Decide whether to fit the Clock yourself or send your player to us.
WARNING: Modifying any piece of audio equipment should not be undertaken lightly, especially when electronic circuitry is involved. CD players can be very tempremental if incorrectly tampered with.
With a good basic level of electronics knowledge, and good soldering skills, we have found that the majority of customers can install a Trichord clock module without any problems.
However, if you do not feel very confident in fitting a clock to your CD player, Trichord Research can carry out the work for you.
Please note that modifying your equipment in any way will invalidate the manufacturers warranty
Fit the Clock yourself:
Having decided to take the risk and carry out the work yourself you will require the following items:
- Soldering Iron
- Solder
- De-soldering tool (solder sucker or solder wick)
- De-soldering eqipment for any surface mount components
- Screwdriver, Torx or Allen keys to disassemble player
- Clock 2 or Clock 4 of the correct frequency
- Optional Clock Power Supply
Ascertain the correct clock frequency for your player:
Check if your CD player is on our player list. The correct clock frequencies for the listed players are shown. It is a relatively short list but our clocks will fit the majority of players.
If your machine is listed, then proceed to order your clock from us either by phone on 01684 311600, or from our online store.
If you cannot find your player listed then you will need to look inside the player.
IMPORTANT: Ensure that power is removed from the player before opening - many have exposed mains connections once the lid has been removed.
Remove the lid of your CD player by removing screws in the side and/or top and back of the enclosure.
Locate the quartz crystal oscillator. This is usually a shiny metal can on the printed circuit board, approximately 10 by 15 mm. or 1/2 by 3/4 inch. It may be encapsulated in a black rubber housing, or textile tape.
Here are some example photos of what a quartz crystal clock oscillator looks like:
The quartz crystal has a specific frequency for your CD player. We will need to know what frequency the crystal in your machine is to provide you with the correct clock.
Here are the most common frequencies used in CD players:
- 8.4672 MHz
- 11.2896 MHz
- 16.9344 MHz
- 22.5792 MHz
- 27.000 MHz
- 33.8688 MHz
- 45.1584 MHz
These instructions are to be used if there is no specific instruction available for your machine.
The marking on the crystal may also consist of some of these digits. A marking of 45.15 would denote a 45.1584 MHz unit, and 169NDK for a 16.9344 MHz unit.
General Fitting Instructions for a Clock 2 or Clock 4
These are the instructions to be used if there are no specific instructions available for your player.
1) Ensure that your player is disconnected from the mains supply by removing the plug from the wall socket
2) Remove the lid of your player.
3) Make sure that you have received the correct clock frequency for your player. If the frequency is incorrect then your player will either not work, or play at the wrong speed.
4) Check to see if you can gain access to removing the crystal and its associated parts by removing a cover on the bottom of the CD player. If you can gain access this way you should not have to remove any circuit boards. In this case, move to step 5, otherwise continue with step 4.
5) Carefully remove the all the screws and connectors from the Printed Circuit Board (PCB) in your CD player, which has the crystal unit soldered. Make careful notes of any connector colour coding, and correct orientation. Usually the connectors will only slot in one way. When all connectors and screws have been removed, take out the PCB.
6) Remove the crystal and it’s associated components, usually one crystal, two small value ceramic capacitors and sometimes one or two resistors.
The capacitors usually have one lead wire connected to the crystal, and the other lead wire of each capacitor joins together connecting to ground. The resistors will be connected in series or in parallel with the crystal. The capacitors and resistors will be situated within a 2cm/1″ range of the crystal.
Locate a suitable mounting space for the clock board. For the very best clock performance, clock lead-out wires (i.e. the Black / White twisted pair) should be kept as short as possible.
Connect the Black/White twisted pair to GROUND and CLOCK SIGNAL respectively:
BLACK = GND
WHITE = CLOCK
The point on the circuit board, where the two capacitors you have just removed, connect together, is GND.
If you are unsure which of the two pins of the IC that the original crystal connected to is the clock input, then you can perform a test on each pin by connecting the clock signal (White twisted wire) from the Clock 2/4 board via a 1K resistor. (to carry out this test you will need to have connected power to the Clock 2/4 board - either from within the player, or from a small 9 volt battery). The 1KOhm resistor will protect your CD player from damage if the correct pin is not selected
Insert a CD and check if the machine reads the Table Of Contents (number of tracks, total track time). If it reads the TOC OK, remove the1KOhm resistor and reconnect the White wire directly to the circuit board.
Power can be connected to the Clock 2/4 board either from one of the CD players’ existing power supplies, or by adding a small dedicated power supply unit. The best results are usually obtained with the dedicated unit.
Connecting Clock power from within a CD player.
Power is fed to the Clock 2/4 board via the Red/Black twisted pair:
RED = +Ve
BLACK = oV (GND)
1) Connect the +Ve (Red twisted wire) of the Clock 2/4 to a DC supply between +9 and +20 volts dc. Most CD players use 7812 and/ or 7815 three pin voltage regulator I/C’s for their positive analogue power supplies. Try not to connect the Clock 2/4 to these regulators as you will add clock noise to the analogue stages and impair performance.
The digital supplies in most CD players are fed from a 5 volt regulator - normally a 7805. The input side i.e. pin 1 (with the text on the regulator facing towards you, lead-wires facing down, pin 1 is on the left) is usually several volts higher than 5V and is the ideal place to put the red twisted wire.
2) Do not connect the black twisted wire, but cut it just short of the length of the red wire and make sure that its end does not short against any component or PCB track.
3) Connect your CD player to the mains, and switch on the machine.
4) The clock installation is now complete. You can now re-assemble the CD player.
Connecting Clock power with a Trichord dedicated Clock Power Supply.
1) Locate a position inside your player where the Clock Power Supply will fit. Try to locate it near the existing power supply circuitry and away from the analogue section.
2) Drill four holes using the supplied paper template for hole spacing and attach the unit with the supplied screws.
3) Connect the BROWN and BLUE wires to LIVE and NEUTRAL respectively. It is better if the BROWN wire can be connected to the ‘switched’ side of the incoming mains, but this is not always possible as some machines have electronic control. In these cases power will always be supplied to the clock circuit even when the CD player is turned off. This has never caused any problem with this type of machine.
4) Connect the RED wire of the RED/BLACK twisted pair from the Clock board to the ‘+Ve’ terminal of the Clock Power Supply.
5) Connect the BLACK wire of the RED/BLACK twisted pair to the ‘0V’ terminal of the Clock Power Supply.
6) The Clock Power Supply installation is now complete. You can now re-assemble the CD player.
7) Connect your CD player to the mains, and switch on the machine.
Running-in period - for best performance we recommend that the player is left switched on for about three weeks to allow sufficient running in of the new clock components. The player does not need to play disks during this period as the Clock will be running continuously while the player is switched on.
