KABTRONICS World Clock Product guide

World Clock
Operating and
Assembly Manual

KABTRONICS
World Clock Kit Page 2
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................3
UNPACKING/PARTS LIST ..................................................................................4
SOLDERING ........................................................................................................5
ASSEMBLY INSTRUCTIONS – DISPLAY SLICE ...............................................7
ASSEMBLY INSTRUCTIONS – CONTROLLER SLICE....................................13
OPERATING THE WORLD CLOCK ..................................................................18
PARTS IDENTIFICATION ..................................................................................23
THEORY OF OPERATION.................................................................................29
IN CASE OF DIFFICULTY .................................................................................30
SPECIFICATIONS..............................................................................................31
CIRCUIT BOARD VIEWS...................................................................................32
SCHEMATIC ......................................................................................................33
Copyright © May 9 2010 by KABtronics
Document version 1.01 for use with PC board version 2

KABTRONICS
UNPACKING/PARTS LIST
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Introduction
This is a kit to build a clock displaying time for multiple locations.
This clock is made of slices, one controller slice, and multiple display slices.
This manual first guides the assembly of the slices, followed by operating the clock. There is a
section describing the parts if you are unfamiliar with electronic parts, and a section describing the
underlying design of the clock.
You need to make 670 good solder joints to complete a display slice and 719 for the
controller slice.

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UNPACKING/PARTS LIST
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Unpacking/Parts List
Gently unpack the contents of the box. You should find one display pack for each display,
and one controller pack if you are building a controller.

KABTRONICS SOLDERING
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Soldering
This manual can’t teach the art of soldering, but here are the basics. Remember, you need to
make over 670 GOOD solder joints for each slice; each bad joint will be an adventure in
troubleshooting.
Wet the tip of the iron with a bit of solder and wipe off the excess solder on the wet sponge
occasionally, or when you notice the joint is not heating properly. The small amount of solder left
on the tip helps conduct heat to the lead and the pad.
Insert the component leads and press the component flat against the PC Board. Slightly spread
the leads to hold it in place when you flip the board over to expose the back side with the
component lead facing up.
•Make good contact between the iron, the lead, and the pad on the board so the lead and
the pad both heat up enough to melt the solder.
•It should take from 0.5 to 1 second for the joint to become hot enough to melt the
solder.
•Don’t overheat the joint, as soon as the solder melts and wicks into the joint remove the
iron and hold still for a few seconds until the joint freezes.

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A good solder joint will form a shiny curved surface bonding the lead and the pad on the PC
board. If the lead wasn’t heated enough to melt the solder, the solder will wick in to the pad, but
will not adhere to the lead. You may notice a dark line around the lead where the solder dives
down through the hole.
A similar bad joint forms when the pad wasn’t heated enough to melt the solder. A cold solder
joint can often be fixed by reheating the joint; sometime a little more solder will be needed.
More detailed instructions can be found on the internet with a little searching on the topic of
soldering.
After inspecting the solder joint, clip off the excess lead using the diagonal cutter. Cut at the top
of the solder joint; don’t dig into the solder joint.
Unsoldering
A supply of de-soldering braid is supplied with the kit. If you find the need to remove a
component, use the de-solder braid by pulling out a few inches and pressing the braid against the
lead and the pad using the iron. You will see the solder melt and spread into the wick leaving very
little solder left in the pad.
Sometimes it helps to clip the lead off the component so you can deal with each lead separately.
Optional Clean-up
The clear sticky rosin left around the solder site can be cleaned up with alcohol and a toothbrush,
but be sure to let the board dry before expecting the board to operate properly. You won’t hurt
the circuit by powering it up, but it won’t count right until the board has completely dried. Water
soluble rosin-cored solder is available at hobby stores. As for me, I don’t bother to clean up the
board unless the counters are not working right, then I clean off the rosin.

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Assembly Instructions – Display Slice
You will need the following tools to build your clock.
•Soldering Iron meant for electrical work
•Small Diagonal Wire Cutter
Instructions for building a display slice are first. The additional instructions for building the
controller slice follow.
One side of the PC board has white paint markings, shapes, and reference designators. That
marked side is the component side, upon which all the components will be placed.
( ) Load the four 22K and four 33K resistors located
on the lower edge of the board. Push the part flush
onto the board, spread the leads slightly and solder.

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Clip the leads off just above the solder joint; don’t dig into the solder joint. Soldering and clipping
won’t be mentioned again, you need to do it for each part as you load it.
( ) load the diode into the space marked D1, be sure to line up the white line on the diode with
the white line on the board.
( ) load the eight 24 pin SAA1064 ICs. The notch on IC should match the notch on the board.
( ) load the 18 pin socket at location U1, match the mark on the board with the mark on the
socket.

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The capacitor locations are indicated by symbols shown in the table.
( ) load the eight 0.0027 capacitors
( ) load the ten 0.22 capacitors
Don’t load the 10uF capacitors yet, they are loaded after the displays.
The four 7 digit displays have two decimal points, these decimal points can be used to orient the
display; the decimal points go towards the bottom.
Hold the display flat against the board as you solder. These displays are very sensitive to
overheating so be quick about soldering these pins.

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( ) load the two red LEDs between the displays as shown above.
The shorter lead goes in the hole near the flat part of the outline, closer to the bottom edge. Try
to have the top of the LED even with the height of the display.
( ) load the 14 alphanumeric displays one at a time. These also have a decimal point that should
go toward the lower edge. Push these against the board while you solder the leads, and be careful
again about over heating the leads.
( ) load the 16 transistors as shown below.

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( ) load the two 10uF capacitors. They may have a small + sign near the + lead, or they may be
marked with a line as below.
+lead

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Load the two connectors as shown below. Seat them flush against the board and level so they will
connect with adjacent boards. It is easy to get them slanted when you flip the board over and
solder, so be careful.
If you are building a display board, seat the 18 pin PIC16F648 IC carefully into the IC socket with
pin 1 up.
Your display board is done and ready to use.
Once you have all the display boards and the controller board built, read the configuration section
to set up the clock.

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Assembly Instructions – Controller Slice
A controller slice is made by adding a few parts to a display slice.
( ) load the DS32KHZ TCXO, the black block goes into the 14 pin IC labeled U2. It is missing
pins 2 and 3, don’t let that confuse you. Have the dot towards the notch on the left.
( ) load the 8 pin IC socket, and have the notch match the silk screen outline.
( ) load the 1K, 10K and 150 ohm resistors in the
locations marked as shown on the left.

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( ) load the two diodes into the locations marked
( ) load the 1 Farad capacitor as shown below, note the top strap goes to the right.
( ) load the switches one at a time, trying to keep them straight, you can see the middle switch above
is a bit crooked, try to do better.
You have an option for the power jack, you can load it on any of the boards. The only reason to
consider loading it on a display board other than the controller board is to avoid having the power
cord adjacent to the upper switch. It really isn’t a big deal; in normal operation you won’t be
pressing the buttons very often, perhaps only every few years. If you want to stay simple, just
load it on the controller board.
( ) load the power jack. Fill the holes in the board with solder for strength as shown below.

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( ) load the 8 pin EEPROM 25LC1024 into the 8 pin socket, matching the pin 1 markings.
( ) load the 18 pin controller PIC16F648A int the 18 pin socket, matching the pin 1 markings.
The controller slice is done and ready to test.
Tests
The controller slice can be tested after building and before configuration, power it up and use the
menu buttons to advance to test. There are two tests, a segment test and an addressing test.
After configuring the clock and adding the jumpers, you can rerun the tests on all the displays.
Cases and mounting
The boards can be mounted on a plaque in full view, or in shadow boxes or picture frames
behind glass or colored acrylic. Acrylic can be found at plastic supply stores.
Board locations
A clock must have one and only one controller slice and up to five display slices. The controller
slice can be in any position; on the top of the stack, on the bottom, or in the midst of the boards.
The boards will auto number themselves at power–up starting with the board below the
controller and continuing down where it wraps around to the top board, and stops at the
controller board.
This auto-enumerate process can be watched by the address displayed at power-up. The inter-
board signal needs to be configured using a pair of jumpers as described below.
Larger clocks
Clocks with more than 6 boards will require a larger power supply. Each board draws about 2/3
Amp which is 4 amps for 6 boards. The power is sent through the connectors using 4 pins for
each rail: ground and +5. Each pin is rated at 3 amps per pin so that is a limit of 36 total boards.
There may be a timing limit during the board enumeration, if you have problems feel free to email
for code modification to support large clocks.
My 6 slice version will reset if I turn on the selftest because it draws a bit over 6 amps with all the
test displays lit. The slices can be tested with smaller clock configurations. In normal operation
many characters on the display slices are blank, lowering the current draw below 6 amps and
allowing reliable operation.

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Data jumpers
The slices communicate using serial signal that needs to loop back to the controller slice. Each
slice sends data down to the next board. Both the lowest board and the highest board need a
jumper to send the signal around the chain and back to the controller.
The example below has the controller in the second position, but it can be in any position. The
top board and the bottom boards whether controller or display slice, need the jumper described
below.

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Solder a small wire into the upper jumper location of the top slice, and a wire jumper into the
lower jumper location of the bottom slice.

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Operating the World Clock
In order to set up and operate this clock, one needs to understand the concepts and information
structure of this clock.
The data in the storage block persists through power outages; it is permanent until written over by
a menu action.

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Setting the clock.
This clock consists of one controller board and additional optional display slices.
The controller clock keeps the current time as Universal Time Coordinated (UTC, Greenwich
time) and all display boards (and the controller display) translate that UTC to local times. Each
display slice and the display part of the controller slice hold their own Location-Data translating
UTC to local time.
The controller clock has three push buttons allowing one to set all aspects of the clock, from
locations, current time, UTC offsets, daylight savings periods, and display formats. Each display
has 10 settings, call as a group Location-Data;
•Location name
•Format: 12 or 24 hour
•Offset Hours from UTC
•Offset Minutes from UTC
•Daylight Savings Start Month
•Daylight Savings Start Day
•Daylight Savings End Month
•Daylight Savings End Day
•Daylight Savings UTC offset Hours
•Daylight Savings UTC offset Minutes
In addition to the above, the controller slice allows setting of;
•Current Year
•Current Month
•Current Day
•Current Hour (UTC, Greenwich time)
•Current Minute (UTC, Greenwich time)
The controller slice also has these functions available;
•Test displays
•Preset all data to factory values
•Load Location-Data from storage
•Save Location-Data to storage
•Transfer Location-Data from controller to a Display
•Transfer Location-Data from a Display to controller
Location-Data
Time Keeping Data

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The controller top level menu is shown below. The ‘+’ key, minus ‘-’ key and Mode key are used
to navigate and operate the menu.