[time-nuts] Odetics 425 getting truly flaky...

[Bruce Lane]

Fellow time-techs,

	Nothing lasts forever, and my faithful Odetics 425 is doing its best to
demonstrate that fact. Before I put "Fix or Replace the thing" on my
project list for the new year, I thought I'd check to see if any other
owners of the beasties have run into the symptoms I'm getting.

	Specifically: The unit will go from TIME LOCKED and TFOM=4 to TIME
COASTING and TFOM=5, pretty much at random.

	What I've done: Reseat every IC the thing has, replaced a couple of
interconnect cable DIP sockets with hi-rel machine-pin style (they were
cheapie single-leaf before), and done a manual recalibration of the
oscillator.

	I know for a fact that the single-leaf IC sockets are a huge source of
problems in older gear. My next step would be, I'm thinking, to replace
every single IC socket with a high-rel part (that's a LOT of
desoldering!)

	So -- Any thoughts before I start ordering new chip sockets? ;-)

	Thanks.
Bruce Lane, Owner & Head Hardware Heavy,
Blue Feather Technologies (http://www.bluefeathertech.com)
Assoc. member, AZA & AAZK for many moons.
"Salvadore Dali's computer has surreal ports..."