Hughes running double time

[jagmad]

Hi all I have a Hughes (pic below) that is running double time.
That's 2 sec's for every one.
Is there anything I should be checking..
Before I go diving in with the cleaning equipment. (although it does look quite clean?)
Thanks for help in advance. P air...

Hughes Dbl qwik.jpg

[Ole Joe]

Hi all I have a Hughes (pic below) that is running double time.
That's 2 sec's for every one.
Is there anything I should be checking..
Before I go diving in with the cleaning equipment. (although it does look quite clean?)
Thanks for help in advance. P air...

Hughes Dbl qwik.jpg

If it's running at double speed its one of two things. Quartz crystal is faulty (not likely), or the countdown of the 786.432KHz is skipping a divide by 2 register somewhere in the countdown chain. My guess would be that one of the registers are being skipped. The reason I wouldn't suspect the quartz crystal is because when crystals go south, they don't normally oscillate at all, much less oscillate at double their designed frequency. Nothing one can do to fix a problem internal to the Integrated Circuit.

Joe

[jagmad]

Hi Joe Thanks for the reply,
I was hoping you wasn't going to confirm my suspicions.
The watch Looks like it's never been worn it even has
clear protector on the front and a paper sticker on the
back with legible writing on it.
I may try to wake up the sleeping component with hot
and cold treatment.
Do you think there is any chance it could work?

Meanwhile I will use this my 400th post to thank you very
much for your time. It is much appreciated.

[Ole Joe]

Bummer that the watch is in primo condition with such a problem. The hot and cold treatment can't hurt and its cheap, go for it!

Strange thing is I happened to have an early commercial CMOS integrated circuit do the same thing on me in a prototype heart pacemaker chip I was working on. The circuit had worked just fine for many weeks, when suddenly, out of the blue, a 14 stage counter which continuously divided by 2 in each stage became a 13 stage counter by skipping one divide stage. This pacemaker circuit was on a "breadboard" made up of individual CMOS chips and was easily replaced. Out of curiosity I used the bad chip in another circuit an verified that it had became a divide 13 counter. My boss, who was a wizard concerning CMOS circuits, thought that it might have been caused by what is known as "metal migration". He explained that the aluminum conductors used internal to the chip to connect all the circuits together could undergo an "electroplating" process and form an open or short circuit between aluminum traces. He stated that this kind of fault normally takes a very long time to manifest itself before showing up. Possible that this is what has happened to your module over the years. Obviously, the module was good when it left the Hughes factory and worked just fine over the years. Having been in the electronic watch industry in the 70's, I know that watch chips were tested numerous times in their manufacturing process, to many times to have a faulty one make it to the end product.

Joe

[jagmad]

Hi all well I'm even more confused now.
Wrapped it up tight in a plastic bag popped it in the freezer for a couple of hours,
Took it out quick blast with the hair dryer nice and toasty.
Put the cells back in and Voilla It's now running Double double time.
But BUUUUUT if I leave it running, which I did all night. The Time only gained
three mins in 10 hrs.
Then the last time I checked it all I got was the two dots between the Hrs and Mins.
Push the buttons and nothing so removed the back checked the cells, well they'er OK.
So tried again now it's back to Dbl time again and is running 2 hrs every 1.

[Ole Joe]

Aren't integrated circuits great! A new surprise every couple of hours.

Joe

[jagmad]

Aren't integrated circuits great! A new surprise every couple of hours.

Joe

Joe your so right my friend.
I have left it running on the side now for 3 weeks and it's running at double time but at least
it was stable. at 12am or pm it would read 12.
So I decided to try something I've never done before.
I put the watch running (double bagged and tied) in the freezer compartment.
left it there for 2 hours. I've just taken it out and the running secs display flashes in time.
Hope it stays that way, I'm checking it periodically. Will keep you posted.
Fingers crossed for me everyone.


BOOOOOOOOO been out now for 10 mins still cold to touch but it's back at double time.
Anyone know an Eskimo who wants a LED watch.

[jagmad]

Hi all...
Well another day another surprise.....
I forgot I left the batteries in this,since beginning of August, at the back of another load of watches, being checked for accuracy.
(As I only own the most basic equipment)

I came back from our cruise around the Canaries on the Oriana, on the 22nd Nov.
Checked the watch and Eh, Voilà It's fixed it's self.
I set the time and date and it's keeping good time.
Funny how little things like that can make your day.

So the moral of the story is if at first you don't succeed,
Leave the bloody batteries in and see what happens.

What have you got to loose?