Best Clock?

Jay Honeck wrote:
I have that in my Aircoupe. The LCD display is splotchy, the buttons
are unreliable, a real piece of junk. It has less functions than a
$10 Westbend timer and costs 10 times as much.

That's odd. The one in my Warrior was beautiful, easy to read, and the
buttons worked really well.

Don't tell me, it was the most "bullet proof", "well designed" clock to
have ever been built. Just kidding...

I think the clock that is most complained about on the group (over the
past 10 years, atleast) is the AstroTech LC2. I don't think the Davtron
is as problematic. That said, I've had the Astrotech for atleast 8 or 9
years and it's been OK. I think if I used it in IFR a lot, the buttons
may not hold up, but when I was flying IFR I used a stop watch.

I think I might have 2 or 3 of the Wackman wind-up clocks in my parts
drawers. If I were you, however, I'd probably go with one of the low
priced digitals from either AstroTech or Davtron.

--- Jay


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Jay and Teresa Masino ___(_)___
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Jay Masino wrote:
I think the clock that is most complained about on the group (over the
past 10 years, atleast) is the AstroTech LC2. I don't think the Davtron
is as problematic. That said, I've had the Astrotech for atleast 8 or 9
years and it's been OK.

My airplane had one of these when I bought it. The buttons worked
intermittently, and the display was weak and would fade away if the humidity was
high. Occasionally the oscillator would stop and the date/time would fall
behind by several days. Replacing the battery didn't help. I thought I'd junk
it, but decided to try and fix it first.

Originally, it ran off a single AAA battery (1.5v) I tried adding a second AAA
in series... Wow! The increased voltage (3v) totally transformed the thing.
The display was now crisp and sharp, it now kept good time, and the buttons now
worked reliably.

I think if I used it in IFR a lot, the buttons
may not hold up, but when I was flying IFR I used a stop watch.

I used mine a lot in IFR. The buttons themselves never had a problem, but I
ended up pushing the "start" button firmly so many times that the plastic
frontpiece finally cracked around a panel mount nut, so that the clock was only
held in the panel by one screw (the panel cutout was only drilled with two
mounting holes.) I replaced the nut and added a washer to distribute the
"button-pushing" stresses better; no problems since.

I probably wouldn't buy another, but if anyone has an Astro-tech clock with
problems (and doesn't mind some soldering and a bit of mechanical engineering),
adding a second battery helps.

Mark/C182L

In article ,
Mark Mallory wrote:

Originally, it ran off a single AAA battery (1.5v) I tried adding a second AAA
in series... Wow! The increased voltage (3v) totally transformed the thing.
The display was now crisp and sharp, it now kept good time, and the buttons now
worked reliably.

Maybe it was designed to run off of a ~3.2V lithium cell?

--
Ben Jackson

http://www.ben.com/