments for hrs advance, min advance, day advance, month advance, speed up, & slow down it says to slide the rear switch left. if there is another version that would necessitate a new inst. booklet. for what it is worth the handwritten ser # in this booklet is 69147. mike, andrew, anything to add? peter

[charger105]

Yes, the MkII instruction booklet definitely says slide left. I was thinking that too Peter......a new instruction book would be needed, with no advantage to anyone ?
I've only got one working MkII, and it's got a left reed. In my box of parts, there is a right-hand one though. I've never notice this before.
Very strange.......

[J Thomas]

[Sully008]

that is an odd one. it also presents a bit of a dilemma. the inst booklet i have for the mkII[i think it is a mkII] shows the running secs and leap yr # on the display. in the inst for adjustments for hrs advance, min advance, day advance, month advance, speed up, & slow down it says to slide the rear switch left. if there is another version that would necessitate a new inst. booklet. for what it is worth the handwritten ser # in this booklet is 69147. mike, andrew, anything to add? peter

Okay, I had a chance to pull the two MkIIs I have here out of their cases and take a look at them.

Please take these findings with a grain of salt, though. Back when I was figuring these things out, I wasn't fully aware of the different variations of Mk modules and might've gone solder pen happy and put reeds in where not necessary or technically correct.

One of them has 4 reeds on the top, and one on the right rear. I have a MkII instruction book here and I can verify that I have to move the magnet opposite of what it says in the book to change functions. What's also weird is the fact that there's a reed switch in the hours position of a MkI module, which does change the hour, in addition to the "correct" way of changing it via the combo of the rear switch/time switch.

The second one is similar to the one above, with the hours reed in the MkI position, but the rear reed is in the "correct" left side.

[clockace]

mike, i wonder if there are more than one variation of the mkII. what i have been using to differentiate is the mkI has a 0 with the running secs. the mkII has the leap yr #. jeff and i were commenting in one conversation that there appear to be different pcb layouts for both of these. in looking at my pile of "stuff"[i have 20-25 pcb's in various states], there is one that has a bar seg display, 3 reeds on top, and 1 right rear. it doesn't appear to have had any other reeds soldered in. it is in pretty bad shape so there is no way it could be repaired to check it out. i think too that virtually all of the syncs that we have been able to get working were junkers from either howard or barry. so they more than likely had problems from the beginning either in the chip or maybe assembly mistakes. most of what i got from howard were warranty returns, a good portion of them still sealed up. i feel that the fact we have been able to get any of them up and running is a major accomplishment. some of mine were quite simple, just a new qc, others a little more effort. the better ones came from howard.[i wonder how he is doing on the mkV?] i did get 3 or 4 runners out of barrys batches. i still have plenty to work on, but no steel tops or red top and bottoms. it sounds like one of yours can be set[at least the hrs] in different ways. interesting. still . peter

[charger105]

I remember Howard talking about 4, 5 and 6 reed Mk1/11s. I can't find the posts now. I was a bit confused about it all at the time, and by his own admission, he wasn't all that clear about the early stuff. So I just thought he was mistaken. He also talked about having to 'pencil' things into the instruction manuals before shipping.
So Sully, I'd say that your 5 reed models are correct, and how they left the factory. Maybe a late mod to the MkII was adding the quick (MkI style) hour adjustment, for daylight savings adjustments. MkIIs are quite fiddly to adjust.
By the way Peter, all this talk of Mk1s and Mk11s has got me motivated to finally adjust the speed on my Mk11. You're spot on.........once the speed was adjusted close to correct, the missing 'dash' suddenly appeared on the seconds/leap year display . I wonder how it knows, how big the window is for this dash to appear, and why it isn't mentioned in the manual .

Rgds,
Andrew.

[clockace]

hi andrew, i don't know how it knows it is in range, but i discovered it by accident on one i was trying to adjust a couple of years back. the dash was there and as i was trying to adjust the speed it went away. going back the other way it appeared again. i think there are posts on this feature somewhere, but it can be time consuming to dig them out. i also discovered there is a range and it is quite large but still limited. depending on the error, i have had to replace the qc to finally get it right.

one thing i enjoy about this forum is we can compare notes about these things. i don't think we have seen it all yet on the variations of the mkI/II's. i do remember a post about howard penciling in instructions, but i don't recall if it was his post or maybe you posting about a conversation you had with him. perhaps all these many variations are what caused roger so many problems with warranty's. howard told me that no warranty returns were ever sent back out. the customer was sent back a brand new module. peter

[bruce wegmann]

Time Computer handled their "repairs" exactly the same way; malfunctioning module goes in the trash can...new module is popped into the case...watch sent back to customer. Everything was geared to the quick turn-around, and a satisfied customer. A purchaser who has to wait a month to get his cutting-edge, high-tech watch back is NOT going to try to convince anybody else to get one. It's a good bet there was nobody at Time Computer squinting through a microscope, trying to replace a bad driver transistor... I'm sure the Q/C people took note of the specific problem, but after that, it was probably straight to the bin for the module. In the early days of LED watch manufacturing, everybody was flying by the seat of their pants, not quite sure what was over the horizon (remember the ED/Hamilton P1 module debachle).

[egomon]

Thank you for the info.
I did try to slow it down like it is in the instruction..but its the same... i don't think it slowed down at all.. and now its way below the range ( the line between the date and seconds is dissapeared).
So is this the QC problem? Should i change it?

[clockace]

egomon, by the phrase [date & secs] do you mean the leap yr # and secs? peter

[charger105]

Hi egomon.
Out of interest, how many reed switches in total, does your module have ? Four or five ? Does it have the left-away reed (which is used to adjust the hours on a Mk1).......like Sully's.
If you can't see through the Lexan, if you listen carefully you can usually hear it clicking when you activate/de-activate the reed.

Regarding your speed problem, are you sure you've adjusted it in the right direction ? It might be worth going the other way as a test.

Rgds,
Andrew.

[egomon]

egomon, by the phrase [date & secs] do you mean the leap yr # and secs? peter

Yes.

Out of interest, how many reed switches in total, does your module have ? Four or five ? Does it have the left-away reed (which is used to adjust the hours on a Mk1).......like Sully's.

This module is MK2 with 4 reeds. The back reed is in the right side. Usually its in the left side, if you look the module from behind. And i have tried to go bought ends of the settings- fast and low- but no effect.

[clockace]

ok, for starters, have you opened this module? if so, a photo of the pcb cell side would be helpful. does it have a screw type trimmer just rear of the display? i have a mkII that did and i used both it and the slider to get it in time. it is sealed up now so i can't check for sure, but i remember after realizing it could be adjusted with the rear slider that i took the trimmer out with no good results. i put it back in and was able to get it in time. i think i had several posts on this maybe 18 mos. back or so. maybe 2 yrs back. how far out is it? you should have seen some result of your adjustment. the fact that the 'dash' went away should indicate something is happening. each slide of the rear magnet on a mkII will change the time by 16 secs/yr so it is fairly sensitive. peter

[egomon]

Hi.

Sorry about my slow reaction on this topic but I have been in varies business trips for past two months and did not have time to get my MK2 back on track. But now here is the pic.
When I hade a close look at the trimmer place there is clearly been something before ( there is a trace of soldering in there.

I think the next step would be to put the new trimmer in place and see what happends
[img]


Uploaded with ImageShack.us[/img]

Regards Egon

[J Thomas]

[clockace]

i will chime in too. i don't think there was a trimmer there. the pads are there, but the pcb is essentially a mkI board so the pads and solder may make it look like there was one there. i have a mkII that has both the trimmer and speed adj. i think i have some posts about it early on in 2008 when i was just starting to play with these. i think i will try and find them. when i discovered that it had a different means of speed adj i took it out because i thought it was my problem in regulating it. i didn't improve the situation so i put it back in. i may have also changed the qc, but i finally got it to keep time by adj as close as i could with the trimmer and then used the other adjustment to fine tune it. it couldn't possibly hurt to put one in there and see what happens. how far off is it? i will agree with jeff that the qc may be bad, but if it is only a few secs/day i would try the trimmer first. it would be easier than changing the qc because you will need to lift the solar cell to do that. unless you can unsolder or clip those wires on the qc. it looks real close to the pcb. peter

edit. late december 2008 are the posts on this particular module, under heading 'dot matrix'