NJU6355 Real Time Clock

I've built several clocks now and I have had good results with the NJU6355 RTC. It is available from DigiKey as an 8-pin DIP for around C$2. The manufacturer part number is NJU6355ED# and the DigiKey part number is NJU6355ED#-ND.

The spec sheet is available from either DigiKey or the manufacturer link above. There is also an application note which I cannot find a link to anymore. A search turns up one hit to a page with a broken link. Anyway I placed a copy if it here. The application note contains information on the crystal requirements and explains the test mode I use to measure the oscillator frequency.

The application note is a little vague on what capacitance crystal to use. The crystal is 32.768 KHz and is available in several load capacitances such as 6 or 12.5 pf. Crystals are cheap and readily available. Since the frequency changes with the layout of the circuit (among other factors), it is hard to be precise about the accuracy.

In my recent projects (appliance timer and chiming clock) I have included a 'clock test' in the setup menu, which tells the chip to output its clock signal, which should be precisely 128.000 KHz, on the Data pin. You can measure it with a frequency counter and see how accurate the clock is. If the frequency is high, you can add capacitance to bring it down. If it is too low, you should probably use a different crystal, with a higher capacitive load specification. I have had good results with 12.5 pf crystals with this chip. Once you have the chip running at the designated frequency, the clock is very accurate and does not need resetting very often.

You could also try to use a DS32khz instead of a crystal. I tried this in my thermostat project with excellent results. The disadvantage of course is cost, around C$8. Also it is getting hard to find them in DIP packages.

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