That disintegrated gear was a spiral spring; you can create a new one using a 3D printer and TPU. When the motor starts in the wrong direction, the spiral spring expands, locks the engine, and gives it a kick in the right direction.

My grandparents had an electric wall clock which I discovered, at a very young age, could be made to run backwards by nudging the time adjust knob while turning the clock on - an early manifestation of technoprankery.

The motor on this clock is the same motor used on your old lamp timers, they are made by Intermatic (yes the same Intermatic that makes the timers for the signs) so if you find an old Intermatic branded (or rebranded Intermatic Lamp Timer) you can pull the guts out and get that drive cam out complete with that washer, I did that once with an old Sankyo branded flip-dial alarm clock radio from the 1970s.

Fran once again fixes what was engineered from the start to be unfixable! Bravo 👏

Ac synchronous motor clocks can start in either direction (depending on whether the mains cycle is going up or down at the instant you plug it in). Some clocks use a spring to kick it back in the right direction. This was the function of your disintegrated item under the rotor. Remenber to keep that rotor away from magnetic fields; once the magnetism fades the rotor has trouble retaining the attraction/repulsion from the fixed poles that makes these motors run.

Pursuant to not getting shavings into the works when you drill those holes; there is a trick that mechanics use when fixing stripped spark plug holes. You don't want to get chips in the cylinders. The tap that you use for the helicoils has deep flutes that you pack thick grease into. The chips stick in the grease instead of falling into the hole. You could try doing the same thing with your twist drill bit. Practice on something sacrificial at first, of course, in case it doesn't work like I expect it to.

Yes, 50% chance of starting backwards. In such case, the viscosity of the grease moves the plastic piece into the way, it stops the rotor and makes it bounce back, so it continues in the right direction.

I thought I was the only person to take apart little radios, i did it as a little girl, had no idea what i was looking at , as fran does, but found it all so intriguing and wanted to know what each part was called and did. This feels like a very long awaited answer i never thought would be answered. Thanks fran. 😎👍📻

Some old analog AC clocks could be made to run backwards by plugging/unplugging rapidly, until you noticed the second hand going backwards. Plug it in fully and some would keep running backwards...some would run backwards a few seconds, then go forwards ..

It might be a spiral spring rather than a disc. That would kick it back the right way, and if it shattered it's more likely to end up in those small pieces.

Hi Fran. You could put in a spring that could come up against the cam on the motor to kick it in the right direction. That is what synchronous clock motors have . I am sore the peice that to removed was a spiritual spring that contacted with the cam and sprung it in the other direction. You could probably 3D print it these days.

My old central heating time clock had exactly the same problem. Would start going backwards at random times. It had a ratchet that ensured you did not go back into the past (no 88 miles per hour needed!)

Oh man did I love my Lumitime clock! My parents went to Japan in 1974. They returned with a black Lumitime clock and a white ceramic insulator for my insulator collection. I loved watching that crazy flower thing bloom over and over. I can recall to this day the sights, sounds, and even smell of the Lumitime clock. At some point, it stopped working and was thrown away. I wish I still had it so I could convert it from analog to digital, so to speak.

You can tell from the comments that most watchers are helpful, engineer/geek/nerd types. ❤❤🎉🎉

fantastic video. I have one of these alarm models and it works perfectly. I also had the white one I found at goodwill and it had so many problems. I ended up making an eps32 addressable led ntp clock with it, even emulated the swirly thing.

Fran.... thanks for the most cool AF content on KZfaq.

sh*t, this video is a long one! I'll watch it later tonight when my energy is low and I need to relax.

Hi Fran, you probably already know this but it might perhaps be of interest to some of your viewers. Tamura corporation is quite famous in the Audiophile community, since they made, I believe actually still makes, very high quality output transformers, mains transformers and chokes for tube audio amplifiers. For instance they made output transformers for single ended triode amps way back in the 70ies, back when almost only the Japanese and the French audiophiles even knew what a single ended triode amp was 🙂

Not sure why but I found this extremely relaxing.

We're back to the future now - with the Schrödinger's clock! With nothing preventing it from going backwards, you really need to keep track of blackouts in FranLab... or keep it running on a UPS. (The clock is difficult to discombobulate... It fills you with determination.)

I want one after the first video, you are the reason they are now expensive haha

You might have been able to hinge the front cover opon on the unbroken seal.

Before seeing this video I used to think that a broken clock was right twice a day. But in the case of a backwards operating broken clock, the logic holds that it would be correct four times a day.

Yeah, those prices for those clocks are astronomical. I notice on Etsy a Cosmos red LED alarm clock I had for many, many, many long years & they wanted $175 for it. Mine quit probably due to a capacity gave out. The clock was plugged in back in the mid 1980's and kept running till about 2010 I think. Because of your videos I got myself a GE alarm clock radio with a vacuum fluorescent clock. I also have my mother's GE clock radio cassette player with an incandescent bulb illuminated LCD clock. I have it set to the lowest setting & that 6-volt wedge base bulb has been burning non-stop for 17 years. I have a recently acquired GE electro-mechanical flip clock with a nice bright old school neon lamp. Not your typical flip clock either with the cards. This one is kind of like the Seth Tomas flip clock with the hexagon drums, but it is a card, nonetheless. It rotates in behind to revile the other number. It's a kool clock!

Even a frozen clock is right once a day 🎉😊

The self-disintegrated part in the synchronous motor was probably made of polyurethane. A curse has been placed on polyurethane so that the soles of hiking boots, speaker foam surrounds and compressed air hoses do not stay alive for too long.

I would think you could build a circuit with a solid state relay that only turns the power on when the AC sine wave crosses from negative to positive, so the motor always starts in the correct direction. Unless it matters where the motor stopped, then the only way would be to replace the spiral spring.

oh ive seen that amber crackle before, thats rubber. REALLY old style natural rubber as far as i can tell, commonly used in certain kinds of rubber bands and as the friction component of rubber rollers, i found chunks of that stuff inside an old movie projector where it was once the rubber tire of a the transfer wheel

I had a clock with similar drive, it was made by Ingram and I couldn’t get the clock to run in the correct direction, the mechanism would reverse or chatter back and forth, there was a wafer with a tiny spring that was attached to one of the drive gears that followed th other gear, if the motor started reversing it would move the wafer toward another gear to prevent movement in the opposite direction. All of the plastic was very brittle which didn’t help matters any, when assembled the rocking back and forth could not be stopped unless I put direct pressure on the main drive gear, I am still trying to figure out what to do, I even tried putting an object between the case and the gear and that didn’t work, either. I’m considering a battery operated clock that fits in the space nicely instead of the noisy motor even if it was working properly.

Might it have been possible to open the case without cutting the sticker, using it as a hinge?

I call the price increase "the Big Clive effect" after anything the Big Clive features seems to rocket in price. Another great video Fran.

Great video. Did I mishear Fran say 'ratchet and paw' instead of 'pawl'? Edit: I can't believe a Japanese company used WIRE NUTS internally! Those things are rubbish in any capacity, but very surprised to find them inside a posh bit of consumer electronics.

Thank you for another great video!

It's a real shame that the anti-reversing device was broken. I'm sure something could be 3D printed in resin if you could find the original shape. I'll keep my eye out for another clock of the same kind.

Someday, items such as the alarm clock, will be worth $$$ to collectors. Great video Fran on how to repair the alarm clock. It is in great condition too!

Could you wire a Diode in series with the mains, so the motor initially starts in the right direction, then add a switch to short the Diode once it has started.? Assuming there is enough volts to move the motor.! Polarity would of course need to be calculated. 50/50 guess. I know it means a slight modification, but if the switch is on the back, only you would know it was there. David G1ZQC England U.K.

Make the holes with a hot pin ??

lumitime clocks ftw

We didn't get to see "Chekhov's Alarm" work. We heard the buzzer, but you never set it to go off. Also, I was having visceral reactions to you taking those gears off and on waiting for the (thankfully) never occurring explosion.

Great video! Very interesting.

Interesting problem with the motor, something I never thought about. Your other Lumitime clock probably has a motor with a similar spiral spring. You could use it as a guide to fabricate a new one for this clock.

These later Lumitime clocks are unfortunately not built as well as the earlier ones. I have yet to see a fully intact example of that plastic piece that prevents the motor from running in reverse, but perhaps there is one out there.

Your audio balance has been slightly off for at least this and your previous video, with the left channel ~5% louder than the right.

My god that looked fiddly

49:30 There is a practical reason for the smoked sometimes red lens on a display like this. I'm sure someone can comment with details and the name for it. It has something to do with light reflecting off the lens competing with the transmitted light from the display. Putting it behind the darker lens somehow lets you read the display beyond the room brightness when the unmasked display would wash out otherwise. Something about making the transmitted light brighter than normally used then darkening it with a smoked lens. Someone with the rules or theory can comment here if they want.

How you know to do all this fixing

I stop by to learn things. I’m a lurker learner. Thanks, Fran, from San Fran-cisco 😊!

I'm glad you kept that intro Fran. Hard to beat. Says it all.

The other lumitime clock is better just because it's so beautifully simple. Id love to take one and bolt an acrylic front on it so my kid can stare at the insides.

To save myself from completely disassembling everything, I would have melted little holes into the plastic to spray in some contact cleaner to the encoder wheels. EDIT: Oh, so you did almost that. I would have melted it instead to prevent creating any debris.

I love these mechanisms. 😍 I'd like to collect some of them. ❤ Everyone must acknowledge that the designers of these devices deserve recognition. 👍

You could have a look inside the motor of your other clock since that one is easier to get apart - at least you'd know what shape that starter thingy was then, and you _may_ be able to recreate/simulate it with a diy part ?? Lot of work I know, but discovery is what you enjoy Fran ...

That crud looks like dried lubricant.

Congratulations, Fran. You are now an influencer.😊

Yeah Bin-a View

my old microwave does the same thing, sometimes the turntable goes clockwise, sometimes counter clockwise..oh well, even a broken clock is right twice a day..

At one point during this video I said to myself "This is a cool clock, I should get one." Then I realized that I'm already wearing a mechanical wristwatch which is also a deeply unnecessarily complicated time keeping device and said to myself "Nah, I'm good."

I'm subbed to your channel but have not received notifications in my feed about all your videos. Your videos are also not suggested anymore.

Bad design, too many plastic living hinges and springs, even if the motor were good.

i would recommend that noone purchase one of these for more than 50$. don't give scalpers money.