The adventure continues in this multi-part series of videos about my assembling a new Heathkit GC-1006 clock kit. In this episode I go over some of my reservations about the design and plan what I want this clock to do, I review some comments from part one, and get into populating and soldering the components into the circuit board. Much banter and lots of solder and assembly tips thrown in along the way, so stay tuned to the end!
#heath #Heathkit #clock
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#heath #Heathkit #clock
Join Team FranLab!!!! Become a patron and help support my YouTube Channel on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/frantone
- Music by Fran Blanche -
Frantone on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/frantone/
Fran on Twitter - https://twitter.com/contourcorsets
Fran's Science Blog - http://www.frantone.com/designwritings/design_writings.html
FranArt Website - http://www.contourcorsets.com
Go easy on your critique of this. Probably a first design project assigned to a 13 year old EE Chinese student. 😂 hope they don’t execute him for this fail 😂
franlab kit's
Fran, the batteries keep the clock keeping time with no display when the ac is out. That's the sole purpose of the batteries. When the ac is on but the batteries are too low to keep time should the ac fail, the display says lo bat to remind you to change the batteries. For the love of God, read the info on this feature on the Heathkit website. Sheesh.
I HATE BATTERY POWERED APPLIANCES! 👎😡
A/C OR BUST! ⚡😉👍
BIG FAIL! 😤
heath whatever! 😖
Fran. I would love the battery circuit for my GC-1006. It was my first build. Thanks for the videos. The batteries don't last long. Can you help me?
IME even if you run the ATTiny with an external crystal it'll still drift a lot (been there done that on various uC's) the only way I've found to get decent time keeping with a uC on a battery is with a GOOD dedicated RTC (there are some pretty lousy ones out there).
The reason they did not use crystal is because they ran out of pins on the microcontroller. They even had to devise a funky schema of resistors + ADC for buttons – to save on pins.
The light guides are for avoiding the light leakage. To make dots nice and crisp rather than having light leak at 7-seg assemblies, shine via gaps etc.
Hi Fran, I'm enjoying this build, I too am a Heathkit builder from the late 60's and I am now restoring them for fun. About the LED's for the colons, the light bars and heat shrink I believe it to focus the light forward, if you didn't do this step, the LED's would light up the inside of the cabinet. I am just starting to watch this build, so you might have mentioned this in the later videos. Thanks for keeping Heathkit in the eye's of the new kit builders.
When I fit my resistors, I put them all round the same way. When I bend the diode leads, I keep their type number on the top. When I fit axial capacitors, I keep their capacitance marking near the top. Do I suffer from OCD?
I notice when soldering the multi pin devices you just start one end and end the other. I was taught to do say 1, 4, 8, 12 then 2, 5, 9, 13 and so on to make sure no bit gets too hot. I assume in your experience that’s not necessary.
To me this just seems like someone trying to capitalise on the nostalgia market and I would not be surprised to find it is just a few people in US doing marketing and the rest being done in Asia. The only reason I can see for the old fashioned, paper documentation and packaging is again for nostalgia – for those who built them back in the day and in reality is just going to push the price up (compared to shipping all the parts in a single bag and putting the docs online as a PDF which would make the kit and shipping cheaper and waste less trees). I think expecting this to be of the standard and quality of the original stuff is unrealistic, it just wouldn't be cost effective. I've nothing against the nostalgia aspect, it isn't for me but if there is a market for it and people enjoy it, why not? At least with videos like this, anyone interested can set their expectations appropriately.
I agree with you 100%. They could have made it active power supply with a active backup and could have use a super cap just to keep the time. Sure you would lose the the display but its a ac mains clock. I love Heathkil stuff but there are a lot better clock kits out there that are cheaper and using Nixie Tubes.
I also agree with you on the pads! They really need to have then on both side: I mean it's not like they'er saving any $$$.
They most likely are using the light pipe and the black heat shrink is so they can keep the LED from bleed light behind the display.
Your frustration is therapeutic for me, after see the first video. If they bought the rights just rebuild/reprint the original kits…..
You should start ordering Tindie kits and support people like you. Or start making and selling kits on Tindie.