Crazy digital clock : Mains frequency?
Bought a Philips digital alarm clock at Carrefore. It GAINS time! I've never before had a digital clock do this.
Conversations with co-workers revealed that other people have clocks that do this. Mine gains something around 15-20 minutes in a week.
A friend said his microwave clock does this too. Has anybody here had this experience?
Somebody said it may be the power here and claims that Doha has 60hz. I thought Doha was 50hz. What difference could it make on a digital clock?
I do not have an oscilloscope or spectrum analyzer handy to check the mains frequency. I measured the voltage and found it is 253 volts.
What IS the frequency of power here?
Joe,
Next full moon, I'll take the clock out and bash it! Great suggestion!
10th floor,
i am sure your digital clock has no memory,that is why the display goes blank even it has the battery back up,
in comparison with your microwave ovens clock to ur friend does u have the same brand of oven?if not your ovens digital clock has a memory at it has also a built in cmos battery which powered the digital clock circuit so the circuit is independent to the mains..
when it comes to computer clock of course it is very accurate coz it is powered by a cmos battery,so it is not affected by frequency oscilltion.
buy a new one in radio shock, a lot there with cmos battery powered
Computer clocks are powered by their own, small battery that keeps charged with the mains. The clock is not directly powered by the mains so it is immune to frequency variation.
You'll probably have to get another clock. You could entertain yourself by bashing the old one...
I have 3 Seiko digital clocks running on batteries and none have this problem.
My automatic watch does tend to act funny though.
rfc
I'm sure you are right that the clock would keep better time on battery power....but the display goes blank when it is off the mains! The battery just keeps it from losing the setting during a power loss.
So, I wonder why computers are so much better at maintaining the time, here even though they are plugged into the same power source? I suppose it is due to the higher quality power supply and transformer.
Our microwave clock keeps good time, but my friend's doesn't. Also a difference in electronic quality, I suppose.
the minimum power voltage of qatar is 230vac sometimes it goes to 260vac and the line frequency varies also.to solve your problem put a battery to your alarm clock instead of plugging in to the main line,frequency oscillation makes a big differnence in a digital clock.
about your friend microwave clock of course it will varies since the clock installed on those microwave has no memory to store the time when the power cut-off,
Depends on voltage stability. Offcourse there will be a delay in digital clock due to frequency variation