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Heuer Quartz running fast


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8 hours ago, LittleWatchShop said:

Clearly my rotor theory was wrong, but was the circuit problem related to the crystal or IC.  We will never know.

I learned myself, quartz watches can and do get bad, as in running slow. Have got another one to repair from the local jeweler. Unlike this case its just a matter of replacing the module, which most of the time is cheap, but not always. Even replacing the circuit board is better than fiddling with refitting the rotor and some four pivots under a same tiny plate. If you haven't tried that yet you should, is a lot of fun. 

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Would have been fun to do some failure analysis on the board that was removed...alas...

There are cheap micro oscillopes with a tiny color display and all, may be they can be used on a quartz module, I don't know. Or there is a Witschi analyzer which does all, shows the pulse waveform without even opening the watch, only cost like an arm.

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Hi all,

I do still have the original 963.116 suspect circuit board and coil assembly.

I have installed the suspect assembly on the donor 963.114 movement and the fault moves with the circuit board/coil assembly. I can reproduce the jumping/fast second hand issue on the 963.114 movement.

So I think we can assume that's where the issue lies rather than with the rotor or any other mechanical part. I can't help much with the question of the crystal or the IC. But my PicoScope traces from 3rd Feb did suggest that the frequency was unchanged when the fault was present, but the output voltage was reduced on the positive pulse. So I would assume the driver part of the IC is the likely cause.

Regards, Kim

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27 minutes ago, LittleWatchShop said:

no clear winner between

you're not paying attention I keep hinting something? What if you had a few of these watches to play with you could test your theories? By what really happens if the rotor loses a sizable part of its magnetism or what if?

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5 minutes ago, JohnR725 said:

you're not paying attention I keep hinting something

No, I hear that, and it is a good experiment to perform.  The reason there is no clear winner is that I said it was not the crystal and I think you said it was--I win.  I said it was the rotor and I think you said it was not--I lose. 

At the end of the day...I still feel like you had the edge because on mechanical issues (electro-mechanical), you were the "more" correct.  This is a watch forum after all.

So...there is a beer in your future.  But it will not come without some quid pro quo...I will insist on seeing your library of watch data!

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42 minutes ago, LittleWatchShop said:

I will insist on seeing your library of watch data!

somewhere in this group I did post a picture of my horological books problem is you get back so far to see them all. Then there's the datasheets there scattered all over the place and a sizable quantity of PDFs lurking in the computer.

43 minutes ago, LittleWatchShop said:

good experiment to perform.

in order to do a good experiment which is what you want to do you need the watch movements? I keep hoping that you would say yes I would love to do my experiments but I don't have any movements? Then I would say something along the lines of oh dear let's see what we can do to fix that problem?

No notice why up with the very top of the discussion I even asked where the original posting person was? That's because I hate sending thing is out of the country so much easier after in the country.

The other advantage I had with this particular movement is I've seen it before more than once and I may conceivably have one or two lurking around the house someplace I would just have to go find them.

 

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