Ed Pawlowski wrote:

"Dean Hoffman" wrote in message
...
On 6/25/11 7:11 AM, wrote:
On Jun 25, 12:23 am, wrote:
I smell issues arising with this...

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...C9wYlOzOkUg9wN...
Kugkw?docId=371623ab59694aef9f0a02fe83faca8a

Erik

I have one issue already. The linked article comes up as unavailable.


A short article he http://tinyurl.com/5vk4lc4

Does it really take that much effort to synchronize the grid's
frequency?


I have no idea, but according to the articles, yes.

I know that a clock motor will be affected as you change from 60 cycles,
but digital? I thought they had something to do with a crystal frequency
oscillation. Or is that just watches?

"But wall clocks and those on ovens and coffeemakers - anything that flashes
"12:00" when it loses power - may be just a bit off every second, and that
error can grow with time."

Most anything that "flashes 12:00" is going to be using a crystal
timebase and not care about power line frequency. They flash 12:00 since
when they loose power they need to have the time set again, not anything
to do with line frequency.

There are still a great many timing devices that rely on synchronus
motors and thus line frequency, and these mostly have just dials, such
as timers for sign and landscape lighting, water softener regeneration,
water heater timers and the like.