11 Jan 2008, 12:39
So is the ‘903’ an new classification 32 years since it was released ??!!!
I’ve been collecting for 30 yrs, and this is the first time someone’s used that new label, and I have found no reference to it in any of the vast pulsar documentation I have.
Also, in the past I have owned 3 Stainless Steel Euro calculators, and ALL 3 had the time then date double flick feature, which is no different to activating the button twice, so its no major leap in technology.
However, what is interesting is the ingeniously simple description for how a pulsar wrist flick functions, as described in their 1973 patent. The inertial switch inside the module isn’t mercury that parallels the normal activation switch, but is in fact a tiny ball bearing inside a conductive metal sleeved tube with a contact point at each end of the tube, which needs a 3 stage event to occur within 0.500 seconds in order to display anything.
It does this by logically gating the three sequential on/off signals from the ball bearing with the timed square wave coming off the existing divider chain, and if the user completes the action in the required time, then bingo, the time (and then date !) displays. This is more elegant than other designs where it’s merely a mercury switch that has to be giggled once, therefore leading to all sorts of unwanted activations. Pulsars solution is simple, and works very well for displaying the time only when you want it.
Other watches I’ve looked at, such as the Gillette Reflex, have a more truculent system perhaps to avoid infringing pulsars patent, but none the less it always feels more unreliable and my one in particular needs a very specific and annoying movement to work.
If you have a pulsar with a ‘sticky’ or reluctant wrist flick, the inertial part can be replaced. But with the Pulsar the action should always be a fairly simple and reliable movement, much more so that the othes IMHO.
Meanwhile I’ve gone back and checked my other Pulsar calcs to determine if they too have this newly christened 903 module, and my current SS euro calc DOES have it (again), my 18kt Euro calc has not because it’s a 901 module, and my SS USA style calc has a 902 with the single action wrist flick that works all the time everytime.
My ideal watch would be a Euro Calc with the 902 (or 903!) module, AND a Dot Matrix display. The vast majority of Pulsar Calcs have the normal solid bar display, but a few early Calculators did have a set of dot matrix digits. I’d really like one of those. Maybe it should be called the 900 module (as they were too early to have the wrist flick) !!!
Anyway, I’ve got work to do … :)
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