Casio Wave Captor radio controlled watch, WR50M

N

N_Cook

Guest
Every now and then resets to some sort of default, 01 01 2005 data and
Tokyo radio system , so never resets to local time codes.
Have to then reset it manually.
No problem suggesting a low battery or any other timekeeping problem.
I've tried holding down various buttons to check if its due to bad
switch contacts but never induces this default.
 
There will be a memory-keeping capacitor in there somewhere that is going either faulty (age) or intermittent (cold solder). Either way, replacing it will fix it.

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA
 
On 24/02/2018 13:25, pfjw@aol.com wrote:
There will be a memory-keeping capacitor in there somewhere that is going either faulty (age) or intermittent (cold solder). Either way, replacing it will fix it.

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA
Click to expand...

I'll bear that in mind, if I have to go inside.
At the moment I'll go with the business about button-D
on this thread
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:gk35QWiIPaEJ:http://www.fixya.com/support/t2294665-reset_itslelf_will_not_display_correct%2BCasio+Wave+Ceptor+radio+controlled+watch,+WR50M,+resets+to+2005+tokyo+default&hl=en-GB&gbv=1&ct=clnk

I'll snap back a sewing-pin , after pushing it into the D button to
wedge it out, and swathe in a dot of hotmelt glue.
Resetting the thing , before doing so , of course
 
On 24/02/2018 13:37, N_Cook wrote:
On 24/02/2018 13:25, pfjw@aol.com wrote:
There will be a memory-keeping capacitor in there somewhere that is
going either faulty (age) or intermittent (cold solder). Either way,
replacing it will fix it.

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA


I'll bear that in mind, if I have to go inside.
At the moment I'll go with the business about button-D
on this thread
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:gk35QWiIPaEJ:http://www.fixya.com/support/t2294665-reset_itslelf_will_not_display_correct%2BCasio+Wave+Ceptor+radio+controlled+watch,+WR50M,+resets+to+2005+tokyo+default&hl=en-GB&gbv=1&ct=clnk


I'll snap back a sewing-pin , after pushing it into the D button to
wedge it out, and swathe in a dot of hotmelt glue.
Resetting the thing , before doing so , of course
Click to expand...

Soldering iron against a sewing needle , bending while melting into the
button to force outwards, then a dot of hotmelt over, old-endsnippered
the excess.
Stayed proper time for 2 hours now, whether it stays un-reset for the
next week, the longest otherwise, we'll see.
 
On 24/02/2018 15:37, N_Cook wrote:
On 24/02/2018 13:37, N_Cook wrote:
On 24/02/2018 13:25, pfjw@aol.com wrote:
There will be a memory-keeping capacitor in there somewhere that is
going either faulty (age) or intermittent (cold solder). Either way,
replacing it will fix it.

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA


I'll bear that in mind, if I have to go inside.
At the moment I'll go with the business about button-D
on this thread
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:gk35QWiIPaEJ:http://www.fixya.com/support/t2294665-reset_itslelf_will_not_display_correct%2BCasio+Wave+Ceptor+radio+controlled+watch,+WR50M,+resets+to+2005+tokyo+default&hl=en-GB&gbv=1&ct=clnk



I'll snap back a sewing-pin , after pushing it into the D button to
wedge it out, and swathe in a dot of hotmelt glue.
Resetting the thing , before doing so , of course

Soldering iron against a sewing needle , bending while melting into the
button to force outwards, then a dot of hotmelt over, old-endsnippered
the excess.
Stayed proper time for 2 hours now, whether it stays un-reset for the
next week, the longest otherwise, we'll see.
Click to expand...

It reset during the cold of the night, I'll wedge open the otther 3
buttons, JIC, then get inside 'when' it resets again.
 
"N_Cook" <diverse@tcp.co.uk> wrote in message
news:p6rppq$tgf$1@dont-email.me...
On 24/02/2018 13:25, pfjw@aol.com wrote:
There will be a memory-keeping capacitor in there somewhere that is going
either faulty (age) or intermittent (cold solder). Either way, replacing
it will fix it.

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA


I'll bear that in mind, if I have to go inside.
Click to expand...

So how old is the battery you haven't gone inside to replace?

There's a reset in there by shorting 2 test points - you usually have to do
that after replacing the battery.

Can't hurt to try that, and its a good excuse to put a new battery in
anyway.

Lithium coin cell shelf life is somewhere in the direction of 10yrs, but
mine uses the oddball CR1620, so who knows how long its been hanging on the
display rack.
 
On 26/02/2018 21:26, Ian Field wrote:
"N_Cook" <diverse@tcp.co.uk> wrote in message
news:p6rppq$tgf$1@dont-email.me...
On 24/02/2018 13:25, pfjw@aol.com wrote:
There will be a memory-keeping capacitor in there somewhere that is
going either faulty (age) or intermittent (cold solder). Either way,
replacing it will fix it.

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA


I'll bear that in mind, if I have to go inside.

So how old is the battery you haven't gone inside to replace?

There's a reset in there by shorting 2 test points - you usually have to
do that after replacing the battery.

Can't hurt to try that, and its a good excuse to put a new battery in
anyway.

Lithium coin cell shelf life is somewhere in the direction of 10yrs, but
mine uses the oddball CR1620, so who knows how long its been hanging on
the display rack.
Click to expand...

I'll probably go in there later this week.
At the moment I'm checking it runs normal non-radio control for a few
days. Set it to London time yesterday, and did not engage RC!, at some
point it decided to move its time zone to New York time so 5 hours
behind. Pressing button C, brought it back to UK time, currently still
the "normal" slightly wavering correct UK time having passed thr a very
cold night
 
On 27/02/2018 08:26, N_Cook wrote:
On 26/02/2018 21:26, Ian Field wrote:


"N_Cook" <diverse@tcp.co.uk> wrote in message
news:p6rppq$tgf$1@dont-email.me...
On 24/02/2018 13:25, pfjw@aol.com wrote:
There will be a memory-keeping capacitor in there somewhere that is
going either faulty (age) or intermittent (cold solder). Either way,
replacing it will fix it.

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA


I'll bear that in mind, if I have to go inside.

So how old is the battery you haven't gone inside to replace?

There's a reset in there by shorting 2 test points - you usually have to
do that after replacing the battery.

Can't hurt to try that, and its a good excuse to put a new battery in
anyway.

Lithium coin cell shelf life is somewhere in the direction of 10yrs, but
mine uses the oddball CR1620, so who knows how long its been hanging on
the display rack.

I'll probably go in there later this week.
At the moment I'm checking it runs normal non-radio control for a few
days. Set it to London time yesterday, and did not engage RC!, at some
point it decided to move its time zone to New York time so 5 hours
behind. Pressing button C, brought it back to UK time, currently still
the "normal" slightly wavering correct UK time having passed thr a very
cold night
Click to expand...

Looks like I won't go inside this week. It decided of its own accord to
engage radio control and has run fine since, including very cold nights.
I decided to grind back all 4 plastic knobs, so a fingernail is required
to operate, and as hollow buttons , some hotmelt in there to stop dirst
entry. Why this watch and most of the cameras I've owned plus a
"Dremmel" without a shroud around the mains switch (serious safety issue
there). A crazy business having to recess switches and shroud switches
on handled and transportable mainstream products.
I'll give it anothe rweek , on probation
 
Still doing proper radio-controlled timing, without any intrusion from
me, despite some of the coldest days for some years.
 
On 05/03/2018 07:51, N_Cook wrote:
Still doing proper radio-controlled timing, without any intrusion from
me, despite some of the coldest days for some years.
Click to expand...

Change of title, just noticed its Wave Ceptor
 
On 05/03/2018 08:35, N_Cook wrote:
On 05/03/2018 07:51, N_Cook wrote:
Still doing proper radio-controlled timing, without any intrusion from
me, despite some of the coldest days for some years.




Change of title, just noticed its Wave Ceptor
Click to expand...

It reset to 2005 yesterday, so I went inside.
Removed battery and delved deeper.
Safely got to both sides of the pcb , one SMD had about 200mV on it with
no battery supply. Have to find more technical info on all this
 
I could not find any pics of the internals of these watches, so pic here

http://diverse.4mg.com/casio_wr50m_r.jpg

The wire to the antenna broke , handling the pcb for this pic and
self-weight of the small coil, not before, but it is obviously a week
point at the solder points if subjected to a lot of vibration.
For the moment I'll clean battery and contacts and reaasemble to check
that I can and run for a while, until date 2005 returns presumably, and
hopefully find out more info on the internals.
The yellow caret marks a SMD with 200mV on it 20 minutes after removing
the button cell, 3.06V open cct voltage.
Seems 3 crystals relate to the radio blob and 1 for the watch. Red is my
mark for +ve so I can solder a pair of wires to convenient spot , to
power from 3V to monitor some DC levels at least, next time of playing
with it that is.
Beware of the tiny phosphor-bronze spring dropping out, on disassembly
of the 2-part plastic sub-frame, it connects to the piezo sounder.
Battery contact simply slides to release battery. A number of tangs need
prizing back with a needle to release the metal screen and 4 spring
tangs for the button returns.
 
Reassembled resoldering antenna wire and a small spot of hotmelt glue
"strain relief", deliberately leaving out the piezo contact.
Watch returned to non-rc function but button A spring must have been
misplaced and no function. Could reasign London instead of Tokyo and
left in timesetting mode , with flashing seconds.
It later dropped into normal timekeeping mode and could then select RC!
, we'll see if full function returns and then go back inside with more
confidence, to take voltages and play with SM or whatever.
 
Survived a week, with no 2005 reset , no loss of LCD segment or anything
other than the manageable loss of button-A. The only change was cleaning
battery contacts and of course electronic repairman's conundrum - close
handling of the pcb, upsetting a bad solder-joint etc interpretted as
whatever else done at the time,interpreted asa repair..
 
On 3/17/18 4:01 AM, N_Cook wrote:
Survived a week, with no 2005 reset , no loss of LCD segment or anything
other than the manageable loss of button-A. The only change was cleaning
battery contacts and of course electronic repairman's conundrum - close
handling of the pcb, upsetting a bad solder-joint etc interpreted as
whatever else done at the time,interpreted as a  repair..
Click to expand...

So, how much did this piece of crap cost new?
And how many hours did you waste "fixing" it?


--
"I am a river to my people."
Jeff-1.0
WA6FWi
http:foxsmercantile.com
 
On 17/03/2018 14:05, Pat wrote:
On Sat, 17 Mar 2018 07:52:21 -0500, Fox's Mercantile <jdangus@att.net
wrote:

On 3/17/18 4:01 AM, N_Cook wrote:
Survived a week, with no 2005 reset , no loss of LCD segment or anything
other than the manageable loss of button-A. The only change was cleaning
battery contacts and of course electronic repairman's conundrum - close
handling of the pcb, upsetting a bad solder-joint etc interpreted as
whatever else done at the time,interpreted as a repair..



So, how much did this piece of crap cost new?
And how many hours did you waste "fixing" it?

Get up on the wrong side of the bed? I sometimes fix things because I
learn how they work by doing so. In this case, I also own a Casio
Wave Ceptor watch and really like it. It works well so I have never
opened it. However, I learned a lot from the OP fixing his. Thank you
to N_Cook for posting. So what if he could have purchased a new one
based on what you might charge for a few hours of repair time.
Click to expand...

Half the art of repair is being able to take something apart and then be
able to put it back together again. So successfully half way to
repairing this thing.
 
On Sat, 17 Mar 2018 07:52:21 -0500, Fox's Mercantile <jdangus@att.net>
wrote:

On 3/17/18 4:01 AM, N_Cook wrote:
Survived a week, with no 2005 reset , no loss of LCD segment or anything
other than the manageable loss of button-A. The only change was cleaning
battery contacts and of course electronic repairman's conundrum - close
handling of the pcb, upsetting a bad solder-joint etc interpreted as
whatever else done at the time,interpreted as a  repair..



So, how much did this piece of crap cost new?
And how many hours did you waste "fixing" it?
Click to expand...

Get up on the wrong side of the bed? I sometimes fix things because I
learn how they work by doing so. In this case, I also own a Casio
Wave Ceptor watch and really like it. It works well so I have never
opened it. However, I learned a lot from the OP fixing his. Thank you
to N_Cook for posting. So what if he could have purchased a new one
based on what you might charge for a few hours of repair time.
 
2 weeks on and no problem, passed through to daylight saving time
automatically yesterday. So perhaps cleaning battery contact points, and
bending contact metal is all that was wrong. Otherwise leaving out the
piezo spring contact-unlikely or close-handling , the big unknown
 
"N_Cook" <diverse@tcp.co.uk> wrote in message
news:p9a7jq$k4l$1@dont-email.me...
2 weeks on and no problem, passed through to daylight saving time
automatically yesterday. So perhaps cleaning battery contact points, and
bending contact metal is all that was wrong. Otherwise leaving out the
piezo spring contact-unlikely or close-handling , the big unknown
Click to expand...

On very cheap alarm watches - a cracked piezo is enough mismatch to drag the
supply down and confuse timekeeping.
 
"Fox's Mercantile" <jdangus@att.net> wrote in message
news:Av2dnfJJ_9_ikjDHnZ2dnUU7-WHNnZ2d@giganews.com...
On 3/17/18 4:01 AM, N_Cook wrote:
Survived a week, with no 2005 reset , no loss of LCD segment or anything
other than the manageable loss of button-A. The only change was cleaning
battery contacts and of course electronic repairman's conundrum - close
handling of the pcb, upsetting a bad solder-joint etc interpreted as
whatever else done at the time,interpreted as a repair..



So, how much did this piece of crap cost new?
And how many hours did you waste "fixing" it?
Click to expand...

The one i bought was ÂŁ60 - ÂŁ80 by the time I opted for the SS bracelet.

Last I saw advertised was somewhere around ÂŁ140.

One of the discount stores did a very basic radio controlled watch for ÂŁ15.
The waveceptor let go of its bracelet mount after at least a decade use,
I've gone through a couple of dumpster diver's watches before unpacking the
cheapie.

There's a growing collection of watches in a drawer - sometimes
circumstances align to make one of them a simple repair.
 
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