Re: Timemaster II card

["Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com>]

Robert Boucher wrote:
> In article <E4ydnTEv465W_U_YnZ2dnUVZ_qmpnZ2d@comcast.com>,
>  "Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com> wrote:
>
>
> > Robert Boucher wrote:
> >
> > > Yesterday my Timemaster was time stamping all files correctly. During 
> > > this group's discussion on setting the year, I pulled the card out of my 
> > > IIe. I accidently put it back in slot 3, booted, realized my mistake, 
> > > shut the computer  down and moved the card to slot 4. This morning 
> > > Appleworks and Copy II+ are showing the date as 01/13/04.
> >
> > It may just be a bad battery.  Does it keep time properly
> > while the Apple is off?  For a few days?  For a few weeks?
>
>
> The battery was replaced several months ago. The clock keeps the correct 
> time when the computer is off.

Great--it's good to know the battery is good.  I presume
that the Timemaster uses alkalines, not rechargeables...

Does it have a jumper on the card that allows it to be set
from software?  Some clocks can have their settings disturbed
by removal and insertion if they are not "write protected" by
opening a jumper.

> > > I reset the 
> > > time on the card but get the same  results. It's been awhile, but in 
> > > setting the day, isn't Sunday day 0?
> >
> > No reasonable setting program should require you to know what
> > number corresponds to what day of the week!  Just try the possible
> > alternatives until you see the correct year, then scratch it
> > indelibly into the circuit board for next time.  ;-)
>
> I am using the program that came with the clock card. I guess AE should 
> have consulted with you before they issued the program. Anyway you enter 
> the day (0-6), the month, the date, the year, the hour and the minute 
> and hit the return key at 0 seconds.  

...or consulted with any human interface engineering firm!  ;-)

One purpose of programs is to translate between human lingo, like
"Sunday" and machine lingo, like "0".

> The strange thing it was working fine yesterday. (Monday).  When I now 
> set the clock to last Sunday (or any date, i.e., 12/31/99) Appleworks 
> and Copy II+ show the year as 04. I copied some 07 files into a 99 
> database and the date sorts correctly.

I'd just look at the date-time stamps that ProDOS puts on files--it is
a direct indication of what the clock is reading.

Try setting it to the same date, but all different days of the week.
That should take you through the entire "course" of years in the
ProDOS driver's table, and also verify that the setting is working
reliably.

Each copy of ProDOS that you boot from needs its year table up-to-date
to get the proper results.  (This is much easier on a system always
booted from a hard disk.)

-michael

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