Why are clock radios such a dog?

[F5 Dave]

ok apart from the usual don't want to get up part;

Well I'm getting pissed off at me alarm clocks radios. Yes more than one. Both my old one & the wife's had started gaining time, like a min a day which is pretty rank. OK so they're old & the crystals will have aged.

So out we goes & buys some new ones, both Zip of diff models. Problem is they are bright green LED displays & it lights up the room like an alien spacecraft landing (don't even start me up on those)

So I dig in & try & turn them down by adding in some resistors to the LED feeds. I get it so you can't read them in daylight but they are still like search lights. Oh & both of them gain time like crazy. Sheesh!

I bought a Philips big screen on as it had a dimmer button. Looked fine in shop, too damn bright, same with more adjusting. Green LEDs just seem too bright, old Red displays cast less illumination.

Is it too much to ask for a alarm that keeps ok time & doesn’t light up too much?

Is there a decent one on the market?

[Finn]

Live in the now man and use your mobile like the rest of us.

[pzkpfw]

I think the young folk all use their wireless telephones.

[Slyer]

http://www.burbia.com/node/2366
My thoughts exactly ^^

My clock radio barely makes any light though, it's great.

[Trudes]

Nige won a flash one bro!! You can go to sleep with soothing music or the sound of waves or rain and it'll wake you up with whatever you like too... even what's on your ipod!! It has three brightness settings, bright, dull, or no backlight which is what I use. It's a Phillips one and has an ipod docking thing on it..... pumps out the sounds too I must say for a teeny tiny little thing!!!

[vifferman]

I had the same problem with the last alarm clock I bought, about 8 or 9 years ago. The display was super bright, so after toying with taking it apart and adding a dimmer with a light sensor, I decided it was too hard and just stuck a piece of dark coloured blue-green glass over the top of it.
Don't have problems with inaccuracy though - seems fine.

[Beemer]

You're not alone - we had huge trouble finding one last year when one of ours started buzzing/humming all the time and it was loud enough to be annoying! We got one that looked okay but when turned on it also buzzed. I've got really sensitive hearing and it irritated the shit out of me so that went back.

We ended up with a TEAC one but even on dim it was so bright it was like having a bloody night light going. It's made even worse by the fact we live in the country so there are no other lights to tone it down. We ended up putting some tinted plastic over the front and that has reduced it at night, but the damned thing is almost illegible in daylight now!

I have an old Qualcraft one I got from Farmers I think - must have been about 15-20 years ago. It's a clock radio but only the clock part gets used. Probably cost me about $20 and it's worked fine and keeps good time since new.

[Pixie]

ok apart from the usual don't want to get up part;

Well I'm getting pissed off at me alarm clocks radios. Yes more than one. Both my old one & the wife's had started gaining time, like a min a day which is pretty rank. OK so they're old & the crystals will have aged.

So out we goes & buys some new ones, both Zip of diff models. Problem is they are bright green LED displays & it lights up the room like an alien spacecraft landing (don't even start me up on those)

So I dig in & try & turn them down by adding in some resistors to the LED feeds. I get it so you can't read them in daylight but they are still like search lights. Oh & both of them gain time like crazy. Sheesh!

I bought a Philips big screen on as it had a dimmer button. Looked fine in shop, too damn bright, same with more adjusting. Green LEDs just seem too bright, old Red displays cast less illumination.

Is it too much to ask for a alarm that keeps ok time & doesn’t light up too much?

Is there a decent one on the market?

Most of them use the mains (50 Hz) for timing,not crystals.

Leakage between the tracks of the PCB due to dirt/degraded solder flux (specifically the tracks going to the 50/60 Hz select pins on the clock IC)
causes them to run fast - 9 mins/ hour.

Clean the pcb with isopropanol and a brush

I cut my teeth fixing Sanyo clock radios when I was an apprentice.

[Finn]

Most of them use the mains (50 Hz) for timing,not crystals.

Leakage between the tracks of the PCB due to dirt/degraded solder flux (specifically the tracks going to the 50/60 Hz select pins on the clock IC)
causes them to run fast - 9 mins/ hour.

Clean the pcb with isopropanol and a brush

I cut my teeth fixing Sanyo clock radios when I was an apprentice.

My girlfriends period is late. Alcohol is helping me too.

[Bullitt]

I have one of these
http://www.sangean.com/product.php?m...R-3&prod_id=58

It cost me $185 but its brilliant and Ill never go back to a cheap one.

It does have issues if you want to be able to read it at night without lighting up the room though. It has a button on the front to go between fully lit and dimmed and you control the level of the dimmed setting with a dial on the base. You could dial it down to completley off but then it wouldnt be readable in the dark so I just have it on a really low setting and its fine.

[Swoop]

I searched for a clockwork one, some years ago. Wind it up with a key. Remember them?

Could I find one...

[xwhatsit]

I got well fed up for the same reasons. Finally bought a nice Phillips one that had a dim screen and kept time nicely -- only for the thing to sometimes forget to switch on the alarm. That's a wee bit dangerous for me (if not woken with an alarm I've been known to only wake up by myself at 2pm).

So it's either mobile phone or iPod. However when my last phone fell out of my pocket at >100kph somewhere on my way to Kaiaua, the speaker stopped working, it would only vibrate; but vibrate doesn't work if it's plugged into the charger! I wrote a quick shell script on my laptop to play a random MP3 at full loud, it worked quite nicely until I flogged a new phone.

[HenryDorsetCase]

we've got a Tivoli Model 3 clock radio thing....

http://www.tivoli.co.nz/tivoli.html

its great. It does have a bright-ish display but bit of window tinting film or a pillow in front (speaker is on top) sorts it out.

[pzkpfw]

You're not alone - we had huge trouble finding one last year when one of ours started buzzing/humming all the time and it was loud enough to be annoying!

Mine used to buzz - it's why I got it free.

The buzz was from the transformer. Opened the clock, tightened the mounting bolts, put a pile of P.V.A. all over the base and mounts - buzz now ignoreable.

[Bullitt]

we've got a Tivoli Model 3 clock radio thing....

http://www.tivoli.co.nz/tivoli.html

its great. It does have a bright-ish display but bit of window tinting film or a pillow in front (speaker is on top) sorts it out.

This was the other one I considered, just put off by the price and having to turn the alarm on every day or have it go off every 12 hours.

It does look and sound great though.