Time anomaly or technical malfunction?
Today my radio alarm clock, which usually wakes me up quite reliably in front of the news, only came after the news. Yesterday he was a little late already.
My alarm clock is an older model, which has had a problem with tuning the transmitter for some time. That's why I thought at first that the alarm clock was finally broken.
But it turned out that the problem lay elsewhere. During the course of the day I learned that I was by far not the only one to see the alarm clock this morning showing the wrong time.
In the meantime I also found out why my alarm clock woke up too late today. The problem lies in the way the time is synchronized.
My radio clock (and many other clocks powered by mains power) synchronizes the time via the mains supply. For this purpose, the mains frequency is used as clock pulse generator for the clock. In Europe the mains frequency is 50 Hz and is normally stable enough to synchronize clocks.
But in the last few days this frequency has been slightly below 50 Hz on average. As a result, clocks synchronized via the mains frequency run slightly slower than normal.
One possible reason for the drop in the mains frequency could have been an increased power requirement at the frosty temperatures of the last few days.
If it goes on like this, I'll have to get an alarm clock with radio clock or correct the time manually every day.
Photo of the LCD display of my clock radio / Foto von der LCD Anzeige meines Radioweckers
Zeitanomalie oder technische Störung?
Heute ist mein Radiowecker, welcher mich normalerweise recht zuverlässig vor den Nachrichten weckt, erst nach den Nachrichten angegangen. Bereits gestern ging er schon etwas zu spät an.
Bei meinem Wecker handelt es sich um ein etwas älteres Modell, welches bereits seit einiger Zeit ein Problem mit der Sendereinstellung hat. Daher dachte ich auch zuerst, dass der Wecker nun endgültig kaputt sei.
Aber es hat sich gezeigt, dass das Problem ganz woanders lag. Im Laufe des Tages habe ich erfahren, dass ich bei weitem nicht der einzige war, bei dem der Wecker heute morgen die falsche Uhrzeit angezeigt hat.
Mittlerweile habe ich auch herausgefunden warum mein Wecker heute zu spät geweckt hat. Das Problem liegt in der Art wie die Uhrzeit synchronisiert wird.
Bei meinem Radiowecker (und vielen anderen mit Netzstrom betriebenen Uhren) wird die Zeit über das Stromnetz synchronisiert. Dazu wird die Netzfrequenz als Taktgeber für die Uhr verwendet. In Europa beträgt die Netzfrequenz 50 Hz und ist normalerweise stabil genug um damit Uhren synchronisieren zu können.
Aber in den letzten Tagen liegt diese Frequenz im Durchschnitt leicht unterhalb von 50 Hz. Dies führt dazu, dass über die Netzfrequenz synchronisierte Uhren etwas langsamer laufen als normal.
Eine mögliche Ursache für das absinken der Netzfrequenz könnte ein erhöhter Strombedarf bei den frostigen Temperaturen der letzten Tage gewesen sein.
Wenn das so weitergeht, muss ich mir wohl einen Radiowecker mit Funkuhr holen, oder die Zeit täglich manuell korrigieren.
Das habe ich noch nie gehört - spannend!
Ich glaub aber eher, dass wir in ein paralleles Universum gesprungen sind. Ich schau gleich mal, ob Nelson Mandela noch lebt! 😂
Ja tut er, er steht grade zusammen mit Elvis in Bielefeld auf der Bühne und die beiden singen Highway to hell.
I know the feeling. :) After reading your post checked my clocks... and here is a result: my computer time is 12:57; on laptop i can see 13:03 ; my clock shows 13:12 ... and finally my phone "says" its 12:59. Lol. Tell me i'm lazy but before i gave up, tried few times to change them all on exact time and that didn't work. So... in fact i live in "meantime time" now. lucky me i can afford on it. lol
LoL - Gotta love it when all is wonky.. not!
Yeah the problem is 50 Hz itself. All these electric digital clocks use the AC frequency as the clock sample frequency. In India, we do not get the constant 50 Hz. At some places the frequency is as low as 45 Hz while at some places is 50+ Hz. And this is not constant throughout the day.
Hence these digital clocks always loose or gain time.
A better (table) digital clock would be one with Quartz crystals.
Oh, if the frequency differs by 10 %, then my alarm clock would go 2.4 hours too slow per day.
That's a pretty major discrepancy. More reason to switch to battery operated quartz clock.
Do these radio controlled clocks work in India? They'd be even more reliable than quartz clocks. But I'm not sure about the international infrastructure for the senders.
Lass dich doch einfach von deinem Mobiletelephone wecken da hast du das Problem nicht.
Das nutze ich schon als Zweitwecker ;)
Wecker für 1 € bei Kleinanzeigen. Reicht auch! Ich hab ne richtige Schellende Rassel vom Flohmarkt ergattert. Die reißt Dich aus jeden Schlaf. :)
Kannst du bei dem ganzen tick tack schlafen??
Der ticktackt soft-elektronisch und rasselt motorgesteuert. ;)
Gute alte 80er Jahre Qualitätselektronik und hat noch dazu einen Design- und Sammlerwert.
Nach ein oder zwei Nächten hörst du das nicht mehr. Da gewöhnt man sich sehr schnell dran.
This actually happened to me (in The Netherlands) as well at the beginning of this week. Good to know this is the explanation.
Sehr interessanter Artikel.
Würde mich über mehr solcher Artikel freuen.
Zum Glück sind die Smartphones davon nicht betroffen xD
Danke!
Smartphones haben aber leider gelegentlich andere Probleme:
Betreffen diese falschen Uhrzeiten im Mobilfunknetz eigentlich auch Smartphones, die ihre Uhrzeit über NTP mit dem Netzwerk synchronisieren?
Was das Problem mit dem leeren Akku betrifft, so lassen sich Smartphones ebenso wie Radiowecker natürlich auch am Stromnetz betreiben und haben zudem den Vorteil, Ausfälle über den Akku wegzupuffern. Wo man einen Radiowecker ans Netzanschließen kann, kann man dies auch mit einem Mobiltelefon machen. Umgekehrt geht ein Radiowecker komplett falsch, sobald ein mal der Strom ausfällt.
Interesting detail, thanks for sharing! I didn't know how those clocks are synchronized. I'm used to NTP for time synchronization, not frequencies... 😅
Yes, if you have network-capable devices, then NTP is a fine thing.
I don't have any others... except a watch that doesn't sync time at all, but the second watch I own is network-capable. All my other devices that require or show time are network-capable as well. That why I never thought about how the radio clocks synchronize their time 😅 - Thus, thank you very much for sharing.
I understand that, but you're a good guy. I do not know at all. The first time I hear Thank you for such information, nevizade will hear such news, but on steemit it is possible
Great post sir.... Upvote and resteemed
But wait, 2-3 days ago I looked at my phone and my desktop time, and it was different.. Can this be somehow connected to this issue? It seems not, because both PC and mobile phone use internet... But strange...
The question is when and how often they resynchronize over the Internet. I doubt that they directly depend on the frequency in the power supply as both a PC's mainboard and the phone are not directly connected to the AC power supply system. Both of them have AC-DC converters, phones (and laptops) can even be entirely independent of the grid as they of course have batteries. So if your problem is related to the frequency in the grid, then I assume that's due some other device sending your devices time data. I'm not sure whether infrastructure in the mobile network relies on the frequency to provide time information.
Thanks for the answer! That's a cool explanation :)) I never saw that and it got me thinking...
Cheers, Luka.
@cryptoriddler This is interesting, I've never though that could be possible. Learn someting new everyday :)
i m happy
Good
Nice clock
I've been having a problem with the time zone on my mobile phone. It's showing two hours earlier than it should be. I can't change the time to be in my time zone. This has never happened before. I wonder if this problem is affecting my mobile time as well....hmmm, interesting.
Das ist interessant. Wieder mal was dazu gelernt.
That is crazy. i have never even heard of that before. Or just do like me and set the alarm on your phone.
vielleicht weckt eine schnellere hz50-uhr sie auf und die alte uhr hält es nicht mehr aus, weil sie immer noch das alte batre modrl verwendet, die möglichkeit, dass ihre neue uhr mit strom funktioniert und so weiter
Hi! Thanks for following me! Check my profile I have more Airdrops for you !
Ist ja interessant, ich verwende immer zwei Wecker, da hatte ich zum Glück noch nie das Problem.
Very good
I have never thought of it like that ! very interesting indeed. @cryptoriddler
Wow I never thought a clock can be late due to some frequency or temperature... I only thought clocks can stop work or late when the ba3 has issues ...nice one 👍🏽
Very important article it is.
get more information from here.
Thanks for shearing.
Happy Steeming.
loved this.....I didn't know that's how digital clocks worked. Every day is a learning day
I didn't know this about clocks. A really interesting detail. Thanks for sharing it!
Wao, it is fun to know
Wao....though I have not experienced this before, but I agree with your reason. My sister has once told me about this before
Interessantes Detail.
Very informative and well explained.
Thanks for sharing. i am so thankful that i am on Steemit and all these valuable informations are so handy.
It's been a while since I've had an issue with a clock that continuously gains or loses time.
However, for some reason, both in my car and with our alarm clock, they will gain or lose a few minutes then stay there.
So, there must be some kind of stop mechanism that prevents it from getting too far out of sync, but never ever brings it back, until I get annoyed enough to do it myself. Really odd.
Doesn't happen to any other clocks. Just those two.
Thank you veri much dah dapat ilmu baru'''
Thank you dah dapat ilmu baruu...
Interesting post! Many clocks (analog and digital) use a quarts crystal and a battery. However it is cheap to use the AC utility frequency, especially in things like coffee pots and ovens that have temperature changes that would create error for the quartz.
I have read the power company will schedule frequency offsets to compensate for corrections of error. In other words if the frequency is low enough to loose time, then the utility provider will schedule increases to synchronize time.
Your post got me wondering if the power company was motivated to correct for time, as mentioned above. This site has some interesting info, as did wikipedia
--3D
Hello, dear friend! The work that you do deserves honour and congratulations. I'm most appreciative you for visiting my page. I wish you all health, happiness and continued success. Have a great day.
Good morning Sir, please I want to ask question not on this current post, I want to meaning of #whales in Steemit community thank you.
Hallo,
könnte sowas auch an Sonnenstürmen liegen?
Hi cryptoriddler, sehr interessant dein Beitrag, das wusste ich bisher auch noch nicht :D ich habe auch so einen amerikanischen Radiowecker, der am Strom hängt und der geht immer ungenau. Das könnte die Antwort darauf sein. Danke übrigens fürs Followen, bin seit gestern hier, content wird die nächsten Tage kommen und es gibt auch eine Vorstellung auf meinem Blog. Upvote ist raus
One of the most problem is Germany. They would do alltime the best, and do the most time the wrong. If there is no wind or sun, than there is also no electrik. But they want to desturb the most of konventionelle Stromerzeugung.
Wow, now there's something I never knew. Talk about time being a concept! Thanks for the share :)
Interessanter Artikel! Wäre nur spannend zu wissen, ob es einen großartigen Grund für diese verringerte Netzfrequenz gibt.
Have you considered getting a rooster? If it doesn't work out, at least you have dinner.
Upvoted followed resteemed by @powerupsteem very nice post
Oh wow that's amazing that it was changing the time by its self
From title, i expecting more spooky reason jaja
I can see the people there, imagine why they left
Molto interessante,bel post. Bravo
My dear friends visit my profile I have Airdrops on a daily basis for you in spanish!
Hii...
It's amazing story ..
Huh. This explains a lot. My husband has indeed been complaining that the clocks have "lost time" over the past couple of weeks. This is really interesting, thank you.
Also, I love the bilingual presentation :-)