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Old 13th Mar 2018, 10:12 am   #101
Dave Moll
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Default Re: Electric clocks running slow warning

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Originally Posted by winston_1 View Post
Teletext is digital, never analogue.
The point is that (at least in the UK) the Teletext system (including the data packet used to set timers) broadcast with the analogue transmissions (referred to as "analogue teletext" for brevity) was replaced by a different and incompatible system with the move to digital programme transmission and anything relying on its time signal ceased to be kept in synchrony.
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Old 15th Mar 2018, 12:22 am   #102
Leon Crampin
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Default Re: Electric clocks running slow warning

Noting that my synchronous clocks are about 2 minutes slow relative to GMT as has been generally observed, I have also noticed that these clocks now agree almost exactly with the time (?) signal broadcast via my phone.

Could this just be a big c**k up, with the grid having run slow due to demand with insufficient margin, to the point where it now agrees with an " alternative" time standard?

So, no action needed.....

Good grief,

Leon.
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Old 15th Mar 2018, 12:33 am   #103
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Default Re: Electric clocks running slow warning

Phone clocks can be very unreliable. I don't know about iPhones, but Android phones set their clocks using the mobile phone network rather than the internet, and they only do it when the phone boots. You can get quite a lot of clock drift if you never reboot.

There are apps which will get the time from an NTP server, but an unrooted Android phone doesn't allow apps to set the system time so you have to do it manually, which is usually more of a faff than just rebooting every few days.
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Old 15th Mar 2018, 5:12 am   #104
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Default Re: Electric clocks running slow warning

Maybe it's a different, if slow, way of switching to British Summer Time

23 hours of drift, going the long way round. Easier in the Autumn....

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Old 15th Mar 2018, 9:48 am   #105
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Default Re: Electric clocks running slow warning

Bright side of it: we now have an excuse for being late.
 
Old 15th Mar 2018, 10:30 am   #106
Dai Corner
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Default Re: Electric clocks running slow warning

Why are you late for school?

Sir, my phone must use a different time standard to the bus driver's so I missed the bus and had to wait for the next one.
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Old 15th Mar 2018, 10:37 am   #107
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Default Re: Electric clocks running slow warning

And don't rely on the pips on a DAB radio!

Stuart
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Old 15th Mar 2018, 10:44 am   #108
Leon Crampin
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Default Re: Electric clocks running slow warning

I should have said that it was BBC radio via my 'phone which now virtually agrees with "grid time".

Broadcasting time pips wrongly via various distribution systems is at best plain stupid and is in my view negligent - but then I'm probably now just an old f**t used to doing things properly.

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Old 15th Mar 2018, 11:05 am   #109
barrymagrec
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Default Re: Electric clocks running slow warning

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Originally Posted by stuarth View Post
And don't rely on the pips on a DAB radio!
Always 2.5 seconds slow here in South London. Possibly different error in other parts of the country.
Internet radio is miles off.
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Old 15th Mar 2018, 12:30 pm   #110
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Default Re: Electric clocks running slow warning

It is impossible to get anything meaningful if you have a DAB radio in one room and an FM set in another.
FM matches a desk top computer with a web time server set up on it.
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Old 30th Mar 2018, 12:02 pm   #111
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Default Re: Electric clocks running slow warning

I re-set all my mains synchronous clocks last weekend when BST started - there are at least 6 running in the house at any one time.

I've just noticed that they're all over a minute slow already - very disappointing in less than 7 days. At this rate, they could be half an hour out by the time we change them back to GMT! This is the first year I have every noticed anything like this happen.

Can anyone offer any inside knowledge about what's going on?

Should I now be going round every week and re-setting them, rather like I have to do with my spring-driven 1930s mantel clocks when I wind them?

Nick.

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Old 30th Mar 2018, 12:10 pm   #112
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Default Re: Electric clocks running slow warning

Mine are the same, as you'd expect.

I can only assume the commitment to overall frequency stability has been quietly dropped, maybe because of the changing generation mix.
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Old 30th Mar 2018, 12:20 pm   #113
G8HQP Dave
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Default Re: Electric clocks running slow warning

Interesting that Google turns up lots of news stories about clocks on the continent running slow, but the only thing about slow UK clocks is this thread! Surely someone else must have noticed, and someone must know the inside story.
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Old 30th Mar 2018, 12:28 pm   #114
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Default Re: Electric clocks running slow warning

Hi

Around the time of the fairly recent cold spell (beast from the east Mk1) at the beginning of the month, I noticed some variations in the mains supply as you'd expect when there's a heavy demand. Something I found was strange operation from the microwave oven, it occasionally failed to start and appeared to be very delayed in it's operation. What I was wondering is, are microwave ovens very sensitive to fluctuations in mains supply frequency?

Regards
Symon.
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Old 30th Mar 2018, 12:53 pm   #115
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Default Re: Electric clocks running slow warning

Can you not ask your electricity provider? They should be able to provide an answer.
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Old 30th Mar 2018, 12:59 pm   #116
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Default Re: Electric clocks running slow warning

All of my house clocks stayed correct during the cold spell. My Peugeot car clock however which had been correct lost five minutes over a week.

There is a way to set it up to keep in time via its GPS system but I don't know how to do it.
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Old 30th Mar 2018, 1:21 pm   #117
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Default Re: Electric clocks running slow warning

Sounds like we all need to continue to wear a Casio LCD watch, the price of which has been fairly stable since the late 'eighties! Spec. is +/- 30 seconds a month, but in reality is far better. Only problem is i am swiftly getting too long-sighted for the display..

Go for the electro luminescence one, the lesser backlight is no good. Not to be worn when putting up a fence or changing a wheel- the straps aren't up to it.

My bedside LED clock radios have lost a minute since we went to BST, but i don't know if they rely on frequency.
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Old 30th Mar 2018, 1:23 pm   #118
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Default Re: Electric clocks running slow warning

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Originally Posted by The Philpott View Post
Sounds like we all need to continue to wear a Casio LCD watch
Wouldn't the body heat help keep the xtal stable too?

l
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Old 30th Mar 2018, 1:44 pm   #119
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Default Re: Electric clocks running slow warning

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Originally Posted by The Philpott View Post
My bedside LED clock radios have lost a minute since we went to BST, but i don't know if they rely on frequency.
I`m pretty sure mine does, it`s also lost a minute since I reset it for BST. We don`t have any synchronous motor driven mains clocks but I would expect the same result.
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Old 30th Mar 2018, 1:56 pm   #120
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Default Re: Electric clocks running slow warning

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Originally Posted by The Philpott View Post
My bedside LED clock radios have lost a minute since we went to BST, but i don't know if they rely on frequency.
My nearly-20-year-old Sony "Dream Machine" bedside clock-radio automatically syncs its clock to the radio RDS time-signal. Which is kinda handy given that its internal timekeeping battery-backup has long since ceased to back-up and we get lots of mains power-outages here.

[Strangely, power-outages don't cause the radio's presets to lose their presettedness though!]
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