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Please Help! Quest to find my first LED watch

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TI Quest

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Please Help! Quest to find my first LED watch

Post24 Aug 2007, 18:16

As a typical techno geek, I tried to be the first in my school / college / work to obtain new and interesting gadgets..... LED watch, LCD watch, hand-held computer game, PC, mobile phone.......
Now I'm in the full onset of my mid-life crisis I have an extreme longing to re-own my first LED watch. It doesn't have to be the exact one (I think I sold mine over 25 years ago), but the same model. It was a Texas Instruments black plastic watch. I can't remember the model number, but there's a photo of it on the ledwatches website:
http://www.ledwatches.net/photo-pages/t ... ments5.htm

Can anyone please help me identify the model, or better still, tell me where I might be able to purchase one??

This watch was the first digital watch in my school, and as a consequence, I had a line of people waiting to take a look at it every break time. This of course meant that the battery only lasted a couple of weeks, but it was great fun and I REALLY wish I hadn't got rid of it.

Thank you for any assistance…..
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LEDluvr

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: Please Help! Quest to find my first LED watch

Post24 Aug 2007, 19:03

Hi TI Quest,
there is one on e-bay right now:

http://cgi.ebay.com/1976-Texas-Instruments-Red-LED-Wristwatch-Ser-300-NIB_W0QQitemZ300142869354QQihZ020QQcategoryZ31387QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I'm not the seller and I don't know who the person is, so I can't vouch
for them. I can say that I've noticed that this particular TI model seems
to come up quite often on e-bay.
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notonly1

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: Please Help! Quest to find my first LED watch

Post25 Aug 2007, 18:34

The model number of the watch you're looking for is 503-4. The watch that LEDluvr mentioned that just sold on eBay was a model 501-1. Good luck :-)
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TI Quest

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: Please Help! Quest to find my first LED watch

Post26 Aug 2007, 00:03

Many thanks for the help. I can now continue my quest with the vital information!
:-D
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TI Quest

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: Please Help! Quest to find my first LED watch

Post06 Sep 2007, 17:33

Found someone selling that model on ebay and I'm now the proud owner. Many thanks for your assistance.
:-D
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LEDluvr

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: Please Help! Quest to find my first LED watch

Post06 Sep 2007, 19:00

Congrats TI quest - your quest is now complete. :-)
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Fitron

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: Please Help! Quest to find my first LED watch

Post06 Sep 2007, 19:59

your quest is now complete.


You reckon? I meant to only ever buy one and now...........

Run TI quest, while you still can. RUN!!!!!!
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LEDluvr

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: Please Help! Quest to find my first LED watch

Post06 Sep 2007, 23:35

You're right Fitron - he'll most likely become an led collecting addict like the rest of us! ;-)
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LEDluvr

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: Please Help! Quest to find my first LED watch

Post06 Sep 2007, 23:37

... Not to mention the joys of collecting LCD's... and Automatics... and Divers... and..... :shock:
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TI Quest

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: Please Help! Quest to find my first LED watch

Post07 Sep 2007, 11:46

....I agree...there is a real danger of trying to track down all my old watches and gadgets.
I think I went through about 20 watches during my school / college days. Obviously that first LED watch brings back my fondest memories, but I also had some pretty early LCD watches, some with the most ridiculous gadgets....radio, jogging option, calculator, data bank, golf game, pac-man game, heart rate monitor....etc
The LED watch should arrive in the post next week. I hope it's as good as I remember....
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: Please Help! Quest to find my first LED watch

Post07 Sep 2007, 21:10

... Not to mention the joys of collecting LCD's... and Automatics... and Divers... and.....


Oh lord this is so true. I only wanted one LED, but now I've got too many. I've started on jumps and am looking at divers now - oh and I am desperate to get an Omega Geneve Dynamic. It's an addiction. If you'd told me 18 months ago I'd be obsessed with watches I'd have laughed in your face. Now I'm looking at your wrist :shock:
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LEDluvr

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: Please Help! Quest to find my first LED watch

Post08 Sep 2007, 02:20

LOL Fitron! And when you said "Now I'm looking at your wrist"- I do that too! It's crazy....

TI Quest.... welcome to asylum. ;-)
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: Please Help! Quest to find my first LED watch

Post08 Sep 2007, 16:35

LCD's... and Automatics... and Divers.


What are those?
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Re: : Please Help! Quest to find my first LED watch

Post08 Sep 2007, 19:09

Fitron wrote:Run TI quest, while you still can. RUN!!!!!!

Don't warn him...the idea is to spread the "infection"! :lol:
http://www.retroleds.com - Sales of vintage LED, LCD, analog watches, parts and gadgets - repair tutorials & tips
Nov. 2022 - back in business!! BItter divorce is in home stretch, come grabs some great deals, I had to open the safe . . . damn attorneys. piss.
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: Please Help! Quest to find my first LED watch

Post21 Sep 2007, 00:33

I too have a certain desire to re-buy all the gadgets I had when I was younger. I wish I could find my first TI watch, a early '80s LCD with a green luminescent background that had an eerie green radioactive glow when in darkness. It was a very stylish one with a stainless case and link bracelet.

When it comes to LEDs, my taste is quite expensive, I've discovered. The only ones that I really am partial to are the Pulsars, Omegas, and of course the beloved Synchronar (my dream watch since I was a little kid).
Of course, my logical mind won't let me spend a grand or better on a 30 year old digital watch when there's other more important things in life that this money could be spent on.

My other hobby surprisingly isn't nearly as costly to acquire nice examples. I collect/restore vintage Lawn-Boy push lawn mowers. My arsenal is quite low at the present time though...I only have 5 left, dating from the late '50s to the late '80s. All in near mint condition and run perfectly. These are the ones that I'm very reluctant to part with.
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TI Quest

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: Please Help! Quest to find my first LED watch

Post27 Sep 2007, 14:23

My Texas Intruments LED watch finally arrived a couple of weeks ago and it was fantastic. Brought back all thoses great memories from the 1970's. I wore it proudly at work for the following week......and then...........it started to play up!
The display is currently very intermittent and on occassion the whole watch will reset itself. It seems to work fine for limited periods and then just play up again!! So near yet so far... I've tried replacing the batteries. I also took the electronics out of the case for a closer look. I can't seem to find an obvious pattern to the problem and I can see no loose connections. Its the 503-4 model.
Any suggestions?? I brought the watch sold as seen. Maybe they knew it had this problem. I'm based in the UK, so can anyone recommend somewhere I could send the watch? Looks like my quest continues...... :-(
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: Please Help! Quest to find my first LED watch

Post27 Sep 2007, 15:30

It sounds like somethings shorting on the setting button.

The plastic TI's tend to have a metal clip which both holds the batteries in and completes the circuit with the command pushers (buttons). Check that it's firmly attached and not moving about at all in the case.

It could also be worth bending the bits which make contact with the pushers towards the module (away from the pushers).
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TI Quest

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: Please Help! Quest to find my first LED watch

Post27 Sep 2007, 18:03

This watch does have the metal clips you described. I have tried adjusting these, but will give it another go. It does seem to have a 'binary type' instablility, in that it either works fine for a while or not at all for a while.

Just before it fails when enabling the LED display, you can see it attempting to display the time for a fraction of a second and then it goes blank. It looks a little like something is getting 'overloaded' and requires time to reset itself.

Thanks for your input.
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Re: : Please Help! Quest to find my first LED watch

Post27 Sep 2007, 18:58

TI Quest wrote:...Just before it fails when enabling the LED display, you can see it attempting to display the time for a fraction of a second and then it goes blank. It looks a little like something is getting 'overloaded' and requires time to reset itself....
Usually this is a sign of weak batteries, but you wrote you've replaced them already.
Could be a bad battery contact (high resistance) or high resistance on the supply voltage line somewhere inside the module (e.g. broken PCB trace, broken via, or wire bond).
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TI Quest

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: Please Help! Quest to find my first LED watch

Post28 Sep 2007, 10:01

Dear Rewolf,
Good observation.....I used some WD40 on the battery contacts last night and the watch is working much better. Not perfect, but certainly an improvement. I think this agrees with your 'poor contact / high resistance' comments. I shall look for a more permanent solution.
The watch did blank out for 5 minutes and then started working again running 5 minutes slow (as if it had just stopped for those 5 minutes). Not sure if this is related to the high resistance?
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: Please Help! Quest to find my first LED watch

Post28 Sep 2007, 14:11

have you tried shaking or knocking the watch? if it's a contact problem, this should show some effect, in either direction...
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TI Quest

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: Please Help! Quest to find my first LED watch

Post28 Sep 2007, 17:29

I haven't tried to be 'too violent' with the watch, but did give it a few knocks before, with no real difference in performance.
The good news is that the watch has been working fine all of today. I think the WD40 may have done the trick. I'm still puzzled as to why the watch 'lost' 5 minutes last night? It looks more and more like a contact resistance problem, as you first suggested. Many thanks :-)
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