In article ,
Eddy wrote:
After much trouble trying to get through to the right people at Sony, I
have been told by two people there that the "Sony ICF-CD855L CD Clock
Radio" does NOT have the usual form of "battery backup" but that there
IS "battery backup". One of these two people then went on to say she
could find no details about its exact nature OR for how long the backup
would operate in the event of a power failure, though she dared to say
(sounding rather unsure to me) that she thought that all pre-sets and
clock-settings would be preserved "for at least two hours". The other
person is still to come back to me with further details.

Has anyone heard of this apparently new form of "battery backup"?
Sorry, if I appear to be ignorant about it, but almost all the gadgets
that I possess which have battery backup have an aperture somewhere
round the back or underneath into which you fit a good old-fashioned
battery of some sort, if not some slender little battery of the disc
variety. The Sony ICF-CD855L has no such opening in its casing.

Plenty of devices have internal rechargeable backup batteries. Might be a
normal rechargeable or a high value capacitor. Computers. VCRs. Central
heating programmers. Even some car instruments.
My fairly ancient Acorn computer has battery backup for the CMOS settings
(including clock) - which are rather more complex than a PC, IIRC. And
will happily keep them for months without ever being switched on.

Of course for decent life after a mains failure you'd need careful design
- perhaps not something that matters too much with a basically mains
operated device.

--
*The colder the X-ray table, the more of your body is required on it *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Eddy wrote:
Thanks, David & Tony, re. details of MSF.

As regards my battery-backup issue, here's an update, all, on progress.

After much trouble trying to get through to the right people at Sony, I
have been told by two people there that the "Sony ICF-CD855L CD Clock
Radio" does NOT have the usual form of "battery backup" but that there
IS "battery backup". One of these two people then went on to say she
could find no details about its exact nature OR for how long the backup
would operate in the event of a power failure, though she dared to say
(sounding rather unsure to me) that she thought that all pre-sets and
clock-settings would be preserved "for at least two hours". The other
person is still to come back to me with further details.

Has anyone heard of this apparently new form of "battery backup"?
Sorry, if I appear to be ignorant about it, but almost all the gadgets
that I possess which have battery backup have an aperture somewhere
round the back or underneath into which you fit a good old-fashioned
battery of some sort, if not some slender little battery of the disc
variety. The Sony ICF-CD855L has no such opening in its casing.


FWIW I've got a Sony radio alarm (about 10 years old) and while there's
no battery to change it does keep time and presets for, IIRC from the
manual, 2 to 3 hours. It certainly works during the very occasional
power cut. I suspect the one you're looking at has something similar.
Why not just buy it mail order and return it under the distance selling
thing if it's not up to scratch?

Rob

Slightly aside, I wonder why it is that the Uk and North/South America
versions of this unit has a 12 hour clock but the rest of the world has
a 24 hour clock.

I can believe the Merkins being unable to understand a clock with hours
higher than 12, but we've been using it for decades!



--
Woody

harrogate three at ntlworld dot com

Rob wrote:
FWIW I've got a Sony radio alarm (about 10 years old) and while there's
no battery to change it does keep time and presets for, IIRC from the
manual, 2 to 3 hours. It certainly works during the very occasional
power cut. I suspect the one you're looking at has something similar.
Why not just buy it mail order and return it under the distance selling
thing if it's not up to scratch?

Ah, good to hear from someone familiar with a similar product. 2 to 3
hours backup is good. Will bear the "distance selling thing" in mind if
there's any problem with it at all. I confess to having ordered the
item through the monstrous Amazon.

Eddy.

To conclude the saga, guys, Sony UK advised me today in writing that the
period of backup for the time-settings and preset stations of the SONY
ICFD855 is 10 minutes.

Well, that's certainly better than no backup at all.

And the "Dream Machine" itself has arrived . . . and it's a treat.

Eddy.