KR> thanks for the ideas, everybody seems to have the same idea
 KR> that reversing the polarity clears the device. i'm afraid that
 KR> i cant buy it for a couple of reasons. firstly the data was,
 KR> much to my surprise, still in memory, and secondly, the thing
 KR> already has two little push buttons to set the clock, and
 KR> enable the beep. it would seem much more logical (and cheaper
 KR> bob) to set the thing's micrcode to reset if both buttons are
 KR> pressed together.

  The problem with a really flat battery is that the reset no longer
works. The RESET mechanism involves quite a bit of hardware inside,
none of which works below about 0.6 volts. Reversing the battery would
wipe that and clear the RAM.

  Your data is probably held in EEPROM that doesn't give a shit about
low (or reversed) voltage. You have to have a couple of volts before
you can read or write an EEPROM, so the data just stays.

Regards,
Bob
___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12
@EOT:

---