16 Mar 2014, 17:48
Ah, my first post. I'm the Glen that Bruce referenced in the earlier post. I suppose I could put my two cents (US) into the discussion. The battery life should be reasonably good as the unit only consumes about 900 nA when the display is not lit.
The original used about 5uA with the display off. Most of the power consumption is during display time so battery life is really predicated by how often you read the display.
Yes, we used the internal 32 KHz oscillator. The lower transistor looking thing on the left side of the board is actually a thermal sensor so we dynamically adjust the oscillator to compensate for external temperature drift over a -40 C to +85C range. I did not use an external tuning capacitor because anything mechanical is subject to drift or being set incorrectly. When the boards are made, each board is calibrated and set with the correct crystal compensation curve. We used the tightest specced crystals we could get so crystal aging should be < +-3 ppm/year. If necessary, we can recalibrate the watch just like the original. Send it back to us for recalibration.
Yes, we know Hanno gives you a settings menu do it yourself. We did not implement any menus as the original watch did not have them nor did the average user have the means to adjust the internal cap. We feel that if you were happy with the way your original worked you'd be happy with the way ours works too.
Yes, that is a light sensor down and to the right of the display. The unit does auto dim as the original did,
All our effort was placed on a faithful replication of the original watch movements functionality. Now, as to the look of the module. We made no effort at all to duplicate the appearance of the original module as we are not trying to "Clone", "Fake" or otherwise do anything beyond giving people an opportunity to render a non working watch functional once again. If you think about it, once you change any part of an original module, it isn't an original module any more. Show of hands, how many of you remember the Volkswagon Beetles with the Rolls Royce front ends? Ok, how many of you thought you bought a Rolls Royce?
When in a case, the watch movement is virtually indistinguishable from an original when used. Yes, if you look through the crystal you will instantly recognize that it is not an original movement. As stated above our intention is simply to give people an opportunity to get their non-functional watch working again. We also give people an opportunity to replace their working original movement with a less expensive alternative for day to day wear thus saving their original module for when it counts should they decide to part with it for whatever reason. Most original watches were sold in the US. It stands to reason that a source of replacement modules in the US makes business sense too. Nothing sinister, just business.
Oh yeah, if anyone is curious as to what processor is being used we didn't black out the number. It is a PIC24F16KA102. I'd be more than happy to answer any questions anyone has.
Let's stay out of the Hanno conversation please. I don't know him nor have I had any dealings with him and have no interest in discussing the relative merits of his products verses ours. If you're happy with his offerings then please just use him. Refer your friends to him if you wish. Supply and demand sets the market success of any business. Bruce thinks there is a US market so I've helped him find out thats true.
If you simply want a module that works, and is available in the States you simply now have an option.
Glen
It's always darkest before pitch black