My
experience with the AVOS clock chips is that they last at least 5 years,
usually much longer. I would guess that Leon County has at least 50% of their
machines with the original clock chips (circa 1992).
The
indication I used to determine that a chip was losing power was that the time
would not stay relatively accurate between elections. If I was setting all of
the clocks before an election, most would be within around 15 minutes of each
other. The bad chips would be way out of sync, usually the time and date would
be completely off. I do not remember ever going into diagnostic mode and not
seeing the Set Time/Date option.
Mark
Mark
Earley
850 422-2100 - office/fax
850 322-3226 - cell
-----Original
Message-----
From: owner-support@gesn.com
[mailto:owner-support@gesn.com]On Behalf Of Ian
S. Piper
Sent: Thursday, May 09, 2002 7:12
PM
To: support@gesn.com
Subject: RE: Internal Clock Chips
in Accu-Vote
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-support@gesn.com
[mailto:owner-support@gesn.com]On Behalf Of Jeff
Hintz
Sent: Thursday, May 09, 2002 5:07
PM
To: Support Team
Subject: Internal Clock Chips in
Accu-Vote
Does the Internal Clock Chip have a
battery???
[Ian S. Piper] Yes. A 3V lithium.
If so, how long does it last,
[Ian S. Piper] The manufacturer doesn't
have a value listed in their specification for the ROM version chip that we
use. I'll contact the manufacturer to get that information.
Typically they last about five years. Other support staff in
the field might be able to give you more info based on their typical
experience.
and is there a way to check
how much power is left in the battery???
[Ian S. Piper] There is no capacity
check. If the clock chip has failed or its battery is used up, the
only indications of the problem is that the "SET TIME/DATE" function
does not appear in the diagnostic mode or that no time/date stamp appears on
any of the printouts.
At the time the diagnostics were written,
the clock chip was optional. Since I've not known of any one wanting a
unit without that option, perhaps the non-existence of the clock chip data
should be a flag to the AV-OS unit that the clock chip needs replacement.
That could be written into a future version of the firmware. Submit
it as an RCR if you'd like.
Also another feature of the clock chip
that the oscillator bit can be turned off conserving the clock chip's battery
power. A diagnostic routine could be written to command the clock chip to
power down, say after the election is officially over and after the unit's main
battery is charged up. You'd lose the time and date and have to set
it the next time you turn the unit on, but usually elections require the
time to be changed due to daylight savings. It would be more
inconvenient to have to set the date during the same routine you'd normally
just set the time forward or back an hour, but customers could make that
decision for themselves. Currently, the clock chip battery is
being run down while the unit is just sitting on the shelf between
elections. This clock power down function could also be an RCR.
Submit it if you find enough interest.
One of our customers is asking this
question, and I did not see it anywhere in the Accu-Vote Hardware Guide.
[Ian S. Piper] This information should be
included in the documentation. It's already listed as a
consumable, but I'll CC Tracy Treat on the info, when I get it, so that
she can add it to the manuals.
Thanks,
Jeff
Hintz
Diebold Election Systems
405 N. 115th Street
Omaha, NE 68154
(402) 697-7171 office
(402) 697-7166 fax
(402) 871-3346 cell