[OT] Radio controlled clocks
 

Apologies - a tad off topic but I know several people on here have experiences
of radio controlled clocks.

We have in our kitchen a radion controlled analogue clock - it has been working
fine for a couple of years. Last time the bat went flat it just stopped.

Last week I noticed that it was 4 hours slow (or was it 8 hours fast? ;-)).
*Exactly* 4 hours. I replaced the battery and it reset to the oclock position
as it should and then sat there waiting to update to the correct time. After
about 5 mins it started it whizzing around and I though it was sorted...except
again, it set itself to be exactly 4 hours slow. I left for work and forgot
about it. having been away for a few days we've returned to find that it
has reset itself again and it now correct.

Anyone else seen this? I assume that the radio signal has been up and running
for the last few days? I've not got a clock anymore that has a signal indicator.
The clock just has a sealed unit so there is no timezone switch or anything
that might have moved.

Cheers,

Darren

My bet would be that the hour hand has slipped on it's drive sleeve
(possibly that the gears have jumped some teeth?). The former is probably
easily fixable, the latter may mean the gears are worn.

"dmc" wrote in message ...


Apologies - a tad off topic but I know several people on here have
experiences
of radio controlled clocks.

We have in our kitchen a radion controlled analogue clock - it has been
working
fine for a couple of years. Last time the bat went flat it just stopped.

Last week I noticed that it was 4 hours slow (or was it 8 hours fast?
;-)).
*Exactly* 4 hours. I replaced the battery and it reset to the oclock
position
as it should and then sat there waiting to update to the correct time.
After
about 5 mins it started it whizzing around and I though it was
sorted...except
again, it set itself to be exactly 4 hours slow. I left for work and
forgot
about it. having been away for a few days we've returned to find that it
has reset itself again and it now correct.

Anyone else seen this? I assume that the radio signal has been up and
running
for the last few days? I've not got a clock anymore that has a signal
indicator.
The clock just has a sealed unit so there is no timezone switch or
anything
that might have moved.

Cheers,

Darren



The symptons you describe exactly match the problem that I had with a new
clock (Argos about £8), it turned out the MSF signal had been off for
maintenance work. The clock actually only tries to synch every few hours so
if it fails it advances exactly four hours and then waits for some time
before trying again. Service details and other advice is available from the
National Physical Lab web page at http://www.npl.co.uk/time/msfoutages.html

Peter

In article ,
Peter Andrews wrote:

The symptons you describe exactly match the problem that I had with a new
clock (Argos about £8), it turned out the MSF signal had been off for
maintenance work. The clock actually only tries to synch every few hours so
if it fails it advances exactly four hours and then waits for some time
before trying again. Service details and other advice is available from the
National Physical Lab web page at http://www.npl.co.uk/time/msfoutages.html


Ok, thanks for the suggestions. Over night the clock again managed to set
itself to the correct time and then forgot again this afternoon (again,
exactly 4 hours slow).

Changed the battery again to a brand new one (the other was laying in the
bottom of the drawer and it is just possible that it isn't new I guess) and
all is well. If I put the old battery back in it again sets itself to exactly
4 hours slow.

I'll give it a few days with the new battery but it looks a lot healthier.
Seems like a very odd failure mode! It's not the setting function either -
when a battery is put in this winds forward to either 12, 4 or 8 oclock
before sitting waiting for the signal. This takes a few minutes before it
whizzes around to the correct time (or in the case of the old duracell
the correct time - 4 hours!

Cheers,

Darren