Weird No-Slot-Clock issues

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Weird No-Slot-Clock issues

Several years ago I bought a number of Dallas DS1216E modules from AliExpress.  

The DS1216E is functionally identical to the SMT No-Slot-Clock.

After a bit of surgery to grind out the epoxy underneath it and disconnect the internal (dead) button cells, I connected some modern CR2032 cells to each of the chips via some leads and a coin cell holder.

I had four working No-Slot-Clocks as a result in 4 different machines.  One of them runs 24-7 hosting a BBS.

The other three were in machines storage with the power cells disconnected.

 

So yesterday I reboot my machine and it doesn't recognize the clock.  Change battery.  Nothing.

Plus it gives weird ROM based errors (that go away when the clock is removed) -  the clock sits beneath the CD ROM chip on a IIe.

 

No problem, I say...I'll get a backup clock.  Nope.  It doesn't work either.

OK, I'll try one of my storage machines - they won't work either and present the same funny ROM issues with random crashes while in the "BYE" routine in ProDOS.

 

In the end I now have four DS1216E chips that all seemed to have failed.  This is something I have never seen before.  Has anyone else?

I'm now in a position where I have no clock in my IIe and really could use one.

 

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At the risk of self-promotion

  baldrick wrote:

  I have no clock in my IIe and really could use one.

 

At the risk of self-promotion, I'd say get a ROMXe!

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Have you tried the NSCs in a

Have you tried the NSCs in a different //e?  Maybe it is the machine that is having the issue, like maybe the socket?  Seems weird that 4 devices and 3 that were not in use would all fail like that...

 

Other option if you've got a free slot is to try a slot clock card?

 

Another thought...  any way to use the NSC under the other ROM?  I don't remember enough to know if it will only work under CD...  I've also heard of people using them on ROMs on a card.  Like Ian Kim's 512K RAM card includes an "NSC" on board.

 

 

 

Edit -- Not sure from re-reading that...  did you mean your machines in storage their NSCs also don't work in them?  That is truly weird if true...

 

 

 

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softwarejanitor wrote:Have
softwarejanitor wrote:

Have you tried the NSCs in a different //e?  Maybe it is the machine that is having the issue, like maybe the socket?  Seems weird that 4 devices and 3 that were not in use would all fail like that...

 

Yeah, they don't work in any machine anymore.

 

With respect to jeffmazur, the ROMXe is $79 plus $35 shipping from ReActive Micro.  So $114, which is $159 Canadian at the current exchange rates.

The US Postal system (and the Canadian one too) i making it super difficult to buy anything (and impossible to sell anything on eBay to an American seller) with their rates.

 

I've got a few more Dallas DS1216E modules on the way from China...we'll see what happens with those.

They're getting pretty scarce.  I might cobble together something based on a more modern clock one of these days.

 

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Shipping anything to Canada

Shipping anything to Canada is pretty much cost prohibitive anymore.  It costs 3x as much as sending to anywhere in the US, even to places which are actually further away like California.  I had to ship a couple things last week and pretty much decided when I sell on eBay I'll just cancel any order that comes from Canada.  It's just not worth all the hassle and paperwork.  It took an hour to mail two packages, which would have been 10 minutes for sending to a US buyer.  With the time and extra shipping cost it turns any profit into a loss.

 

 

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softwarejanitor wrote:It took
softwarejanitor wrote:

It took an hour to mail two packages, which would have been 10 minutes for sending to a US buyer.

That's crazy.  With Canada Post it takes just the same amount of time doing it on their website except looking up the customs codes for whatever you're sending - I use the same for all - "printed circuit board components"  Prints out the label and I drop it in the mailbox.  

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I am able to quite quickly do

I am able to quite quickly do customs forms etc though shipstation (formerly paypals shipping). Much much easier than in person at the PO, I gave up on that ages ago.

 

It kills me that it costs about 20 usd to send anything, even tiny, out of the US anymore. Yet China sellers can send ePacket stuff to the US for a small fraction of that. Not ranting it has just always both fascinated and frustrated me that exporting is magnitudes more expensive than importing. 

 

I gave up on international shipping for selling vinyl LPs, it used to be 14 dollars which was bad enough but now it's north of 20 (pun intended). When it comes to importing I'll probably use a 3rd party consolidating and forwarding service in the UK next year. 

 

On eBay I leave their global shipping as an option for buyers who are desperate, but they usually end up paying an astronomical amount in the end if they use that option. 

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