How to setup an Excalibur Game II Clock for Backgammon Matches

The Excalibur Game Time II Bronstein clock (aka "GTII") comes with 91 preprogrammed "presets" (1-91) and 5 user defined presets (U1 - U5). To best comply with U.S. Backgammon clock rules presets U1 - U5 should be used. This document identifies how to program them.

Note: The first five steps in the following procedure are how you switch from one match length to another once you're finished configuring your clock.

	Parameter	Length of match in points =>	3	5	7	9	11
	PRESET	Preset # to select. Complete list is on the underside of the clock. Only U1 - U5 may be user set.	U1	U2	U3	U4	U5
1	:00 PRIMARY		:00	:00	:00	:00	:00
2	000 PRIMARY		000	000	000	000	000
3	PRIMARY :00		:00	:00	:00	:00	:00
4	PRIMARY 000		000	000	000	000	000
5	COUNTER		00	00	00	00	00
6	:00 SECOND		:00	:00	:00	:00	:00
7	000 SECOND		000	000	000	000	000
8	SECOND :00		:00	:00	:00	:00	:00
9	SECOND 000		000	000	000	000	000
10	COUNTER		00	00	00	00	00
11	:00 SUDDEN	Seconds portion of the Reserve time for the player on the left. Per U.S. Backgammon Clock Rules must be zero for the start of a new match. Note: Using the Sudden time will cause LED to come on when time has expired.	:00	:00	:00	:00	:00
12	XXX SUDDEN	Minutes portion of the Reserve time for the player on the left. Per U.S. Backgammon Clock Rules this must be 2 x the number of points in the match.	006	010	014	018	022
13	SUDDEN :00	Seconds portion of the Reserve time for the player on the right. Per U.S. Backgammon Clock Rules must be zero for the start of a new match.	:00	:00	:00	:00	:00
14	SUDDEN XXX	Minutes portion of the Reserve time for the player on the right. Per U.S. Backgammon Clock Rules this must be 2 x the number of points in the match.	006	010	014	018	022
15	DELAY	Move deductible: time in seconds before player's reserve begins to be tapped	12	12	12	12	12
16	CLAIM	Will freeze the time display and ignore the plungers when the reserve time has expired for one of the players. This signifies that the match is over and the unexpired player can claim victory.	On	On	On	On	On
17	SAVE	Used only to save the clock values for a match-in-progress ... as for example, when you're going on a dinner break. See "Explanation of the SAVE parameter" beneath this table for the save and recall procedures.	OFF	OFF	OFF	OFF	OFF
18	COUNTER		OFF	OFF	OFF	OFF	OFF
19	GAME END		OFF	OFF	OFF	OFF	OFF
20	ACCUM		OFF	OFF	OFF	OFF	OFF
21	SOUND	Will emit a beep when a player has timed out	On	On	On	On	On
22	00 SOUND	Sounds a beep when the Reserve Time has run down to this many seconds left. Greg Cattanach (February 2010): "As sound warnings can't be standardized amongst clocks (some certainly don't have them) and there is no provision in the rules for sound warnings, I think it's more straightforward just to leave this off." Bob Koca (February 2010): "If it was up to me I would turn it on and set it at 30 seconds. When I use my own clock I point out this feature to my opponent and ask if it is okay, and I would turn it off if they did not want it."	00	00	00	00	00
23	DELAY ALL	Turns on the delay timer. This will display the "per move deductible" or DELAY.	On	On	On	On	On
24	WORD		OFF	OFF	OFF	OFF	OFF
25	SECOND	Displays seconds (albeit in a small numbers) if time left is more than 10 minutes. If time left is less than 10 minutes both minutes and seconds are displayed as large numbers.	On	On	On	On	On

One of the trickiest things to do with GTII is to save the time values for a match-in-progress. Here are the procedures:

1	Turn the recessed PAUSE/PLAY switch to PAUSE. This will cause the preset number to be displayed when the clock is turned on.
2	To turn on the clock, press the recessed ON/OFF button on the underside of the clock.
3	The large numbers on each side are the "reserve time" in minutes for each player for the entire match.
4	The smaller number in the lower middle of the screen is the "per move deductible" or DELAY.
5	Press the SELECT button. The last used PRESET number will appear. Use the - and + buttons to change this to a different PRESET - the one you want to modify (or set if you've finished programming your clock). The ones you should use for backgammon are U1, U2, U3, U4, and U5. They follow the 91^st preset. You can get to them quickest by pressing the - button several times (as opposed to pressing the + button 80 or more times).
	Each preset has 25 parameters that may be set for it. The next two steps must be repeated for each of those 25 parameters per the "Parameter Table" on the next page.
6	Press the SELECT button until the parameter you wish to change appears.
7	Use the + and - buttons to change the parameter to the value specified in the Parameter Table, below.
8	Repeat steps 6 and 7 for all the remaining parameters that you wish to change.
9	Turn the recessed PAUSE/PLAY switch to PLAY.
10	Turn the clock off by holding down the tiny recessed switch underneath the unit.
11	It is important that when a match is begun the plungers should be centered, and the PAUSE/PLAY switch be set to PLAY.
12	The standard method to pause the clock between games is to center the plungers without moving the PAUSE/PLAY switch to PAUSE. However, you should first start the clock for the player who was NOT last to play and then stop it by centering. This will reset that players per-move free time to 12 seconds. Otherwise if s/he wins the roll, the clock starts with less than 12 seconds free (and maybe 0 seconds meaning reserve time starts decrementing).