WTF am I doing with my life, watching you soldering a clock kit in real time? Your videos are strangely addictive and interesting. I can't stop watching, no matter what you're talking about or doing...
bigclivedotcom The other problem I used to have was holding the component in place while the solder solidified. It was unbearably painful fir my poor sensitive teenage hands. I can now hold the components, but always use my beautiful Bernstein ball joint vice bit.ly/2hStUcB It's so great to use that I look for excuses!
Me when I get a diy kit: *meticulously follows the directions and circuit diagram, suffering through any chinglish in order to be as exact as possible* Clive: "Let's just mash everything in where it makes sense to." I wish I was this good at electronics.
The only way to get good is to study, and build these kits, they teach you a lot. Also get an arduion or two and play with them. Examine the example codes and you can easily learn the short version of C and C+ that they run on. Get some ESP8266's as well to play with the internet of things, great fun and the lua code is very much like the Arduino codes, in fact now you can program the ESP with the Arduino programer with just a bit of work.
Nice assembly technique! I like how you manage to hold the board and the component in place in one hand along with the solder, and the iron in the other. I have to resort to a set of helping hands!
about 17:30 in when you went looking for your pin aligning tool I was so hoping you would produce a hammer.. as always an informative way to kill some time
20:57 - "...I really haven't a clue that this thing is..." Go ask the college kid that designed it for his electronics class project that this Chinese company ripped it off from...LOL
A company that sells wigs and random electronic components? What an oddly specific combination. By that logic, I could make millions selling cricket larvae and assorted pharmaceutical supplies.
Tom Wilkinson I doubt it - just for giggles I built a "bomb" timer like in the movies and the uC made the silly "wheres that damn hero when we need him/her" chirping sound for each second the clock counted down. However in a lot of TV shows and movies I've seen the common garden variety kitchen timer with two rows of number buttons and a pair of control buttons made by micronta exhibit this behaviour and I actually have one in the kitchen. It has no beep function except when the time expires, so the each second chirp had to have been put into the film in post
@1FireyPheonix totally understandable. :) it's easy enough to mix them up because they contain what the Chinese call Han zi, and the Japanese call kanji (hear the similarity?) ---- warning TL;DR rant approaching --- they literally are the same characters often times with a similar or identical meaning. Hence numbers. The only thing that changed, just like had happened across mainland China for hundreds of years before, the sounds that fit to the characters changed. This is also why Japanese kanji have what's known as an On and Kun reading, giving two pronunciations for a character. One the original Chinese, and one the Japanese pronunciation. Both Simplified and Traditional Chinese use strictly Han zi and other symbols, whereas Japanese include the kanji, and 2 distinct syllabaries (like alphabets) call Hiragana, and katakana... These two extra sets of characters help Japanese text to stand apart from Chinese. It helps if you know both too I suppose lol :P
I got a rather nifty looking large digital desk clock in my office (we all did) It had date and timer on it too. Quite impressive I thought. I did notice that after a couple of months the date was losing days... when i cycled through the dates i found that 30 days hath September, April, June, November, January, March, May, July, August, October, December - except February which had 28 days.... Genius! Then the batteries all died one by one !
lol I am building the same kit with you...it makes me smile....second attempt!!! I have built much more complex kits with no issues...lets see if round 2 works...love your videos clive!! P.S the drink tonight is Rum and coke :)
Built a couple of those clock kits. The one like yours worked till I inadvertently hooked it up to my 12 volt power bank instead of the 5. The other had soldering iron problems. You see, I spend most of my time in a lift recliner because of my body condition, at any rate, I thought it would be a smart idea to buy one of those little cheap USB soldering irons. They do work GREAT for just tinning a lead or something but building a kit? Not so much. Seems they just keep heating up and suddenly the traces and pads are seperating and your kit is pretty much garbage. Ruined four or five different kits with that before it became a little used item. I finally bought a cheap mains type with thermostat on the handle taking the tips like the ones you use. It does a nice job if you are careful but I have yet to buy any more kits. I do have decor that I built up such as little Christmas trees and heart we put on the dash of our Motor Home while traveling and when we spend the winter months in Arizona to keep away from the dreaded snow of North and South Dakota.
Who the hell knows, some days I just ramble on, and on and on. I once considered myself a writer, even had a few short stories published, one in a magazine, another in a sci-fi anthology, but I gave it up and turned to computers, then to arduinos, then oh well you get the picture, hell I have been a soldier, a cop, a clerk to a district judge, and a carpenter. I have been a wood worker, a painter and a few other things I shan't go into, but the young in our family remember me the most as that uncle who tells the best ghost stories ever.
Clive, chip pin alignment tool - table top and gently lean on the splayed pins until the alignment is achieveed. Been watching your vids for the past two days having found the mother-lode. The Postman is going to be busy end of this month with a cornucopia of bits that I didn't realise that I needed/craved until prompted by you. Keep up the good work. Ian
Hi Clive, After watching this video, I went out and got this kit to solder as my first practice. It was great following along! Is it bad that I am learning to solder "Clive-style" holding the solder and PCB in one hand?
Amazing video as always! Just wondering, you've inspired me to start soldering! Just wondering if you can recommend a half decent sdering iron to choose for a beginner, but one I will feel happy soldering with as I get better! Many thanks and keep up the good work!
Justin Parker A good general purpose iron that will serve you well will be an Antex XS. You can probably get one from Maplin, but I'd recommend using lead based solder which Maplin don't seem to sell. If you can get the iron along with a suitable stand that's even better.
Got the same one last year as a project for my 15yr old son. Although the crystal died after a week but once replaced it works fine. It is still running. Was so impressed I ordered their battery backed version at £2.10
I just finished this kit and it works fine. Thanks for the video. I will study it to find out how to set the time and alarms. When I do my soldering I always use a small fan to blow the smoke from the hot flux away to one side, so I don't end up breathing too much of it. I'm using 3 penlight cells to power it with about 4.5 Volts, and that seems to be quite sufficient.
I love that lead/tin solder. It's what I learned on. By the way, here in "the land of the free" (USA), any product that contains lead based solder has to be handled as "hazardous waste" when you want to get rid of it. You see old TV sets abandoned along the road, because you can't just put them in the trash and even most thrift stores won't accept them as donations. I saw a RUclips video where the cheapest way to dispose of them "legally" is to send them to China or third world countries. Many times they are just dumped on empty or swamp land, tossed in rivers, etc. The lead content of the soil and water is HUGE, but the few bucks that a USA "exporter" will pay goes a long way in an impoverished village.
just watching randomly through your videos and got here now. AFAIK the capacitors at the quarzoscillator are there to help it start up oscillating. only does not work if they are really off, but often even works without them, solely by copper line capacities...
Not sure if anyone else has said, but the caps across the crystal (calculated by C = 2CL - (CP + CI), where CP + CI can be estimated as 5pF) are the load capacitors and they cause/encourage the oscillation that makes a crystal do it's thing usefully. Wrong value caps, or no caps == no oscillation.
When I first watched this, I was wondering, "Why did they bother to include a socket for the IC instead of just putting it directly on the board?" Then I watched Clive solder the thing going right down the rows. That's when the light bulb went on, "Oh, so an inexperienced amateur won't cook the chip while soldering it in place." I'm going to assume, Clive, that you did it this way because you knew you were just soldering the socket, not the actual chip. When my dad taught me to solder, he was adamant about that concept: *Never* solder adjacent pins on an IC one right after another. *Always* solder diagonally opposite pins and, even then, it's a good idea to allow a few seconds cooling time after soldering each pin. When possible, keep a finger flat against the top of the chip while you're working. If it gets too hot to keep your finger on it, it's time to stop and let it cool before proceeding. You might consider adding a caption to your video to point this out. :)
+Greg Wolking On the rare occasion I solder a chip in directly I stagger the soldering on opposing pins and also pause mid soldering to let the chip cool down. A socket is always preferred.
+bigclivedotcom I had figured as much, Clive, as I stated previously. It's quite clear from your videos that you really know your stuff. Thank you, sir, for taking the time to answer my inquiry. I thoroughly enjoy your videos. In particular, I find the calm, measured, "thinking out loud" style of your narration to be a refreshing change from many other "how-to" RUclipsrs who seem to think they must become some kind of "character" telling jokes, cracking wise, getting ridiculously upset, and so on. I have often wondered whether you plan what you intend to cover before you start recording or just go completely off-the-cuff every time. If the latter, it _sounds_ like the former, as you're very good at staying on point and not needlessly repeating yourself (AvE comes immediately to mind in that regard). You may count me as a fan, sir, and I applaud your endeavors!
When learning how to solder at college [C&G] was told not to melt the solder with iron but heat componets/ wire so that it melted the solder. the test to pass exam was to remove chips/ components and refit then it was tested to check it still worked.
A habit I've gotten into is to cut the ends off the leads of R's and C's while they're still in the endcaps, because the sticky residue would otherwise scrape off in the holes and get in the way of soldering.
Thanks Clive, I built this yesterday but did not know how to set the time, now thanks to you its done :) :ps, my wife shouted through to me ( whats that annoying noise).. so I have de-soldered the buzzer, we are both happy now :)
+Ron Thompson My wife threw the circuit board away by mistake, it was in a small brown jiffy bag, she didn't look inside and thought it was rubbish :( I have had to order a new one :)
' did 2 soldering on switch 1 = 2 soldering on switch 2... 2=2... dont need 4 soldering on switch 1= dont need 4 soldering on switch 2... YSZ-4 C51 still good clock kit
Get a hex dump of the microcontroller's flash and dissasemble the code??? ;) (These days, Maplin just stuff everything into an ordinary polythene bag.)
some chinese stuff is actually pretty neat, clever and reliable, but what is really crappy is software/ firmware or crappy or even no documentation at all! like mikeselectricstuff review of micsig scope... scope really neat, webpage selling it looks like someone 10yrs old made it.
High frequency crystals are terribly bad at timekeeping. That's because for them a "cut type" parameter (how the actual quartz piece was cut from a large crystal) is almost always "AT-cut", and low-frequency crystals are typically "XY-cut". This leads to far better temperature stability for low frequency (and in particular 32768 Hz) crystals, which makes them suitable for use for timekeeping purposes. The next difference is that high frequency crystal physically is a solid quartz block, and "watch" crystal is a "tuning fork" style. This also matters. So this clock won't be accurate, unless they've used some extra-custom crystal. :)
Another fun build by Master Clive! Question asked: "...why use 2 little caps with the crystal"? Answer: You're actually building an oscillator circuit, using a crystal, some capacitors, and the internal circuitry of your microcontroller. If you don't use the caps, your clocking won't work. The values are calculated based on the properties of the crystal, as described in datasheet from Microchip "Crystal Oscillator Basics and Crystal Selection for rfPICTM and PICmicro® Devices" ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/appnotes/00826a.pdf
...Back in the1970's...Digi-key sold stuff like this....but you had to make your own CB from the parts in the kit and it used a 3 resistor voltage divider across the120 line for low voltage power....red LEDS 7-seg...then later a kit with vac-fluor tubes....
Made mine this afternoon and dropped my psu down to 2.75v and seemed to work fine. So I am using 2xAA batteries in a clear case pinched from a £1 set of LEDs. Will see how long it lasts. That buzzer though is excruciatingly loud and annoying so stuck a rubber foot over it. Bliss. Also why is there a sticker over the buzzer which says don't remove until washed? wtf?
Mr. CLIVE. Please tell me where to find good soldier. I bought 2 full rolls .8mm 60/40 flux but someone lied. I made the 4 big 7 segment clock like you did but the soulder turns gray. I've soldiered for many years but this new no-lead soldier is crap. Please help.
Clive, the cheapie IC sockets are easy to seat. Push them in, flick the opposite corner pins over, THEN solder the OPPOSITE corner pins. If it's seated correctly, then unfold or "unflick" the opposite corner pins and solder them.
It's unfortunate but I was sold some quite rare vintage sound chips embedded in what only LOOKED like dissipative foam, Without a proper static shield bag too. Most of the cheap bits I get come incorrectly packaged. If you need to build something you might come to rely upon I'd suggest other sources. I still love cheap eBay deals though. They keep my hobbies going.
IT uses AT89s51/at89c51. as this 8051 variant has very weak pullup feature, hence it uses the shunting arrangement where the display segments are turned off by providing alternate patch thru the microcontroller.
Would it be possible to make a USB powered O-Zone generator? Would be a fun project that I could power from my computer or even the USB in my car. Also, what are you using for your power supply? Did you make it yourself?
>Hand etched PCBS Have you tried sending your PCBs to somewhere like Oshpark or DirtyPCBs to see what you get back? The quality for the price has been fantastic in my experience.
ebay C51 is the thing to search for. The AT89C2051 - is an 8051 clone. Dents the idea worth it for the parts, get source code, change purpose with Arduino environment etc.
I bought three of those recently in order to practice soldering. I already build one but it is not really working. The speaker emits a constant beep and the display is lit up but show no time. I am pretty sure that I followed your video exactly. Is it possible I broke something while soldering or could be a part faulty? Since I don't have a power supply I cut off one plug of an USB cable and power the clock that way. I really like to know what's the problem so I can understand what's going on since I am still a beginner in the field of electronics.
you solder basically the same as i do. i bought 3 different clock kit from various sellers and found 1 half worked, 1 did absolutely nothing and 1 worked perfectly. the one that works gain about 1 second per week. luckily it is the clck that i hoped would work, it had time date temp alarm and 60 led in a circle that showed seconds in about 20 different various. patterns. sill worked perfectly after about 1 year. the other two so-called clocks are in some fill site somewhere. :) i can turn chime on/off and can even set chime between certain hours only and not at other times.
Dear Big Clive, I have a similar clock to this and wanted to hook it up to a solar panel AND lithium ion phone battery to charge the battery during the day while running the clock, and run the clock from the battery at night etc.. Any tips? I'd imagine it would be simple enough to do?
Clive, I have just found for this kit the note "8-20 o\'clock chime can be turned off" which I assume means that unless turned off the chime operates only between 08:00 and 20:00.
Oh dear I recently took apart my old broken Commodore 64 and in the troubleshooting process I cleaned all the IC pins with sandpaper, I don't know if I got lucky but that didn't kill it with static after I swapped out the bad video chip
I bought 3 of the other clock you built. I built one, and never got it to work. Checked polarity, checked solder joints, etc. Still didn't work. Figured the controller was cooked by the static in the foam.
I got one of these kits to practice and for fun. Mine came packaged much the same but it had a broken SIL. I happily proceeded to assemble it and watch what happened when I powered it up, I was pleasently suprised to get smoke and flashes! Managed to get a full refund too...!
I got the direction in English ,I bought mine from Amazon ,they contacted the vendor ,the vendor ,gave me a web site ,so I could download ,the direction in English.good luck with it.
I hope you will do your reviews on the new kits from radio shack,they have a line of kits for 19.99 .if you haven't already done them. A lot of us buy some of our kits ,from your review or how to videos. Thanks I still trying to find more of your review ,etc.
could you recommend a Chinese kit for a first timer,I have the same kit you are working on,I am watching your video first,I am 64 & my friend is 74 so when I build my kit I want to get him one to something simple for old hands and old eyes,so we can do are kits together
those little buzzers that seem to be everywhere are actually very simple electromechanical bells with the metal diaphragm also switching the coil.... I took one apart to see why I couldn't get one to sing.
the two little caps set the crystal a-oscillating I think. I agree with others, nimble finger work :) I would have burned myself twenty times doing that.
I have used hundreds microcontrollers as rudely as you want and never had a single failure attributable to static. The inputs are protected. The earliest CMOS chips were not, so the lore has spread and still sticks..
The film over the display is placed onto the the acrylic front clear section before the display is assembled. Any film covered surface like dvd players TV's and even new mobile phones is placed on after assembly
Interesting way of driving the segments. Maybe the MCU can not source enough current to drive the segments directly, but can sink the current to shunt them out?
Gotta love the dodgy Chinese kits. I have a feeling by ordering this you would be put on some government list some where but hey, what the hell huh? It's all for science.
Old video,I built two fun little kit ,fyi Aliexspress has that kit for under two dollars and the have a lot of di y electronic kits way cheaper then eBay
I notice that you don't clean the PC board before you start, wouldn't it be wise to at least swab for oil using an alcohol based cleaner or even some Acetone?
10:10 where is your tool for aligning pins for sockets and IC's LOL Sorry if i keep bugging you with my comments Clive but i have watched so many of your videos and know all the fancy tools you use.(if my comments bug you please comment to stop I will not be offended)
WTF am I doing with my life, watching you soldering a clock kit in real time? Your videos are strangely addictive and interesting. I can't stop watching, no matter what you're talking about or doing...
youtubkeeper Same idk either why am i watching this
where has the *time* gone
same here, i think it has to do with how expresses himself and relate what he is doing.
He would have been an outstanding high school electronics teacher!!!
Utube us full of these. Auto repair, small engines... it is always therapeutic to watch someone else work. Puts me to sleep. ;-)
You sir are the Bob Ross of soldering. Please put more kit-building vids up. ;]=
XombyCraft Couldn't have said better myself. A soothing voice, technical knowledge and a good sense of humor. Can't get much better than that.
He’s not the bob Ross of soldering .He’s more a Da Vinci Highly intelligent and amusing. Bob Ross sooooooooo boring
.... i cant mount components straight even with a pair of helping hands and clive can do everything with his left hand.
So much road ahead
Don't worry, the more you do it the easier it gets.
bigclivedotcom
The other problem I used to have was holding the component in place while the solder solidified. It was unbearably painful fir my poor sensitive teenage hands. I can now hold the components, but always use my beautiful Bernstein ball joint vice bit.ly/2hStUcB It's so great to use that I look for excuses!
"and Clive can do everything with his left hand."
Don't tell his wife that. 😀
@@BedsitBob Not _really_ a worry...
Those parts are protected from ESD using the Shenzhen Damp Air technique. The air in the bag is humid enough to have a dissipative effect. ;)
+Godfrey Poon lol
Lol 😂
"Soldering kits are quite therapeutic" - I totally agree
Me when I get a diy kit: *meticulously follows the directions and circuit diagram, suffering through any chinglish in order to be as exact as possible*
Clive: "Let's just mash everything in where it makes sense to."
I wish I was this good at electronics.
+Chris Roller You're already on your way to that point. Time to treat yourself to some random Chinese ebay kits.
The only way to get good is to study, and build these kits, they teach you a lot. Also get an arduion or two and play with them. Examine the example codes and you can easily learn the short version of C and C+ that they run on. Get some ESP8266's as well to play with the internet of things, great fun and the lua code is very much like the Arduino codes, in fact now you can program the ESP with the Arduino programer with just a bit of work.
"uh oh it looks strongly chineseish" BAHAHAHA
+Oriole Advent i lost it at this point lol
Nice assembly technique! I like how you manage to hold the board and the component in place in one hand along with the solder, and the iron in the other. I have to resort to a set of helping hands!
about 17:30 in when you went looking for your pin aligning tool I was so hoping you would produce a hammer.. as always an informative way to kill some time
20:57 - "...I really haven't a clue that this thing is..." Go ask the college kid that designed it for his electronics class project that this Chinese company ripped it off from...LOL
Quite funny that they used 8 for B and 0 for D where they could have used b and d respectively.
That's what I thought too when I saw it.
A company that sells wigs and random electronic components? What an oddly specific combination.
By that logic, I could make millions selling cricket larvae and assorted pharmaceutical supplies.
Nah fam making Saab hubcaps and flower seeds is where it's at.
I imagine they live close to both manufacturers
Didn't you get the 4 pounds of C4 and the bag of ball bearings with it? :P
Mark van Werven it came from China, dude...accessories sold separately.
The translations on the manual are priceless though, "place the round bearingballs in cute pattern", I mean, my chinese is worse, but still...
Looks like a bomb...
Only in Texas.
+Bright Spark I think you owe Clive $15m now
+bigclivedotcom this comment wins everything. Edit: Your reply, not spark's comment.
imagine, replacing buzzer with relay and detonator...(thus making sound signal trigger bomb....).then accidently shorting a button...and going kablewi
totally impractical for a bomb
This is the kit they use in movie prop bombs haha
metalmaniacmat nearly, usually in movies they beep each second they countdown, as if no-one can hear or notice them! lol
jusb1066 Pretty sure that's post production :p
Tom Wilkinson I doubt it - just for giggles I built a "bomb" timer like in the movies and the uC made the silly "wheres that damn hero when we need him/her" chirping sound for each second the clock counted down. However in a lot of TV shows and movies I've seen the common garden variety kitchen timer with two rows of number buttons and a pair of control buttons made by micronta exhibit this behaviour and I actually have one in the kitchen. It has no beep function except when the time expires, so the each second chirp had to have been put into the film in post
You'd want to do the sound in post anyway to get a clean recording. Recording sound on location is challenging, the less you have to do it the better.
@1FireyPheonix totally understandable. :) it's easy enough to mix them up because they contain what the Chinese call Han zi, and the Japanese call kanji (hear the similarity?)
---- warning TL;DR rant approaching ---
they literally are the same characters often times with a similar or identical meaning. Hence numbers.
The only thing that changed, just like had happened across mainland China for hundreds of years before, the sounds that fit to the characters changed. This is also why Japanese kanji have what's known as an On and Kun reading, giving two pronunciations for a character. One the original Chinese, and one the Japanese pronunciation.
Both Simplified and Traditional Chinese use strictly Han zi and other symbols, whereas Japanese include the kanji, and 2 distinct syllabaries (like alphabets) call Hiragana, and katakana...
These two extra sets of characters help Japanese text to stand apart from Chinese. It helps if you know both too I suppose lol :P
I got a rather nifty looking large digital desk clock in my office (we all did) It had date and timer on it too. Quite impressive I thought. I did notice that after a couple of months the date was losing days... when i cycled through the dates i found that 30 days hath September, April, June, November, January, March, May, July, August, October, December - except February which had 28 days.... Genius!
Then the batteries all died one by one !
god dammit. i fell asleep watching jacksepticeye and woke up because there was a loud ass beeping. That really is one annoying beep.
lol I am building the same kit with you...it makes me smile....second attempt!!! I have built much more complex kits with no issues...lets see if round 2 works...love your videos clive!! P.S the drink tonight is Rum and coke :)
Built a couple of those clock kits. The one like yours worked till I inadvertently hooked it up to my 12 volt power bank instead of the 5. The other had soldering iron problems. You see, I spend most of my time in a lift recliner because of my body condition, at any rate, I thought it would be a smart idea to buy one of those little cheap USB soldering irons. They do work GREAT for just tinning a lead or something but building a kit? Not so much. Seems they just keep heating up and suddenly the traces and pads are seperating and your kit is pretty much garbage. Ruined four or five different kits with that before it became a little used item. I finally bought a cheap mains type with thermostat on the handle taking the tips like the ones you use. It does a nice job if you are careful but I have yet to buy any more kits. I do have decor that I built up such as little Christmas trees and heart we put on the dash of our Motor Home while traveling and when we spend the winter months in Arizona to keep away from the dreaded snow of North and South Dakota.
lol what the fuck you on about mate.
Who the hell knows, some days I just ramble on, and on and on. I once considered myself a writer, even had a few short stories published, one in a magazine, another in a sci-fi anthology, but I gave it up and turned to computers, then to arduinos, then oh well you get the picture, hell I have been a soldier, a cop, a clerk to a district judge, and a carpenter. I have been a wood worker, a painter and a few other things I shan't go into, but the young in our family remember me the most as that uncle who tells the best ghost stories ever.
lol
Clive, chip pin alignment tool - table top and gently lean on the splayed pins until the alignment is achieveed.
Been watching your vids for the past two days having found the mother-lode. The Postman is going to be busy end of this month with a cornucopia of bits that I didn't realise that I needed/craved until prompted by you. Keep up the good work.
Ian
+0PAIx I've got a proper "hand exerciser" type pin aligner, but it was hiding when I made the video. Yeah, the postman is here almost every day.
Hi Clive,
After watching this video, I went out and got this kit to solder as my first practice. It was great following along! Is it bad that I am learning to solder "Clive-style" holding the solder and PCB in one hand?
Amazing video as always! Just wondering, you've inspired me to start soldering! Just wondering if you can recommend a half decent sdering iron to choose for a beginner, but one I will feel happy soldering with as I get better! Many thanks and keep up the good work!
Justin Parker A good general purpose iron that will serve you well will be an Antex XS. You can probably get one from Maplin, but I'd recommend using lead based solder which Maplin don't seem to sell. If you can get the iron along with a suitable stand that's even better.
Big Clive the Bob Ross of Electronics :D could watch your videos all day!
Got the same one last year as a project for my 15yr old son.
Although the crystal died after a week but once replaced it works fine.
It is still running.
Was so impressed I ordered their battery backed version at £2.10
Love watching your video's very therapeutic. Best wishes from Hamilton.
I just finished this kit and it works fine. Thanks for the video. I will study it to find out how to set the time and alarms. When I do my soldering I always use a small fan to blow the smoke from the hot flux away to one side, so I don't end up breathing too much of it. I'm using 3 penlight cells to power it with about 4.5 Volts, and that seems to be quite sufficient.
The 30pf capacitors are in series with the xtal; they provide the correct load for the xtal and the necessary phase shift to make the oscillator work.
Not exactly. I was told by an engineer some years ago that those were added to ensure that the oscillator would start reliably.
Did you get invitation from Her Majesty to Buckingham Palace?
+ArrowAxe No. I've not been invited back since I took a dump in her handbag.
Yes, those horrid blue resistors that seem to be coded in varying shades of brown.
cool clock ahmed
Maybe you should have left the sticker on top of the buzzer after all.
I just put one of these together and was about to give up on figuring out how to set it when i found your video. Thank you for the help.
That's more than I was expecting, actually.
I love that lead/tin solder. It's what I learned on. By the way, here in "the land of the free" (USA), any product that contains lead based solder has to be handled as "hazardous waste" when you want to get rid of it. You see old TV sets abandoned along the road, because you can't just put them in the trash and even most thrift stores won't accept them as donations.
I saw a RUclips video where the cheapest way to dispose of them "legally" is to send them to China or third world countries. Many times they are just dumped on empty or swamp land, tossed in rivers, etc. The lead content of the soil and water is HUGE, but the few bucks that a USA "exporter" will pay goes a long way in an impoverished village.
That's why I only buy my solder from China, where I can get the lead/tin combo that works! Tried some of that leadless crap, never liked the results.
i buy a 60 tin 40 lead from the hardware store for use
You mean REAL solder!
I have never been so amazed by a video that shows how to complete such a simple kit! Keep making these videos!!!
just watching randomly through your videos and got here now.
AFAIK the capacitors at the quarzoscillator are there to help it start up oscillating.
only does not work if they are really off, but often even works without them, solely by copper line capacities...
Not sure if anyone else has said, but the caps across the crystal (calculated by C = 2CL - (CP + CI), where CP + CI can be estimated as 5pF) are the load capacitors and they cause/encourage the oscillation that makes a crystal do it's thing usefully. Wrong value caps, or no caps == no oscillation.
strangely i needed to wake up for work when he started pressing the buttons like HUH/.? WHAAA ? im up im up
I just desoldered the beeper. Silence is golden
When I first watched this, I was wondering, "Why did they bother to include a socket for the IC instead of just putting it directly on the board?"
Then I watched Clive solder the thing going right down the rows. That's when the light bulb went on, "Oh, so an inexperienced amateur won't cook the chip while soldering it in place."
I'm going to assume, Clive, that you did it this way because you knew you were just soldering the socket, not the actual chip. When my dad taught me to solder, he was adamant about that concept:
*Never* solder adjacent pins on an IC one right after another.
*Always* solder diagonally opposite pins and, even then, it's a good idea to allow a few seconds cooling time after soldering each pin. When possible, keep a finger flat against the top of the chip while you're working. If it gets too hot to keep your finger on it, it's time to stop and let it cool before proceeding.
You might consider adding a caption to your video to point this out. :)
+Greg Wolking On the rare occasion I solder a chip in directly I stagger the soldering on opposing pins and also pause mid soldering to let the chip cool down. A socket is always preferred.
+bigclivedotcom
I had figured as much, Clive, as I stated previously. It's quite clear from your videos that you really know your stuff.
Thank you, sir, for taking the time to answer my inquiry. I thoroughly enjoy your videos. In particular, I find the calm, measured, "thinking out loud" style of your narration to be a refreshing change from many other "how-to" RUclipsrs who seem to think they must become some kind of "character" telling jokes, cracking wise, getting ridiculously upset, and so on.
I have often wondered whether you plan what you intend to cover before you start recording or just go completely off-the-cuff every time. If the latter, it _sounds_ like the former, as you're very good at staying on point and not needlessly repeating yourself (AvE comes immediately to mind in that regard). You may count me as a fan, sir, and I applaud your endeavors!
When learning how to solder at college [C&G] was told not to melt the solder with iron but heat componets/ wire so that it melted the solder. the test to pass exam was to remove chips/ components and refit then it was tested to check it still worked.
Have been giving soldering workshops all day today.
And agree with everything you said . . and so should my students ;)
Can x-ray machines damage electronics, when going through customs?
They're very low energy, so they shouldn't.
Love the smell of melting solder in the morning :-)
Real solder with lead and tin.
And flux in the core, don forget the flux
A habit I've gotten into is to cut the ends off the leads of R's and C's while they're still in the endcaps, because the sticky residue would otherwise scrape off in the holes and get in the way of soldering.
Really appreciate all the good tips on soldering, very helpful indeed.
Great Video Clive Very Random But Cool Kit. Keep up the great work. Nick.
Thanks Clive, I built this yesterday but did not know how to set the time, now thanks to you its done :) :ps, my wife shouted through to me ( whats that annoying noise).. so I have de-soldered the buzzer, we are both happy now :)
Let me no how that new kit turns out for you, do you have radio shack their,they seem to have a new line of kit there,
+Ron Thompson My wife threw the circuit board away by mistake, it was in a small brown jiffy bag, she didn't look inside and thought it was rubbish :( I have had to order a new one :)
+Ron Thompson No radio shack, I use ebay only :)
'
did 2 soldering on switch 1 = 2 soldering on switch 2...
2=2...
dont need 4 soldering on switch 1= dont need 4 soldering on switch 2...
YSZ-4 C51 still good clock kit
Get a hex dump of the microcontroller's flash and dissasemble the code??? ;)
(These days, Maplin just stuff everything into an ordinary polythene bag.)
some chinese stuff is actually pretty neat, clever and reliable, but what is really crappy is software/ firmware or crappy or even no documentation at all! like mikeselectricstuff review of micsig scope... scope really neat, webpage selling it looks like someone 10yrs old made it.
High frequency crystals are terribly bad at timekeeping. That's because for them a "cut type" parameter (how the actual quartz piece was cut from a large crystal) is almost always "AT-cut", and low-frequency crystals are typically "XY-cut". This leads to far better temperature stability for low frequency (and in particular 32768 Hz) crystals, which makes them suitable for use for timekeeping purposes.
The next difference is that high frequency crystal physically is a solid quartz block, and "watch" crystal is a "tuning fork" style. This also matters.
So this clock won't be accurate, unless they've used some extra-custom crystal. :)
if you check out.....
www.icstation.com/product_document/Download/1765.pdf
....you'll find a full instruction manual in English.Hope this helps
Another fun build by Master Clive!
Question asked:
"...why use 2 little caps with the crystal"?
Answer:
You're actually building an oscillator circuit, using a crystal, some capacitors, and the internal circuitry of your microcontroller. If you don't use the caps, your clocking won't work. The values are calculated based on the properties of the crystal, as described in datasheet from Microchip "Crystal Oscillator Basics and Crystal Selection for rfPICTM and PICmicro® Devices"
ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/appnotes/00826a.pdf
...Back in the1970's...Digi-key sold stuff like this....but you had to make your own CB from the parts in the kit and it used a 3 resistor voltage divider across the120 line for low voltage power....red LEDS 7-seg...then later a kit with vac-fluor tubes....
There's an instruction manual for this kit here www.icstation.com/product_document/Download/1765.pdf
Made mine this afternoon and dropped my psu down to 2.75v and seemed to work fine. So I am using 2xAA batteries in a clear case pinched from a £1 set of LEDs. Will see how long it lasts. That buzzer though is excruciatingly loud and annoying so stuck a rubber foot over it. Bliss. Also why is there a sticker over the buzzer which says don't remove until washed? wtf?
Mr. CLIVE. Please tell me where to find good soldier. I bought 2 full rolls .8mm 60/40 flux but someone lied. I made the 4 big 7 segment clock like you did but the soulder turns gray. I've soldiered for many years but this new no-lead soldier is crap. Please help.
Clive, the cheapie IC sockets are easy to seat. Push them in, flick the opposite corner pins over, THEN solder the OPPOSITE corner pins. If it's seated correctly, then unfold or "unflick" the opposite corner pins and solder them.
It's unfortunate but I was sold some quite rare vintage sound chips embedded in what only LOOKED like dissipative foam, Without a proper static shield bag too. Most of the cheap bits I get come incorrectly packaged. If you need to build something you might come to rely upon I'd suggest other sources.
I still love cheap eBay deals though. They keep my hobbies going.
IT uses AT89s51/at89c51. as this 8051 variant has very weak pullup feature, hence it uses the shunting arrangement where the display segments are turned off by providing alternate patch thru the microcontroller.
Would it be possible to make a USB powered O-Zone generator? Would be a fun project that I could power from my computer or even the USB in my car.
Also, what are you using for your power supply? Did you make it yourself?
>Hand etched PCBS
Have you tried sending your PCBs to somewhere like Oshpark or DirtyPCBs to see what you get back? The quality for the price has been fantastic in my experience.
ebay C51 is the thing to search for. The AT89C2051 - is an 8051 clone. Dents the idea worth it for the parts, get source code, change purpose with Arduino environment etc.
I bought three of those recently in order to practice soldering. I already build one but it is not really working. The speaker emits a constant beep and the display is lit up but show no time. I am pretty sure that I followed your video exactly. Is it possible I broke something while soldering or could be a part faulty? Since I don't have a power supply I cut off one plug of an USB cable and power the clock that way. I really like to know what's the problem so I can understand what's going on since I am still a beginner in the field of electronics.
you solder basically the same as i do. i bought 3 different clock kit from various sellers and found 1 half worked, 1 did absolutely nothing and 1 worked perfectly. the one that works gain about 1 second per week. luckily it is the clck that i hoped would work, it had time date temp alarm and 60 led in a circle that showed seconds in about 20 different various. patterns. sill worked perfectly after about 1 year. the other two so-called clocks are in some fill site somewhere. :) i can turn chime on/off and can even set chime between certain hours only and not at other times.
Dear Big Clive, I have a similar clock to this and wanted to hook it up to a solar panel AND lithium ion phone battery to charge the battery during the day while running the clock, and run the clock from the battery at night etc.. Any tips? I'd imagine it would be simple enough to do?
Who needs a helping hand? Clive, that is next level soldering, holding the board and the solder in same hand....my hat is doffed to you sir.
Clive, I have just found for this kit the note "8-20 o\'clock chime can be turned off" which I assume means that unless turned off the chime operates only between 08:00 and 20:00.
Oh dear I recently took apart my old broken Commodore 64 and in the troubleshooting process I cleaned all the IC pins with sandpaper, I don't know if I got lucky but that didn't kill it with static after I swapped out the bad video chip
I bought 3 of the other clock you built. I built one, and never got it to work. Checked polarity, checked solder joints, etc. Still didn't work. Figured the controller was cooked by the static in the foam.
I got one of these kits to practice and for fun. Mine came packaged much the same but it had a broken SIL. I happily proceeded to assemble it and watch what happened when I powered it up, I was pleasently suprised to get smoke and flashes! Managed to get a full refund too...!
I got the direction in English ,I bought mine from Amazon ,they contacted the vendor ,the vendor ,gave me a web site ,so I could download ,the direction in English.good luck with it.
I hope you will do your reviews on the new kits from radio shack,they have a line of kits for 19.99 .if you haven't already done them. A lot of us buy some of our kits ,from your review or how to videos. Thanks I still trying to find more of your review ,etc.
& that is why i NEVER install those post beep speakers. I literally have a Tupperware box Full of them, from computers, and more.
could you recommend a Chinese kit for a first timer,I have the same kit you are working on,I am watching your video first,I am 64 & my friend is 74 so when I build my kit I want to get him one to something simple for old hands and old eyes,so we can do are kits together
I ordered a different clock kit and it's all surface mount components with a 0.5mm pitch microprocessor. That would make a great video.
those little buzzers that seem to be everywhere are actually very simple electromechanical bells with the metal diaphragm also switching the coil.... I took one apart to see why I couldn't get one to sing.
the two little caps set the crystal a-oscillating I think. I agree with others, nimble finger work :) I would have burned myself twenty times doing that.
I have used hundreds microcontrollers as rudely as you want and never had a single failure attributable to static. The inputs are protected. The earliest CMOS chips were not, so the lore has spread and still sticks..
Is the microcontroller an Atmega, Attiny, Pic, or picaxe microcontroller???
The film over the display is placed onto the the acrylic front clear section before the display is assembled. Any film covered surface like dvd players TV's and even new mobile phones is placed on after assembly
Hello clive enjoy your tardown vids,particularly like the way that you hold the boards and solder in one hand,no need for a helping hands clamp.
john hill I'm still trying to get that technic down too . .
Requires lots of practice though :)
LOL are those really black marks on the tops of the ceramic capacitors? How remote is the possibility that they're actually NP0 in such a cheap kit?
Interesting way of driving the segments. Maybe the MCU can not source enough current to drive the segments directly, but can sink the current to shunt them out?
Could you design some simple circuits, that we mere mortals could build, without having to buy PCB kits?
Gotta love the dodgy Chinese kits.
I have a feeling by ordering this you would be put on some government list some where but hey, what the hell huh? It's all for science.
Rule number one: Never peel the foil off a buzzer. It's deafening.
Old video,I built two fun little kit ,fyi Aliexspress has that kit for under two dollars and the have a lot of di y electronic kits way cheaper then eBay
Cool clock Clive want to bring it to the White House?!
I notice that you don't clean the PC board before you start, wouldn't it be wise to at least swab for oil using an alcohol based cleaner or even some Acetone?
good we project for £1.79 amazing all the parts plus delivery ..
I have a programmable dot matrix display but one vertical row can't do green and another row can't do any colour
Cmon Clive, add an esp8266 to it, and upgrade the code to the better version off github
How would you go about installing a backup battery on this so it will maintain the clock without running the whole device?
Maybe I should start soldering random eBay kits…
I love rising clamp terminals. They are so, so, so much more functional and easier to use.
19:00 I too hate those 'protection leaf' terminals but if they don't screw them down for transport the damn' screws fall out.
10:10 where is your tool for aligning pins for sockets and IC's LOL Sorry if i keep bugging you with my comments Clive but i have watched so many of your videos and know all the fancy tools you use.(if my comments bug you please comment to stop I will not be offended)
It was probably hiding somewhere.