Can't make an alarm that is set more than 24 hours in future with JSpinner

Question

I have what I thought was a simple problem, but I can't seem to get past it, so I come to ask the experts.
I want to use a JSpinner to basically set an alarm. I am using the SpinnerDateModel and a DateEditor with the string "HHH:mm:ss". The reason there is three hour feilds is because what I really want is to be able to set it to any number of hours from 0 to 999. But there in lies my problem, it won't let me get past 24.
What I have tried:
I changed the first H to D (or d, whichever is days in the year) but it wont work for me because it can't be zero.
I tried extending the DateEditor code, but this was next to impossible because the company I work for makes us have two machines on our desk, both are thin clients, one connects to the internet but we are not allowed/able to download anything, and it does not have java on it in any form. The other does not connect to the internet, and can not, it has Java on it, but not the source code for methods like DateEditor. So without seeing the source I have no clue what to override.
I really want to use the one JSpinner with the SpinnerDateModel, but if I can't figure this out then I could use seperate spinners for hours, minutes, and seconds though that looks really ugly and is far from ideal.
So please if anyone has any clue how I could solve this, please let me know.
Thanks,
JSG
Edited by: JustSomeGuy on Jun 29, 2010 2:00 PM

Answer 1

I just tried out a JSpinner with the SpinnerDateModel and DateEditor using pattern "HH:mm:ss". Behind the scenes, you are still dealing with a date. If you look at what date gets returned, the first time you spin the spinner using that pattern, the year suddenly jumps to 1970. It's using a default year, because there is no year to spin within your pattern.
So long as you don't feel too guilty or uncool for using the date spinner in a manner that it was not intended, you could probably achieve your objective by abusing the date editor with a pattern like "SSS:mm:ss". That pattern is milliseconds (which conveniently go from 0 to 999), minutes, then seconds. When reading your spinner, just interpret the milliseconds as the hours, minutes as minutes, and seconds as seconds. The rest of the date just gets thrown away. Uncool. But should work.
Or you can be cool and write a custom editor and model, but depending on your experience level, this could be difficult and time consuming. But also comes with a greater feeling of achievement.