Regarding placement of the watch, it should be with the crown against the sensor. Here is an extract of the Witschi manual. I am not showing the part where they say something along the lines of "incorrect placement maybproduce distorted results"....
Hope this helps, Chris
To be honest, I don't remember getting any instructions with my 1000 and am pretty sure at the start I used it the way you were as that seemed logical with the cut out in the sliding part.
We all learn as we go along and if Christian's video is old, he may have been still working it out. The only point here is that you're trying to get the cleanest noise to the microphone so having the crown in contact with the sensor achieves that. Most of these machines are copies of an older Witschi so, the microphones are just cheaper versions. They should all work the same.
Try playing with those buttons on the right while it's running as I'd be interested to see if you get the gain symbol on the screen like mine.
Cheers, Chris
That's odd, perhaps there are different models. Just in case I'd forgotten how mine worked, I just dug it out. It appears to be a "no name" model....
When the watch is running, you can adjust the gain with the right hand arrows. Here is max gain and you see it on the upper right of the screen. The line is pretty good in this instance (it's a cal 601 I'm wearing). This watch is fine.
Here I've reduced the gain using the buttons (I think you're right that the auto gain works in most situations and is probably in the middle of the scale). Now the line is hopeless and the watch appears to have some issues.
And here on the Witschi which is a lot easier to read. I know people will read into this that the cheap ones are accurate within a few degrees of amplitude and a few seconds per day - but my sample size is 1 馃榿 The Witschi obviously has a calibration document and needs refreshing on a fairly regular basis.
Regards, Chris
When it's running, the buttons increase/decrease the contrast. When stopped, they (in turn) adjust: Beat Rate : Lift Angle :Test Period :Language.
I've always assumed that the gain must be automatic - I do have one watch (another older Certina) where it's sometimes a bit flaky about picking up the beat - if you listen by ear, it has a slight metallic "ting" which I think this cheap machine has problems ignoring. Left for a while it usually will sort it out. A gain control might help there.
Testing a watch crown left in the holder certainly makes it quicker to check the Cl and CD positions too.
So best part of an afternoon checking all the others now.... Interesting that it doesn't seem to affect the timing, but does (slightly) the beat error and (a bit more) the amplitude on the ones I've checked (except for an AT 8500, on which it seems to have no effect)
Interesting, there must be some slightly different models if you never see the gain "signal strength" icon like on mine. As Al says, the variable gain is useful so a pity yours doesn't have it.
That scope function on the open source software looks interesting as well. That can be useful for detecting some faults.
Cheers, Chris
Mine looks exactly the same and alternates in the same way as yours in the top right between beat rate and lift angle, except that when the trace is working it's way across (not stopped) pressing those right hand buttons brings up the signal strength. When stopped, those buttons do the contrast. Ah well, if it's working for you, then it's all good.
Cheers, Chris
Mine looks exactly the same and alternates in the same way as yours in the top right between beat rate and lift angle, except that when the trace is working it's way across (not stopped) pressing those right hand buttons brings up the signal strength. When stopped, those buttons do the contrast. Ah well, if it's working for you, then it's all good.
Cheers, Chris
Much better!
Is it at full wind this time?
The amplitude could be a little low, but as you did not set the correct lift angle, we can only speculate. The beat error is too big, but it is not terrible and you have decent lines.
The rate does not look very good, but to be sure we would need a measure over at least 3 positions.
