The GPX® clök TCR340 clock/radio
I got this GPX® clök TCR340 second hand for fairly cheap.
It's a faux wood, backlit LCD, digital volume and tune AM/FM
dual alarm clock radio. As I still value local talk
radio and local radio station in general due to their ability to pass
local news, this seemed like a neat device - it even has digital tuning
making fine tuning a thing of the past.
However I've found this thing to be quite annoying.
I did not get instructions or the manual with it, and it
sounds like the instructions that came with it are equivalent to not having
instructions at all. The buttons you can easily
mess up the memory and it's virtually impossible to figure out how to program
the time. Plus "pointless features" on it can make it even tougher. The
plastic case resonates with the speaker producing terrible harmonics from some
sounds.
The features are great - the presentation is terrible. User interface is
not intuitive at all and the viewing angles of the LCD are miserable. The
pictures do hint at how bad it is, but mostly it's due to the polarizer on
all twisted nematic LCDs.
Specifications and features:
Backlit 1" dimmable "white" LCD
Cheap CR2032 battery backup (like what the 9V does for old clock radios)
- This supports the "no set" mantra as the CR2032 powers the clock when power
is off. It serves as battery backup and no-set.
12V DC power adapter, 400mA, 15W top brick rating max
Low Power consumption. Measured with a P3 Kill-a-watt
- radio power on: 3.6 VA, 2.8 watts
- radio power off, clock on: 1.8 watts
Digital volume adjustment
Increasing volume alarms (starts quiet, gets louder until silenced).
Dual Alarm, radio or beeper
Digital tuning, AM 530KHz-1710KHz in 10KHz steps, FM 87.5MHz-108MHz in 100KHz steps
Storage of 10 FM and 10 AM user preset stations
Sleep feature - turn radio off automatically after some time
Adjustable USA timezone and DST on/off switch.
Great if you're moving around a lot (yeah, right)...
The timezone is kind of pointless, except when you first get the clock or move
and change time zones. With the battery installed, the clock will remember
the time - much longer than the 9V powered backups. With this, you don't
really have to set the clock after unpacking it when new or after shipping.
However, the DST switch makes springing forward or falling back fairly
painless.
Auxiliary line in for other devices. This is pointless as the other device needs to be on all the time, plus the speaker sounds awful with the plastic
case resonating with certain frequencies. Why, Why, Why?
I'm unsure if 24-hour clock mode is possible or how to enable it, despite the LCD is indeed capable
There are 13 buttons on the top:
Power/AL OFF - Turn on the radio, turn alarm off
AM/FM - Change radio band
DIM - reduce the backlight intensity. Cycle through three brightness levels
MEM/TIME - Set preset Memory in radio mode, or set Time in clock mode
AUX - Switch to auxiliary input on back
AL1 MEM-UP - Go up in memory preset or choose alarm 1 set/modes
AL2 MEM-DN - Go down in memory preset or choose alarm 2 set/modes
HOUR TUN-UP - Tune upwards or advance hours
MIN TUN-DN - Tune downwards or advance minutes
VOL-UP - Increase volume
VOL-DN - Decrease volume
SNOOZE - Snooze
SLEEP - Sleep timer
(back) ZONE - change timezone button
(back) DST - Enable/disable Daylight Savings Time slide switch
(back, input) FM antenna wire.
(back, input) Auxiliary input.
(back, input) Coaxial power 12VDC 400mA 5.5mm OD, 2.5mm ID, center +
(back, input) CR2032 backup power, I measured about 14 µA current draw,
but this is less than the resolution of my meter.
If 14µA was accurate, this results in a battery life of a bit over 2
years.
To replace the battery, remove self tapping screw and plastic panel. Then
carefully push the clip out of the way to release the coin cell.
(back, output) Speaker
Instructions that I figured out by playing with it. Note that you cannot
see or set time of day or alarm times when the radio is turned on!
I will call the "clock" mode when the radio is off, and "radio mode" when the
radio is on (and speaker making sound.)
Setting the current time:
1. Use the POWER/AL OFF button to turn the radio off and
ensure the time (even if wrong) is showing
2. Press MEM/TIME. The clock will start blinking.
3. Make sure DST switch is in the right setting before setting time.
Use the timezone button in the back, and the HOUR/TUN/MIN buttons to adjust
the timezone and time. You can change the timezone without changing the time
and it will cycle through the time automatically.
4. Press and hold the ZONE button to synchronize seconds if desired.
The two digit seconds will start blinking when it can be adjusted.
Use the HOUR/TUN/MIN buttons to adjust the seconds.
5. press MEM/TIME to save. It seems to automatically save
if you just leave it alone for a few moments.
6. Upon entering/leaving Daylight Saving Time, sliding the switch will advance
or retract an hour for you.
Setting Alarm1 or Alarm2 dual alarm:
1. Use the POWER/AL OFF button to turn radio off/go into CLOCK mode.
2. press and hold AL1 or AL2 for a second, depending on which alarm you want to set
3. Use TUN Hour/Min buttons to adjust the time for this alarm.
4. Press the AL1 or AL2 button, whichever you set, to save
5. Pressing AL1 or AL2 and quickly releasing toggles the alarm mode, which is
OFF (blank), beep ALARM (bell), RADIO (antenna), or AUX (music note)
6. Pressing AL1 after alarm1 goes off will silence it till the next day.
Same goes for AL2. Snooze will snooze the current alarm.
Using the radio:
1. Press POWER until the clock turns off and the radio frequency is displayed.
2. Use TUN HOUR/MIN to tune the radio. Use the AM/FM button to choose band
3. To save a preset, press MEM/TIME. Use the AL1/MEM/AL2 buttons to select a
slot and press MEM/TIME again to save. Note if you accidentally press MEM/TIME,
you are going to blow away a preset, so BE CAREFUL NOT TO INADVERTENTLY PRESS
MEM/TIME in RADIO mode if not setting one of the presets,
else you have to overwrite a preset!
4. Use Al1/MEM/AL2 buttons to select presets. Remember there are 10 FM
and 10 AM presets, it will display which preset for a brief period during
selection.
5. Press the SLEEP button to use the sleep mode. Press it until the number of
minutes you want the radio to automatically turn off.
6. Press AUX to switch to auxiliary input on the back,
use AM/FM button to go back to radio mode.
Problems:
The case is cheap plastic. Drop it and I expect it to smash to smithereens
The case is cheap plastic. The speaker resonates and sounds awful
Buttons are not intuitive. Figuring out how to set features almost requires
a PhD and takes quite a bit of time
Twisted Nematic display requires pretty much head on viewing to read
Antenna wire is cheap. If you flex it too much, the wire will eventually
break. You'll then have no antenna and no longer receive (FM) radio stations