Greetings from Colorado

[tickrim]

Hello-

I fell into collecting clock radios over the last several years. Recently I bought a few mechanical digital clocks to fill in some gaps in my small collection. I was trying to get examples of different clock display technology.

One of these is a Sony Digimatic roller clock (cyclometer clock, if you prefer) TFM-C770W. The rotor in the motor assembly is shot. This unit has a plastic gear attached to the rotor shaft, and that holds the other black plastic mounting piece onto the rotor (as seen in the photo). Aside from the lubricants drying up over the years, it seems that the gears inside the rotor (or at least the one attached to the drive shaft protruding out of the aluminum case) are slipping and binding - so even when the motor is working, the drive gear often stutters or gets stuck.

The rotor seems to be unrepairable, and I have no idea if this plastic gear comes off. The rotor, which has an OMRON sticker on it, does not seem to be quite the same as the common Telecron rotors. Any thoughts on getting this clock mechanism working again?



And on a completely different topic, I bought another clock radio that has this odd Telecron clock mechanism. I'm calling it a Ferris Wheel mechanism because the numbered plates rotate around on a wheel - and the Minute and Hour plates flip over to display the other side of the plate on the 2nd go-around. (There are only 5 or 6 plates per wheel, allowing the wheel to be smaller than on a typical roller clock,). Is there some actual name for this type of mechanism?

[Mackey]

Thanks for joining the forum!
Those mechanism really don't fit into a normal category, do they.
That looks just like the "GE Chronotel" mechanism (I think it's the same). They're really fantastic to watch, but as you know, there is no distinction of AM or PM (but really, if you don't know the difference you're in big trouble).

[tickrim]

I watched your GE Chronotel video and, yes, it certainly is an extremely similar mechanism. My mechanism was also made by GE. There are some design differences. As you can see, the wheels to set the time and alarm face forward, and there's no "clock running" indication wheel.



It's in this Aircastle 298W112, which is an odd clock radio. The lack of AM and PM is odd for a digital clock radio. This model has some other peculiar design choices, too. Unlike most clock radios that have an On/Off/Wake switch (usually with a selection for Radio or Buzzer), this model has an On/Auto switch on the side, and then an Off position on the volume control. Thus, you need to turn on the radio to set the alarm.