Power Requirements & Failure Mode

The orbichron^® clock will operate on 50Hz or 60Hz, which means that it can function worldwide, provided that a proper voltage adapter is used. The clock uses the AC line frequency for accuracy, and not the internal crystal oscillator. During the initialization procedure at start-up, the AC power is sampled to determine the line frequency.

In the very likely event of a power failure, spike or flicker, the orbichron clock is very forgiving. Without the need of a backup battery, the clock will continue operation through the use of newly developed capacitor technology. If the power fails completely, the display will blank and no chime will sound while a pseudo sleep mode is entered. In this mode, which will last one minute, the clock will continue counting time from the internal crystal oscillator time base. Should power be restored while in this mode, full operation will be returned with no indication of the blackout. If, after one minute, the power has not been restored, the clock’s micro-controller will enter a true sleep mode that is meant to only preserve the configuration settings. When power is restored during true sleep, the clock, after several seconds (possibly as long as 15 seconds), will return to life with all settings intact, but with the time display off by the length of the failure minus the one minute of the pseudo sleep mode. The display will blink to indicate that a power outage occurred, and each minute the chime will sound once. This will continue until the user presses any key. If power does not return until after the sleep mode period is exhausted (possibly up to two hours), the orbichron clock will return to the initial start-up defaults, and must be completely reconfigured.

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Last modified: October 30, 2001