Fixing The Atomic, I Mean ATOMIX Clock
Originally recorded January 6, 2023.
Back in 2019 (that long ago???) I made a video of this Radio-Controlled Atomic clock by ATOMIX. I cannot remember the exact specifics of this, I think I may have purchased it at WalMart years ago, the original intent was to place it in the kitchen as the kitchen clock. That idea never ended up materializing for one reason or another, so it sat unused.
Recently, I got a comment on that original video back from 2019, and that sparked my interest in this item again. I had remembered that the buttons to set it were very hard to make contact, they had to be pressed fairly hard to get them to work, and even at that, it was still rather unreliable.
After sorting through some other stuff in the house, I came across the DOVEET large clock with indoor and outdoor temperature and humidity displays, and figured it might make a good clock on the wall in my office. But on second thought, since I already have a weather station in that room, it would be a duplication of features, and as such, that should be relegated to the basement, so I figured this would be a good replacement for it in the office. Especially since I never got any use out of it.
Today, I decided to open it up and see what the problem was with the buttons. It turns out, this used a very similar mechanism for the buttons, very similar to the Equity alarm clock that I have, where the metal contacts are held down by cellophane tape!
What should have been an easy repair escalated to disaster, but as usual, I came out victorious, or at least semi-victorious in this case. The clock was built to a price, probably designed to never last more than 5 years at best. Horrible construction quality, and almost impossible to service unless you were a Chinaman manufacturing these. I removed the button contacts and sprayed with contact cleaner, left to dry for the requisite amount of time, and reassembled, only to find that it still didn't work. I hit it again, and that made the problem worse, with one or more of the buttons now sticking pressed down, almost killing the clock in the process. The dead clock syndrome was due to a reset button they had "thoughtfully" included, which resets everything, and in the process keeps the display blanked out as long as it is pressed. If that buttons sticks, the clock is dead.
After taking it apart for a third time, I got it working again, but of course, it wasn't done with me yet. The Play-Doh™ brand plastic had had enough, and several of the screws for the button board stripped out. The end result is the buttons need to be pressed very lightly, and it could break further at any time, but at least the buttons work now without excessive pressure, and none of them stick. Being that it is now working, I will put it into service, knowing that each time the clock needs to be reset, there might be a problem. Of course this all would have been mitigated if the clock were to set itself via the Atomic Clock, as it's supposed to, but that feature never worked. I believe I'm in a virtual dead zone, because any other clock I've had that claims to be able to set itself from the Atomic Clock has never been able to. Could also be too much hash in the air, but it can still be set manually.
So, built to a price, designed never to be serviced, yet I fixed it anyway. I had toyed with the idea of hot-gluing the button board in place, and if it turns out to be a problem, I will open it back up and do that. They sure used a lot of screws on this unit though, which was rather impressive, I had to deal with a total of 20 screws for this repair!
Related videos:
ATOMIX Radio Controlled Clock & Thermometer
• ATOMIX Radio Controlled Clock & Thermometer
DOVEET Digital Atomic Clock w/Indoor & Outdoor Temperature And Humidity Displays Review
• DOVEET Digital Atomic Clock w/Indoor & Out...
Wireless Weather Station Madness!
• Wireless Weather Station Madness!
Equity Solid State Model 1010 Alarm Clock
• Equity Solid State Model 1010 Alarm Clock
Repairing The Equity Solid State Model 1010 Alarm Clock (With Scotch Tape!)
• Repairing The Equity Solid State Model 101...
Advance Model 4248 Alarm Clock With Date Display
• Advance Model 4248 Alarm Clock With Date D...