About 3 years ago, I bought a new Frigidaire microwave, and of course it has
a digital clock on it. This crazy clock gains approximately a minute every
2 months. Our stove right below it has a digital clock also, it keeps
perfect time. It's just maddening to look at both of them, and the time is
always different. In this day and age, how is it possible that a digital
clock cannot keep time? just crazy

nefletch wrote:
About 3 years ago, I bought a new Frigidaire microwave, and of course it has
a digital clock on it. This crazy clock gains approximately a minute every
2 months. Our stove right below it has a digital clock also, it keeps
perfect time. It's just maddening to look at both of them, and the time is
always different. In this day and age, how is it possible that a digital
clock cannot keep time? just crazy


Hi,
It can happen if clock component was a cheap origin.

On Nov 16, 2:05*pm, "nefletch" wrote:
About 3 years ago, I bought a new Frigidaire microwave, and of course it has
a digital clock on it. *This crazy clock gains approximately a minute every
2 months. *Our stove right below it has a digital clock also, it keeps
perfect time. *It's just maddening to look at both of them, and the time is
always different. *In this day and age, how is it possible that a digital
clock cannot keep time? *just crazy

Somewhere buried in a junk drawer in my house is a cheap digital timer
my daughter bought a few years ago. It's alarm is apparently set and
when it's very, very quiet in the house (rarely!) I can hear it give
off a single beep between 9 and 9:30 PM.

That beep has slowly been "advancing" though the hour and is now about
20 minutes ahead of where it used to be. If it wasn't kind of
humorous, I'd spend some time looking for it and throw it away.

"nefletch" wrote in
scommunications:

About 3 years ago, I bought a new Frigidaire microwave, and of course
it has a digital clock on it. This crazy clock gains approximately a
minute every 2 months. Our stove right below it has a digital clock
also, it keeps perfect time. It's just maddening to look at both of
them, and the time is always different. In this day and age, how is
it possible that a digital clock cannot keep time? just crazy




easy;
internal crystal-controlled clock,and temperature variations change it's
clock rate.
and they often are not calibrated properly right from the factory.

just imagine how the guy in a clock store feels. ;-)

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
localnet
dot com

nefletch wrote:
About 3 years ago, I bought a new Frigidaire microwave, and of course
it has a digital clock on it. This crazy clock gains approximately a
minute every 2 months. Our stove right below it has a digital clock
also, it keeps perfect time. It's just maddening to look at both of
them, and the time is always different. In this day and age, how is
it possible that a digital clock cannot keep time? just crazy

"A man with a watch always knows the time. A man with TWO watches is never
sure."

"nefletch" wrote in
scommunications:

About 3 years ago, I bought a new Frigidaire microwave, and of course
it has a digital clock on it. This crazy clock gains approximately a
minute every 2 months. Our stove right below it has a digital clock
also, it keeps perfect time. It's just maddening to look at both of
them, and the time is always different. In this day and age, how is
it possible that a digital clock cannot keep time? just crazy




approximately a minute every 2 months.

If you think that's f'd up...this is really f'd up:

It's just maddening to look at both of them, and the time is always different. [a minute]

On Nov 16, 1:05*pm, "nefletch" wrote:
About 3 years ago, I bought a new Frigidaire microwave, and of course it has
a digital clock on it. *This crazy clock gains approximately a minute every
2 months. *Our stove right below it has a digital clock also, it keeps
perfect time. *It's just maddening to look at both of them, and the time is
always different. *In this day and age, how is it possible that a digital
clock cannot keep time? *just crazy

Just put some black tape over the clock that is wrong.

Andy

Andy wrote in
:

On Nov 16, 1:05*pm, "nefletch" wrote:
About 3 years ago, I bought a new Frigidaire microwave, and of course
it
has
a digital clock on it. *This crazy clock gains approximately a minute
e
very
2 months. *Our stove right below it has a digital clock also, it
keeps perfect time. *It's just maddening to look at both of them, and
the tim
e is
always different. *In this day and age, how is it possible that a
digit
al
clock cannot keep time? *just crazy

Just put some black tape over the clock that is wrong.

Andy


What if you don't have black????? Oh, God this is complicated and very
serious.

"nefletch" wrote in
scommunications:

About 3 years ago, I bought a new Frigidaire microwave, and of course
it has a digital clock on it. This crazy clock gains approximately a
minute every 2 months. Our stove right below it has a digital clock
also, it keeps perfect time. It's just maddening to look at both of
them, and the time is always different. In this day and age, how is
it possible that a digital clock cannot keep time? just crazy




Here's the answer:

One was designed to run at high altitude.



This part is not a ha-ha.

Time is different depending on the mass/gravity of an object (such as the
Earth). In fact, all the GPS's are adjusted daily (very small amounts) to
compensate for this (and other factors as well). Even these very small
amounts will have significant effects on the accuracy of all those ground
GPS devices.


The above it true but I hope no one believes the "designed to run at high
altitude" bit :-)

The higher clock is operating in rarified air, where the
piezo electric crystal vibrates faster.

Or, it's a QC failure, and cheap piece of junk clock?

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..


"Red Green" wrote in message
...
"nefletch" wrote in
scommunications:

About 3 years ago, I bought a new Frigidaire microwave,
and of course
it has a digital clock on it. This crazy clock gains
approximately a
minute every 2 months. Our stove right below it has a
digital clock
also, it keeps perfect time. It's just maddening to look
at both of
them, and the time is always different. In this day and
age, how is
it possible that a digital clock cannot keep time? just
crazy




Here's the answer:

One was designed to run at high altitude.



This part is not a ha-ha.

Time is different depending on the mass/gravity of an object
(such as the
Earth). In fact, all the GPS's are adjusted daily (very
small amounts) to
compensate for this (and other factors as well). Even these
very small
amounts will have significant effects on the accuracy of all
those ground
GPS devices.


The above it true but I hope no one believes the "designed
to run at high
altitude" bit :-)

nefletch wrote:
About 3 years ago, I bought a new Frigidaire microwave, and of course it has
a digital clock on it. This crazy clock gains approximately a minute every
2 months. Our stove right below it has a digital clock also, it keeps
perfect time. It's just maddening to look at both of them, and the time is
always different. In this day and age, how is it possible that a digital
clock cannot keep time? just crazy



Hummmm looks like you need an inline frequency changer ....
shouldn't take to much depending on how you want to do it...
I'd convert to 50 cycles and bump it back up 59.93 for a starting
point.
http://www.behlman.com/products.htm

And with any luck. To make matters worse, the clock is
probably part of the circuit board that costs $187.92 and is
only available six weeks delay from the factory.

I wonder if the people who made that have any clue how much
grief they are causing?

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..


"nefletch" wrote in message
scommunications...
About 3 years ago, I bought a new Frigidaire microwave, and
of course it has
a digital clock on it. This crazy clock gains approximately
a minute every
2 months. Our stove right below it has a digital clock
also, it keeps
perfect time. It's just maddening to look at both of them,
and the time is
always different. In this day and age, how is it possible
that a digital
clock cannot keep time? just crazy

On 11/16/2011 1:05 PM, nefletch wrote:
About 3 years ago, I bought a new Frigidaire microwave, and of course it has
a digital clock on it. This crazy clock gains approximately a minute every
2 months. Our stove right below it has a digital clock also, it keeps
perfect time. It's just maddening to look at both of them, and the time is
always different. In this day and age, how is it possible that a digital
clock cannot keep time? just crazy


Quick calculation tells me that is about 1 second a day. Not
really a huge change, compared to many digital watches I
have owned. It could be better, but isn't really bad. The
biggest problem is that you have one on stove that is
probably synchronized with the power line frequency. The
power line frequency is (or has been until recently) very
accurately controlled so that the stove clock keeps
better time than the average quartz clock. Of course
the stove clock may need to be reset after a power
outage.

Bill

nefletch wrote:
About 3 years ago, I bought a new Frigidaire microwave, and of course
it has a digital clock on it. This crazy clock gains approximately a
minute every 2 months. Our stove right below it has a digital clock
also, it keeps perfect time. It's just maddening to look at both of
them, and the time is always different. In this day and age, how is
it possible that a digital clock cannot keep time? just crazy

Yet another use for duct tape.

Is there anything duct tape cannot fix?

"nefletch" wrote in message
About 3 years ago, I bought a new Frigidaire microwave, and of
course it has a digital clock on it. This crazy clock gains
approximately a minute every 2 months. Our stove right below it has
a digital clock also, it keeps perfect time. It's just maddening to
look at both of them, and the time is always different. In this day
and age, how is it possible that a digital clock cannot keep time?
just crazy

Find a microwave which was not made in China. Don't buy things made in
China if they can't make them to work properly!

Tell the stores where you shop about things you have purchased which
don't work right, then they will try to find products made elsewhere.
When China starts losing business, they might get a clue! Read the
book: "Poorly Made in China".

On 11/17/2011 8:18 AM, Bill Gill wrote:
On 11/16/2011 1:05 PM, nefletch wrote:
About 3 years ago, I bought a new Frigidaire microwave, and of course
it has
a digital clock on it. This crazy clock gains approximately a minute
every
2 months. Our stove right below it has a digital clock also, it keeps
perfect time. It's just maddening to look at both of them, and the
time is
always different. In this day and age, how is it possible that a digital
clock cannot keep time? just crazy


Quick calculation tells me that is about 1 second a day. Not
really a huge change, compared to many digital watches I
have owned. It could be better, but isn't really bad. The
biggest problem is that you have one on stove that is
probably synchronized with the power line frequency. The
power line frequency is (or has been until recently) very
accurately controlled so that the stove clock keeps
better time than the average quartz clock. Of course
the stove clock may need to be reset after a power
outage.

Bill

I would also think appliances, like microwaves and stoves, would sync to
the power line frequency, which has a good long term stability. If the
power line frequency average was off both the microwave and stove should
be off together. Might be interesting to use something like the clock in
a cell phone (which I presume is set by the cell provider and is high
accuracy) to see which clock is drifting (might be the stove).

Wouldn't think either clock would use a crystal oscillator, as in Jim's
post, but that would explain drift that shouldn't happen with power freq
sync. May be the best guess.

"HeyBub" wrote in news:fqmdnZ8Fg-RcqljTnZ2dnUVZ_u-
:

nefletch wrote:
About 3 years ago, I bought a new Frigidaire microwave, and of course
it has a digital clock on it. This crazy clock gains approximately a
minute every 2 months. Our stove right below it has a digital clock
also, it keeps perfect time. It's just maddening to look at both of
them, and the time is always different. In this day and age, how is
it possible that a digital clock cannot keep time? just crazy

Yet another use for duct tape.

Is there anything duct tape cannot fix?




That is the stupidest question I've ever seen in this group. But I'm sure
it was meant as a rhetorical question. :-)

nefletch wrote:

About 3 years ago, I bought a new Frigidaire microwave, and of course it has
a digital clock on it. This crazy clock gains approximately a minute every
2 months. Our stove right below it has a digital clock also, it keeps
perfect time. It's just maddening to look at both of them, and the time is
always different. In this day and age, how is it possible that a digital
clock cannot keep time? just crazy

Is it possible the clock of the stove below gets its timing from the
60 Hz AC line while the Frigidaire microwave instead uses its own
quartz crystal? 60 Hz AC is usually more accurate than any crystal,
but sometimes unplugging the device from the AC for several minutes
will help, and I've seen it help with PC motherboards and clock cards
that were running wild and gaining or losing a few minutes a day.
Sometimes changing crystal (thin 1/4" long silver colored cylinder) is
the only solution, and I've found that crystals taken from $1 watches
always work, but I've had a few crystals from electronics supplies
that didn't.

Red Green wrote:
"HeyBub" wrote in
news:fqmdnZ8Fg-RcqljTnZ2dnUVZ_u- :

nefletch wrote:
About 3 years ago, I bought a new Frigidaire microwave, and of
course it has a digital clock on it. This crazy clock gains
approximately a minute every 2 months. Our stove right below it
has a digital clock also, it keeps perfect time. It's just
maddening to look at both of them, and the time is always
different. In this day and age, how is it possible that a digital
clock cannot keep time? just crazy

Yet another use for duct tape.

Is there anything duct tape cannot fix?




That is the stupidest question I've ever seen in this group. But I'm
sure it was meant as a rhetorical question. :-)

I agree. Stating the obvious is often silly, but it's a good rhetorical
device to separate the wheat from the trees.

bud-- wrote:
On 11/17/2011 8:18 AM, Bill Gill wrote:

On 11/16/2011 1:05 PM, nefletch wrote:

About 3 years ago, I bought a new Frigidaire microwave, and of course
it has
a digital clock on it. This crazy clock gains approximately a minute
every
2 months. Our stove right below it has a digital clock also, it keeps
perfect time. It's just maddening to look at both of them, and the
time is
always different. In this day and age, how is it possible that a digital
clock cannot keep time? just crazy


Quick calculation tells me that is about 1 second a day. Not
really a huge change, compared to many digital watches I
have owned. It could be better, but isn't really bad. The
biggest problem is that you have one on stove that is
probably synchronized with the power line frequency. The
power line frequency is (or has been until recently) very
accurately controlled so that the stove clock keeps
better time than the average quartz clock. Of course
the stove clock may need to be reset after a power
outage.

Bill


I would also think appliances, like microwaves and stoves, would sync to
the power line frequency, which has a good long term stability. If the
power line frequency average was off both the microwave and stove should
be off together. Might be interesting to use something like the clock in
a cell phone (which I presume is set by the cell provider and is high
accuracy) to see which clock is drifting (might be the stove).

Wouldn't think either clock would use a crystal oscillator, as in Jim's
post, but that would explain drift that shouldn't happen with power freq
sync. May be the best guess.

I bought an inexpensive GE microwave oven for the office a year or so
and the clock gains about a minute a day.

My suspicion is that they didn't sync to the line frequency because the
same circuit board is probably used in the microwave ovens they sell in
other parts of the world whare the line frequency is 50 Hz. They prolly
use a cheap piezo or xtal oscillator which can't stay right on frequency
forever and just change the power xformer to one which accepts a 220 vac
line.

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
The speed of light is 1.8*10e12 furlongs per fortnight.

On Nov 18, 11:24*am, jeff_wisnia
wrote:
bud-- wrote:
On 11/17/2011 8:18 AM, Bill Gill wrote:

On 11/16/2011 1:05 PM, nefletch wrote:

About 3 years ago, I bought a new Frigidaire microwave, and of course
it has
a digital clock on it. This crazy clock gains approximately a minute
every
2 months. Our stove right below it has a digital clock also, it keeps
perfect time. It's just maddening to look at both of them, and the
time is
always different. In this day and age, how is it possible that a digital
clock cannot keep time? just crazy

Quick calculation tells me that is about 1 second a day. Not
really a huge change, compared to many digital watches I
have owned. It could be better, but isn't really bad. The
biggest problem is that you have one on stove that is
probably synchronized with the power line frequency. The
power line frequency is (or has been until recently) very
accurately controlled so that the stove clock keeps
better time than the average quartz clock. Of course
the stove clock may need to be reset after a power
outage.

Bill

I would also think appliances, like microwaves and stoves, would sync to
the power line frequency, which has a good long term stability. If the
power line frequency average was off both the microwave and stove should
be off together. Might be interesting to use something like the clock in
a cell phone (which I presume is set by the cell provider and is high
accuracy) to see which clock is drifting (might be the stove).

Wouldn't think either clock would use a crystal oscillator, as in Jim's
post, but that would explain drift that shouldn't happen with power freq
sync. May be the best guess.

I bought an inexpensive GE microwave oven for the office a year or so
and the clock gains about a minute a day.

My suspicion is that they didn't sync to the line frequency because the
same circuit board is probably used in the microwave ovens they sell in
other parts of the world whare the line frequency is 50 Hz. They prolly
use a cheap piezo or xtal oscillator which can't stay right on frequency
forever and just change the power xformer to one which accepts a 220 vac
line.

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
The speed of light is 1.8*10e12 furlongs per fortnight.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Also that microwave oven needs a crystal anyway because it
has a microprocessor of some kind in it to run it. That needs an
oscillator to generate the clock signal that runs it. So, by
choosing the frequency for the microprocessor and then
dividing that down, they can get the source for the time of
day clock for free. How many do that versus use the line
frequency as a more accurate source, I don't know. I do
know that in the various appliances I have I don't notice any
significant drift. I only reset them for daylight savings twice
a year or when the power is interrupted.