Retro electronics. Smart watches from the 80s

The end of the 1970s. Before the first mass home computers a few more years.

In the morning I wake up not to the sounds of an ordinary mechanical alarm clock. And not even under the whine of electronic. I wake up to the sound of the program "Time". The TV turned on itself, according to the schedule.

According to the father (radio engineer): “at the end of the 70s, the era of digital microcircuits was just beginning, the radio designers liked the CMOS for the K176 — a series of microcircuits with low current consumption (up to 0.5 mA), good noise immunity and high stability.”

Around those years, he manufactured an electronic clock with a time relay. The relay allowed you to either squeak a beep or turn the standard appliance on and off on a schedule.
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Brief description of the product and working principles:

The master oscillator is made on a K176ie5 microcircuit and quartz with a frequency of 32768 Hz. Next, the signal from the chip in 1 sec. It goes to the input K176ie4, K176ie3, which are connected through transistors kt315 for each segment to the indicators IV-22 (also very durable) - this is how the units and tens of seconds are formed on the dial.

After that, a signal of 1 minute goes through K176 le5 to the following counters IE4, IE3, which form units and tens of minutes, and then units and a dozen hours. Parallel to these 4-rem microcircuits, K176 and 8 microcircuits are connected - decimal divisors of counters with positional outputs for decimal-section switches. They set the on and off time of the relay using the K176 la8 microcircuit (coincidence circuit). From this microcircuit a signal is sent to the sound generator and low-power relay RES-64. This relay includes the following RES-9 relay, a more powerful one. And RES-9 already includes an executive relay MKU-48, which can easily withstand a load of 1 kW.

Most of these chips were considered almost military supply, were very durable, but it was impossible to find in the free market. But you could get everything in your circles, if you know what to look for and where to go - in those days, enthusiasts could just share something just for an idea.

The case was made of getinax plates, with a drill drilled neat holes for the speaker on the basis of a K155 la7 chip. Design "Soviet", functional, no frills.

But instead of a dull mechanical alarm clock, we had a television, and the schedule of programs on central television was strictly kept at that time, so it was safe to be sure that at 8:00 in the morning we would hear the sounds of the “Time” program with a cheerful melody. Or it was possible to connect a radio tape recorder, or a tape recorder, in which the cassette was prewound at the right moment and the “Start” mechanical key was already clamped, all that was needed was to click on the powered relay.

The clock has long moved to an old summer cottage, but in the picture it is clear that they still work fine - the time indicators did not dim at all. You can also see the switches for setting the time, turning the device on and off, as well as the alarm button and the reset button for seconds. The input and output for the outlet 220 on the reverse side, they are not visible.


Now more than 40 years have passed, and the clock is working without a single breakdown, except that when disconnected from power, now you have to manually set the time - earlier, in case of power failure, it was supported by a small battery on 9V, 1000m - could keep the clock autonomously for 2 x days.

Now he has already exhausted his resource, and it makes no sense to change.

Even the outline of the scheme has been preserved. Although, why the sketch - in those years it was quite even a high-quality drawing for work.



Update:
Regarding the dispute about the program "Time" at 8:00 am - it is about Kiev - on the first channel in those years, the morning release of the program "Time" was broadcast exactly at 8:00 am.