Xronos V2.1 Manual
Contents
1. Troubleshooting Symptom Possible Solution User settings such as Color or Mode are Check if Power Supply is connected security being reset and nothing pulling the wire Time and or date is not kept correctly i e its Make sure you are using Power Supply with really off by hours or days output of 6V or more up to 24 Time Date lost after power loss or reset Replace internal coin battery Nothing show on the screen no signs of life Try resetting clock by pressing Reset button even when pressing MENU button Unplug Power supply form the clock Wait 10 seconds and plug it back in Open maintenance door and see if any wires are loose check that microSD card is fully in Clock won t work without microSD or if files are missing If you have FTDI adapter cable see if you can get any serial output that will tell you anything meaningful set baud rate to 115200 Try uploading latest firmware or sent clock back to me for repair reprogramming Remember 99 of issues will result from bad or insecurely plugged power supply Never use clock if power cable is moving around or stretched Always plug and unplug it in single quick motion Don t pull on the cable Warranty will fix or replace fully assembled Xronos clock in the period of ONE YEAR since date of sale if issue is due to the manufacturing defect Because this is open source and hackable device cannot be held responsible if you damage it so warranty2. firmware access microSD card that holds all audio files or replace clock battery Yes clock has internal small coin type battery for keeping time when external power is not available It should last few years when in use and much longer than not in use Setting Time and surviving apocalypse After everything is up and running first thing you ll might want to do is to set correct time and date Out of the box clock is set to 24 hour a k a military time mode If you are more familiar with 12 hour mode AM PM sorry you are out of luck Just kidding You can change modes by pressing MENU button until you see Settings on the screen Press SET button First option will be 12 24 hour mode Press INCR button to change it if needed Hint When you see something is flashing it means its selected and ready to be changed with INCR button Press MENU button again several times until you see Date Time on the screen Press SET button to select Hours Minutes etc and INCR button to change it Don t fret if you accidently went over current year Once you hit year 2040 it will go back to 2013 Why 2040 What a silly question That s when either world will end or Xronos Clock will become self aware and will no longer need you which is the same thing So please be nice to it That s it now you should have a grasp of how menu system works and at the end of the manual you will find especially bering fun schematic of all the menu functions and fl
3. will still need to get FTDI adapter and install drivers for it Firwmare is available at http Awww xronosclock com go to Support and then to Technical Data and Downloads Simplified upgrade procedure 1 2 Download avr zip and extract it to your hard drive i e to c xronos Also download update_xronos bat file and latest HEX file with firmware Copy both somewhere i e c xronos Plug in USB cable from your computer to FTDI adapter and connect FTDI adapter into Xronos clock Provided you installed drivers your computer will acquire a COM port Take a note of the COM Port number by going Device Manger via Control Panel gt system or right clicking on Computer icon on your desktop Under Ports you will see USB Serial Port Note its COM number i e COM3 PW were a F Ports COM amp LPT Communications Port COM1 gt USB Serial Port COM3 Edit update_xronos bat script i e in Notepad Find two lines that specify path to AVR that you extracted in step 1 SET AVRPath C Xronos avr bin avrdude exe SET AVRConfig C Xronos avr etc avrdude conf And change to your actual file location Open command prompt navigate to the folder where you firmware scripts and run start_here bat You will be prompted for COM port so put number you got from step 4 If everything goes fine you will see update progress and screen will turn green at successful upload Advanced upgrade Install latest Arduino IDE Downloa
4. 3 Usually on second try you will find right code almost immediately but if you skipped too far you ll have to hold button for several minutes until it cycles back thru all the IR codes know this part can be frustrating but unfortunately it s the only way RMF12B transceiver Another optional accessory is RFM12B chip which allows Xronos clock to receive and possibly send data over 915Mhz or 413Mhz frequency from to sensor device that s also has RFM12B chip As of this writing we do not have any accessories for sale that will work with RFM12B chip but you are welcome to make your own Out of the box Xronos clock supports remote temperature and humidity data If you want to build your own sensor use Arduino code provided on our website xronosclock com If you are maker possibilities are endless Here are few ideas You can connect your own RFM12B based transmitter to computer and with right code you can send RSS feeds emails tweets etc to the Xronos clock of course some coding will be required Make several Xronos clocks talk to each other or synchronize from external time source i e GPS reciever Build mailbox sensor and make your Xronos clock display alert when snail mail is reiceved We hope to release outdoor battery powered sensor some time in 1 half of 2014 Things to keep in mind You must reset unplug your clock if you turn RF Setting on or off When RF is enabled RF indicator in top right corner will be s
5. NOT SHOWN ON THIS PICTURE 9 RFM12B RECEIVER STATUS INDICATOR Looking at the top of the clock you will find 3 very sleek looking arcade buttons From left to right they are MENU SET and INCR or Increment and well that s it What did you expect a QWERTY keyboard Each button has several functions Go ahead touch the MENU button Nice huh Do it again AGAIN Ok stop stop MENU is primary button that will get you into a surprise menu system With every press it will go to the next menu item and eventually back to the 1st There s no exit out of menu system per say but don t panic If you stop pressing all buttons clock with automatically exit after 5 seconds of inactivity After you got into the menu that you want press SET button to switch between items inside this menu Then use INCR button to make change to selected item And no need to save settings All changes are saved into permanent memory EEPROM either immediately after pressing INCR button or after clock exits from menu Now look at the right side It s the one that has a lot of small holes That s for the speaker next to it is opening for power plug On the back side there s an opening for resetting clock and temperature 1 MAINTENANCE DOOR RELEASE SCREW 2 TEMPERATURE SENSOR 3 RESET Left side of the clock has removable panel held by 3 screws for easy access to clock interface in case you want to re program update
6. Xronos Clock Manual For Xronos Clock V2 1 J eeecee e e e eeecececcee e e amp a C3 o C3 CCCCOCCCCCCE e e e a e gt Good pho D gt Foreword If you are like me you ll probably ditch this manual and start messing with cool arcade buttons Xronos clock is intuitive and should be easy to figure out But see you are still reading so let s get on with it promise I ll try not to make this manual look as boring as your average table saw instructions Quick start Xronos clock comes with a good quality AC Adapter that will power your clock and won t waste too much of power Firmly plug in power adapter into wall outlet and DC cable into clock s right side Assuming delivery man didn t drop your package off the truck is there anything rattling inside clock case and you have power in your house Xronos should greet you with scrolling welcoming message and firmware number If you are real lucky it will even play a startup melody But not to worry if startup sequence starts to drive you crazy in the future you can turn it off Let s get familiar with Xronos Clock SNOOZE 1 MENU ALARM RESET BUTTON 2 SET SNOOZE BUTTON 3 INCR TALK BUTTON 4 AMBIENT LIGHT SENSOR 5 ACORN NUTS HOLDS ENCLOSURE TOGETHER 6 AM INDICATOR FOR 12 HOUR MODE 7 ALARM 1 AND 2 INDICATORS 8 IR SENSOR WINDOW
7. d Sanguino or Mighty 1284p hardware files and copy to your projects _home hardware folder Download and install libraries a Time b DS1307RTC c WaveHC modified to work with Xronos Clock PCB 4 5 d Dallas Temperature e OneWire f IR REmote Download source code Open in Arduino IDE compile and upload to Xronos Clock Disassembly Reassembly If you want to modify hardware or add optional RFM12B chip and or IR receiver you will need to open enclosure Warning Please be very careful with enclosure as acrylic tabs can be broken off easily Never force your way go slowly If someone doesn t go in see if you have a wire in a way Put soft cloth on a table so you don t scratch clock s face Remove small screw holding maintenance door from the back Remove big Acorn shaped nuts from the front of the clock and remove long screws While removing them hold back and front of the clock with your hand so it doesn t separate Lift off face plate and front panel gently It s attached to the mainboard with ribbon cable and IR receiver cable if you have one installed Unplug both from main board and put front panel aside If you need to remove LED display simply unscrew 4 screws holding it but remember which was it was oriented Main board and power supply both attached to the back panel but power supply also attached to the side panel via power jack Unscrew 4 screws holding side panels to the bottom panel Nothing is attached to the
8. e Temperature from internal sensor when TALK button is pressed or held e Say ExTemp Y N Option to announce temperature from option external sensor when TALK button is pressed or held This item will not show up if RF sensor is turned off e Say Humid Y N Option to announce humidity data from option external sensor when TALK button is pressed or held This item will not show up if RF sensor is turned off e Say Alrm Y N Option to announce Alarm settings when TALK button is pressed or held e Exit Temp Offs Sets negative offset to current temperature from internal sensor Maintenance and Hacking Depending on preference your Xronos Alarm Clock should be wiped from time to time to remove accumulated dust Or not Other than this you might have to occasionally change internal clock battery in case you notice clock loses time if there was power interruption Xronos takes generic CR2032 coin type 3V battery 1 FTDI Pins for updating Firmware and communicating with clock 2 microSD Card for changing audio data or Alarm tones 2 CR2032 Battery Battery replacing procedure To replace battery you will need a small Philips head screwdriver to open maintenance door on the left side of the clock Here are steps to open maintenance door 1 2 o Unplug your Xronos Clock Looking at the front of the clock maintenance door is on the left of the clock opposite from speaker side held by 3 small screw
9. g misc options such as what clock will say when TALK button is pressed or how frequently Info Display will appear and temperature offset See below about this option Temperature Offset What is it and why it s needed you might ask Can it reverse effects of the global warming Well you see Xronos Clock components generate some heat Especially LED matrix As efficient as LEDs are they still get warm Higher brightness you will choose the warmer clock will get inside This is really nothing to be worried about we are talking about few degrees above ambient however because temperature sensor is embedded in the clock case it will usually show temperature couple of degrees higher than air in your room Thus comes Temperature offset to the rescue recommend setting it to about 2 degrees If you have another thermometer available use it to calibrate Xronos Clock to a correct temperature using offset Optional Features In order to keep price of the clock down some extra features are available only as add ons Currently there are two features Infrared Remote and RFM12b radio frequency transceiver Infrared Remote New to Xronos Clock 2 1 is support for Infrared Receiver and ability to control clock functions with keychain remote control Remote duplicates functionality of the arcade buttons and additionally gives ability to decrement items i e when setting time you can increase or decrease hours minutes Here s what each b
10. h all this SAD SET button does when not in the menu Menu button also has secondary functions You can use it to interrupt scrolling Info Display and Reset Alarm for current day Resetting alarm only works if Alarm is currently playing or snoozing Alarm Functionality Your Xronos clock has mighty Dual Alarms Each can be set to sound either Daily Sunday Monday Workdays Monday thru Friday or on Custom days of your choosing Warning Never set both alarms to same time on same day If you do miniature black hole will form 5 centimeters above the clock and will probably transfer you and the planet into 37th dimension Because time flows in reverse in 37th dimension clock might not function as expected Each Alarm has LED indicator dot on the bottom left and right of the LED screen When light is green it means no Alarm is set for current day When it s orange Alarm is set for this day keep in mind light will remain orange thru the day even if alarm already sounded and has been reset Alarm light will be Red when Snoozing is activated Snoozing will silence alarm for 9 minutes after which it will start sounding again until either Snooze or Reset engaged i e via MENU button Alarm will reset itself after 1 hour has passed or second Alarm kicked off Alarm menu system is slightly different from other menus and requires master s degree in nuclear dentistry to fully comprehend If you set alarm to Custom mode it will keep g
11. howing status of received data If no data received after clock reset it will be RED When receiving data it will turn green briefly and when go off If no data received for over 30 minutes it will become RED again Keep in mind that no radio data can be received when clock is playing audio i e alarm sounds time is announced etc Complete Menu System Reference Set Alarm 1 Controls 1st alarm On Off I ll let you guess what it does Alarm Frequency o Custom Let s user choose any combination of days when alarm will sound m Mon Y N m Tue Y N m Sun Y N m Exit This option will exit day selection and goes to following time o Daily Alarm will sound every day o Weekdays Alarm will sound on usual workdays i e Mon Fri Alarm Hours Minutes Let s you select time when alarm will sound Tone Select Tone Melody that s played back as alarm Tones 1 5 are escalating 6 10 are played at full volume Set Alarm 2 Controls 2nd Alarm Same options as above Time Date Sets current Time Date Hours Minutes Day Month Year maximum Year allowed 2040 after which it goes back to 2013 Sys Setup Sets global clock settings Mode Choose 12 hour AM PM or 24 hour clock mode Brightness Select LED display brightness from Night lowest to Max brightest Color Sets Clock Color Choices are Green Red or Orange Font Select Font of Main big clock display Temp Chooses temperature units F Fahrenheit Celsius Sound Vol Volu
12. maintenance door left panel so you can just take it out Right panel is attached via speaker cable to main board and via power cable to power supply You can lift off remaining panels once you unplug all cables i e button cable light sensor cable and speaker cable At this point you should be able to access and remove main board easily just unplug power cable that s attached to the power supply and 3 wire temperature sensor cable that goes under the board to the temperature sensor glued to the back panel Buttons cannot be removed without first disordering cutting wires If you need to replace a button for example you want different color carefully unsolder it press tabs to remove insert your own button and solder it back Reassembly e Attach Main board and power supply to the back panel Plug in power and temperature sensor wires e Attach right speaker panel to the bottom panel with two 1 2 4 40 screws Leave screws slightly loose at this point Joint will be moving slightly for easier insertion Insert right and bottom panels into bottom panel gently To attach top button panel you will need to lift right speaker panel slightly to match it s tabs and insert all of them into back panel Plug in all the wires buttons light sensor and speaker Plug in LED display ribbon cable While making sure that no wires get caught gently lower front panel and match all tabs If you have faceplate attached remove it it s
13. me of System sounds and announcements Does not affect alarm volume Startup Turns on off startup sequence when clock is reset or powered on RF Sensor Turns on off optional RFM12B sensor Reboot required Warning Do not turn on if you don t have RFM12B chip installed Warning You must reboot reset clocks if you turn this feature on or off IR Receiver Turns on off optional infrared remote accessory Reboot required User Menu Sets User preferences Info Display Controls what and is shown in scrolling text line and how frequently e Show Every Controls frequency of Info Display disables it and lets you select which item to show e Disp Date Y N Option to display date e Displ InTemp Y N Option to display temperature form internal sensor e Displ Extemp Y N Option to display temperature from optional external sensor This item will not show up if RF sensor is turned off e Displ Alarm Y N Option to display alarm settings e Displ RFStat Y N Option to display last time data from option external RF sensor was received This item will not show up if RF sensor is turned off e Displ Humid Y N Option to display humidity data from optional external sensor This item will not show up if RF sensor is turned off e Exit Talk Items e Say Time Y N Option to announce Time when TALK button is pressed or held e Say Date Y N Option to announce Date when TALK button is pressed or held e Say InTemp Y N Option to announc
14. not screwed to anything so you can see where tabs go e Check that all parts are fitted nicely place faceplate on front panel and start threading long screws from the bottom until they go thru Screw acorn nuts onto them from the front Do not tighten yet Alight and attach left maintenance door and secure it with 3 screws 2 x 4 40 from side and one 9 16 4 40 from back e Tighten acorn nuts with hand and also tighten 2 half inch 4 40 screws holding speaker panel Do not over tighten them You can break acrylic Note on Power Supply Power supply that comes with clock is designed to work in USA only highly recommend using Power Supply that came with the clock because clock has been intensely tested with it and went thru many different kinds until current one was chosen If you must use different one i e your country uses different plug please make sure that 1 It has correct polarity Tip is Positive and Outer jacket is negative This is the most important thing as wrong polarity will damage clock 2 Supplied voltage is at least 6 Volts DC and not more than 24 V 3 DC plug is security stays in the socket If you touch the wire and clock reboots it mean that plug is no good Bad plug can cause reversible damage to the clock I ve seen contents of the flash being erased due to the bad plug although on extremely rare occasion While this won t permanently brick your clock you ll have to reprogram it if it happens
15. oing thru Days of Week on the screen until you press INCR button when EXIT is shown At this point you ll be able to set alarm time and tone melody There are currently 10 alarm tones melodies to choose from First 5 are of escalating type meaning they will start at low volumes and get louder with each repeat of the sound eventually reaching ultrasound frequencies shuttering glass windows and waking up every dog in the neighborhood just kidding This is best way for a gentle wake up Last 5 alarm sounds will always start at full volume you ve been warned Info Display Periodically you will see a message scrolling across the screen This is your Info Display It will briefly tell you date temperature alarm settings winning lottery numbers and last 4 digits of your cat s social security number Well not really just 1st three items You can customize how frequently you want to see this via User Options menu You can even turn it off completely Info Display scrolling can be interrupted any time by pressing MENU button what a neat button huh System Settings Menu From here you can control many under the hood global functions of the clock such as setting 12 24 hour mode Brightness manual or automatic color clock font sound volume Fahrenheit or Celsius temperature mode turn on off optional RF and Infrared receiver functionality User Options Menu Very similar to System Settings In this menu you will be settin
16. ows sorry no pie charts Secondary Functions As mentioned earlier were you paying any attention or just mashing arcade buttons each button has secondary function Heck some have even more than 2 Xronos clock is practically Swiss army knife of clocks Well not really a knife and not Swiss but it s still pretty versatile Most notable is the INCR button a k a we have ways of making you TALK button When not in any menu pressing INCR button will make Xronos Clock talk Sorry it probably won t be most engaging storytelling but it will tell you current time date inside temperature and even what your alarms are set to Just briefly press and release this button to hear next item If you pause for more than 6 seconds between presses it will go back to 1st item i e current time You can also hold INCR button for 2 or more seconds and once you release it clock will go into continuous talk mode meaning it will tell you time date temperature and alarm settings without you having to press button after each item What you clock says is customizable via User Options menu There you can choose what you want Xronos to say or not to say For example you can set it to tell you only date and temperature but not Time and Alarm settings When alarm sounds INCR button can also be used to turn on please just few more minutes Snoozing Actually SET button also turns on Snooze Either one will let you catch some more zzz s That s pretty muc
17. s as shown on the picture above Gently remove screw that holds door from the back of the clock 1 Unscrew two screws 2 3 on the bottom of the maintenance door These are a little shorter than the screw you removed from the back Try not to mix them Door should now come off easily it s only held by the tab on the bottom 6 You should see internal battery Using small flat screwdriver gently push metal retainer clip outward until it releases battery 7 Replace with fresh battery Insert it from plastic end opposite to metal clip first and then press down until retainer clip clicks holding it in place Upgrading Firmware Removing maintenance door will also allow you access to the FTDI programming interface You will need a 5V USB FTDI adapter board or cable you can get one on Sparkfun or eBay Make sure you unplug external power first FTDI will provide power to the clock from your computer via USB Please take care of plugging FTDI adapter correctly Usually it means facing up as show on the picture Just look and match writing next to the pins i e DTR on the far left Ground on the far right There are basically two way to upgrade firmware a simplified and advanced Simplified will require you to download AVRDude program batch file and a hex file containing firmware For more advanced you will need Arduino IDE environment required libraries and hardware files for Sanguino bootloader Whichever way you prefer you
18. utton do Big Red On Off button Same function as MENU button Mute crossed speaker button Initiates TALK function announce Time Date etc Additionally this buttons when held for few seconds starts to reprogram remote More on this later Up Down CH buttons Same function as SET button Left Right VOL buttons Decrement new feature or Increment same as INCR button functions AV TV button Initiates Announce All Items same as holding TALK button for longer than 2 seconds Reprogramming Remote uses one CR2032 coin battery that should last you a long time However if battery is replaced or accidently remodeled remote might lose its programming and will stop controlling Xronos clock Fortunately you can reprogram it This requires some patience and a little tricky but can be done Here s procedure 1 Disable InfoDisplay Texts scrolling function by going to User Menu gt InfoDisplay and set frequency to Never 2 Make sure that at least one Talk Item is on i e time announcement 3 Point remote towards face of the Xronos Clock 4 Press and hold Mute button on the remote 5 At this point remote enters programming mode and will cycle between different IR codes know to it AS soon you hear clock start talking release Mute button immediately 6 Press On Off or Mute button again to see if remote found right code If nothing happens you skipped the right code and you ll need to start process again from step
19. will be voided if you modified the clock Also warranty doesn t apply to KIT version of the clock Having said that I m still willing to offer reasonable help and repair on case by case basis Disclaimer will not be held responsible for any issues resulted by Xronos Alarm Clock or from it s usage Use at your own risk
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