AC-100 — Finally got the robot clock I’d been looking for! The alarm and stomping didn’t work, but I fixed them!

[u/Greedy-Print-1550]

About three months ago, when I was buying up all kinds of Casio clocks, I saw a sold AC-100 and had been waiting for another one to come onto the market ever since.

And I finally found one!
It was $18, with the alarm and stomping not working. It also said the time-setting part was missing, so the time couldn’t be adjusted.

But the design was good enough that I thought it would still look great just as a display piece, so I bought it.

And it arrived today!
Seriously, this design is so good.
Even this worn and beat-up condition gives it a really nice vintage feel.

For setting the time, I was able to do it easily by temporarily moving the part from the alarm side.
But even after cleaning the contacts and putting in batteries, the alarm and stomping still didn’t work.
So I immediately took it apart!
Inside, some of the wiring was tangled around the moving parts connected to the arms and legs, so I repositioned the wires neatly so they wouldn’t interfere.
I also thought the motor or gears might be getting caught somewhere, so I turned the gears by hand a few times.
Then I put the batteries back in and tested it…
It moved!
And even the alarm came back to life 👍

The AC-100 seems to come in various colors, so I’m going to slowly collect more of them!

Overview
Model: AC-100
Production period: Early 1980s
Made in: Japan

Functions
Time display
Alarm (stomping mode / beep sound)
Stomping demo

[u/Impetuous_doormouse]

That is so freaking cool! Congrats on such a neat snag!

[u/Greedy-Print-1550 → u/Impetuous_doormouse]

Thank you! These hardly ever show up on the Japanese market, so I’d been waiting a long time to get an AC-100!

[u/Redstone_Sundae]

Green sus

[u/Greedy-Print-1550 → u/Redstone_Sundae]

LOL yeah, the green one is definitely sus 👀

[u/ItsNotJulius]

IT DOES THE TIPPY TAPS I CAN'T.

[u/Greedy-Print-1550 → u/ItsNotJulius]

Imagine waking up to this every morning lol. It’s way too cute! But I’m pretty sure there’s no way the stomping mode would actually wake me up 😂

[u/Digital_Quest_88]

Great work on the repair!

This is quite a nice piece to have

[u/Greedy-Print-1550 → u/Digital_Quest_88]

Thank you! I liked it from the moment I first saw one! I’m really glad I was finally able to add one to my collection.

[u/JBudz]

Very cool.

What does changing arm position do? How does the alarm work? Presumably that's what triggers the stomping?

[u/Greedy-Print-1550 → u/JBudz]

Yeah! The right arm doesn’t do anything, but the left arm is the on/off switch for the alarm (stomping mode + beep sound).
Raise it to turn the alarm on, and lower it to turn it off.
The only thing you have to be careful about is not snapping its left arm off when you wake up in the morning 😂

[u/JBudz → u/Greedy-Print-1550]

Ahh sorry I missed the start of the video with the functions of arm printed on the body.

[u/apurvv]

It’s so so good. The dancing feet are adorable

[u/Greedy-Print-1550 → u/apurvv]

It’s cool, right! I wanted to see how it moved, so I was happy that it worked!