Hi,

up to step 35 and just installed the green ring. Plugged in the power and changed to manual alignment mode but the + and - switches stopped working. It was fine when i was aligning the blue LEDS but not i can't move on to align the green LEDs. Also all the green LEDs light up in auto advance mode.

It sounds like you aren't actually in alignment mode, but in one of the optional configuration modes. That would explain (1) the +/- not working and (2) the green LEDs being all lit up.

Hold down the Z button to exit this mode. To get to alignment mode, hold down the + and - buttons for 3 s (not the + and Z buttons). See page 64 of the assembly guide for more about these different modes.

Thanks for the quick reply,

Sorry about the confusion but when i said all the green LEDs being lit up i meant that they all worked when in auto advanced mode. The +/- buttons don't work in either blue or green manual advance mode. Changing the brightness doesn't seem to work either

Again, it sounds like you aren't actually in alignment mode. If the +/- buttons aren't working, you certainly can't get there.


First step: Figure out what mode you are actually in, and get back to time display mode.

You can check this by pressing the Z button to cycle between the modes. If it's 6 presses back to the initial state, it's alignment mode, and if it's 5 presses, it's not. And, if every other press of Z blinks all of the LEDs on and off, you're in time display mode. Easier: unplug the clock and plug it back in, to reboot it and get it back to time display mode.

Next: See if the + and - buttons are working. (If neither is working, you will not be able to get into alignment mode.) Get to time-display mode, and verify that you are there: the Z button blinks the lights on and off with every press. There, check to see if the + and - buttons work to increase and decrease the brightness.

I have rebooted the clock by unplugging and plugging the power back in and have confirmed that it is in time display mode as the lights go on and off every time Z is pressed. The brightness does not seem to change by pressing either + or - buttons. However, holding the + or - buttons by themselves takes the clock out of time display mode into something like alignment mode with 1 blue LED being lit at a time. The rate advance slows down when either + or - is pressed but doesn't change again unless cycled through again pressing Z 6 times.

I have rebooted the clock by unplugging and plugging the power back in and have confirmed that it is in time display mode as the lights go on and off every time Z is pressed.

Good-- that's progress.

The brightness does not seem to change by pressing either + or - buttons. However, holding the + or - buttons by themselves takes the clock out of time display mode into something like alignment mode with 1 blue LED being lit at a time.

So it sounds like you may have one or both of these buttons accidentally connected together, and/or connected to ground. That is, they're "pressed all the time."

First, please check carefully to verify that it's actually the case that *both* the + and - buttons are operating exactly the same way. It is more likely that one or the other is, independently, malfunctioning. The most likely cause of these kinds of malfunctions is a "solder bridge" -- an accidental connection between two locations on the circuit board. Check the area around both buttons, to make sure that the solder joints there are clean and cleanly separated. Next, check the area round the microcontroller chip. The relevant pins are the ones closest to the quartz crystal oscillator-- near the corner "pointing" towards the buttons. Check that area, both above and below the circuit board, for clean solder joints and any potential stray bits of solder or wire that might be bridging two things that shouldn't be connected.