June 2010
My quartz cookoo clock has a photodiode to turn off the clock at night, but I want it to work at night. Can I just remove the photodiode?
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I would expect that removing the photo diode would keep the alarm from activating, but it's impossible to guess the internal circuit configuration. Try temporarily shorting the diode with a clip lead. If that doesn't awaken the birdie at night, remove the diode.
Might not work by removing the photodiode.
What might help is to check the voltage drop over the photodiode with the lights on, and replace it with a resistor to give the same voltage drop across it.
Using a 100k potentiometer, turn it on the max resistance (100k) and slowly decrease the resistance until the same voltage is read as the original voltage drop across the photodiode. Measure the resistance – and replace with a fixed resistor of the appropriate value.
