[time-nuts] UltrAtomic - Analog Wall Clock

[Dan Kemppainen]

Hi,

Has anyone else here had trouble with any of the LaCrosse UltrAtomic 
clocks?

I personally purchased one new around early 2017 it worked well until 
early this summer. At that point it suffered a mechanical failure where 
the minute hand would just swing around the 6 'o clock mark. 
Occasionally the gears would hit, and the hand would swing to and fro a 
bit. (Yes, we did replace batteries as a test). So, we ordered another 
one, and replaced it.

  When I pulled the clock down from the wall, there was a lot of white 
'plastic' dust everywhere between the glass and clock face. Looks like 
these are prone to wearing out quickly. Unfortunately the wife threw out 
the dead one without me knowing, so no serous diagnostic surgery was 
performed.


Then the clock we bought for work had the second hand quit. We tried a 
set of batteries in this one also, which did not help. (Eco mode was 
off). This one died a month out of warranty.

I took that one home and did some digging. It appears the ID of the 
pinion with the magnets (Part of stepper motor mechanism) is wearing. 
It's brown plastic part, and there is a lot of brown plastic dust on the 
fixed pin it rides on.

In an effort to rejuvenate that clock, some cleaning was done, and small 
bit of light oil was applied to the pinion shaft. (I did note, that one 
of the other pinion/wheel shafts came from the factory with a bit of 
oil). The second hand did start to move again after this cleaning and 
lubrication.

I've played with the supply voltage on that clock, and as long as 
everything is above 3.0V it seems to operate correctly. Below that it 
will sporadically miss steps, and eventually do it's automatic setting 
routine. (Maybe drag from the oil applied, or drag from wear, etc...)

Just curious if anyone else has noticed issues with these.

Thanks,
Dan