Your Clocks Will Soon Show Different Times

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Looks like they are going to be playing around with the frequency of the electrical grid and that could make your plug-in clocks run at different speeds.


Power-grid experiment could confuse clocks - Technology & science - Innovation - msnbc.com


#off topic forum
  • With so many warnings about the grid shutting down due to solar power... this just seems... convenient.

    Many weird things happening last months, thats for sure.
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    • I can handle the clocks being off. However, the last two daylight savings time changes knocked out my ISP for 2-3 days!

      Have no idea why and they couldn't explain it - but apparently didn't learn from it the first time.
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  • So... can I blame this on why my internet connection and my email didn't work this morning. Well, still working on the email thingy, but at least I got online.
  • "Playing with the frequency"?? WTF?
    That's not a problem. Mine shows a different time every minute anyhow.:rolleyes:
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    • Sally, we use 60 Hz here as the frequency, in Europe they use 50 Hz as the frequency.

      These are the cycles per second that determine that rate at which electrons flow back and forth. If you alter the frequency the motors that drive the clocks will operate at a different speed reletive to the frequency.


      Old Chinese proverb...Man with one clock always sure what time it is. Man with two clocks never really sure what time it is.
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    • I had the same problem with mine. I simply unplugged it and now it's the most stable timepiece I've ever had.
  • That's nothing. Wait until they bring in Metric Time.

    100 seconds in every minute, 100 minutes in every hour, 10 hours a day, 1000 days a year. The world will be divided up int o two time zones Greenwich Metric Time (GMT), and Pacific Metric Time (PMT).

    The only way you can avoid this is by adopting my very own (patent pending) method of measuring time, the Binary Universal Latitudinal Longtitudinal Solar Heliocentric Intercontinental Time (B.U.L.L.S.H.I.T.). Clocks and watches will be available soon at all good tinfioil retailers.

    Of course the introduction of Metric Time is an Illuminati conspiracy designed to distract us "sheeple" from the fact that aliens built the Pyramids.

    You heard it here first folks, and remember, if it's on the internet, it must be true.
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  • I would be fine with skewed time - in fact it might even be fun.

    What constantly gets me since working from home glued to my computer, is I frequently don't know what day it is. Really makes me mad when I find myself working on my day off.

    I don't know how I know this but don't things have different type of plugs US vs Euro - (because of the different Hz) -- now this may be really old info but I heard if you take a US TV or any electical appliance to Europe you need an adapter even to plug it in there?

    Anyway, Wahoo the speed of light! Wahoo the TIME WARP!
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    • Patrician, (et al.) just a very few from the States, there are many different outlets, many used in commercial applications.

      Besides just 120 and 240..



      A few from around the world...

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  • MAN, SOMEONE SHOULD SUE!!!!!!!!

    They have known for DECADES that this was a concern! I mean I heard about this potential problem over FORTY YEARS ago! One difference ALWAYS given between the US and europe is that the us is 60hz, and europe is 50hz.

    HECK, on computer backup powersupplies, they try to EMULATE sinewave 60hz, in the US!!!!!! And it used to be that they cost MUCH more if they were closer! Some paid THOUSANDS for conditioners that tried to rectify such conditions. GEE, I wonder WHY!!!!!

    On the bright side, digital clocks SHOULDN'T be affected, and CERTAINLY not if they have battery backup IN the device. THEY would have to regulate from DC. With computers, the problem is switching power supplies. I never really quite understood that, but supposedly frequencies affect them. It should NOT affect laptops. And HOPEFULLY what ever problem existed in switching power supplies has been fixed.

    But the FACT is that some older technology DOES use the line frequency. And I said older TECHNOLOGY! Some very NEW things use older technology. So businesses and hospitals are probably among those most likely to be affected.

    And they say it has nothing to do with the internet... *****BULL*****! If some device breaks, or runs at the wrong frequency because of this, a whole subnet could go down! When I was a kid, clocks and computers were the two examples mentioned!

    Steve
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    • Steve,

      If you smoke enough corporate dope it's easy to see that:

      A) It will save the electric companies a fortune if the frequency is allowed to float.

      B) It will create new opportunities for profitable businesses to sell the 'correcting devices'.

      C) The burden of cost will be pushed to the demand side from the supply side.

      D) You can show you're taking a proactive approach to cost savings that should show up in the quarterly reports.

      What's not to love about this?
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  • So it only affrect usa.

    The free world have one less thing to worry about
  • I am just a little worried by how different, don't want to wake up in the morning and find its 12 midnight
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    • It PROBABLY won't affect you. When I heard about the tie to frequency around the 60s, I found it hard t fathom even THEN! Even THEN, MOST devices lowered the power, and changed it to DC. Computers were odd, since they used a switching power supply Switched-mode power supply - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Well, that article DOES say the frequency is important, it says that most consumer ones, like WE would use, "can handle the range". I put that LAST part in quotes, because they then INVALIDATE their statement in THIS case by saying "although a manual voltage range switch may be required". They don't make that clear if it is only for the input voltage. It USED to be that the US used 120 at 60, and almost everyone else used 240 at 50. SOME power supplies have a switch to select one of the two variants!

      I never looked at the schematic for a switching power supply, so I don't know that much about this, but they make it sound like the frequency can affect the voltage. The frequency looks like only 20% difference. If it affected the output power that much, you would have 4-6 volts, on the 5 volt line, assuming it was supposed to put out exactly 5v and was NOT regulated.

      TYPICALLY, in most circuits anyway, the input voltage is rated at least a volt or two higher so a device called a regulator can reduce it to precisely what is needed. Regulators are expected to generate some heat, can burn out, and should be before any device that needs stable power, so I imagine they are in the power supply.
      I will say one thing though. The higher the input voltage in a regulator is, in comparison to what it is to put out, the hotter it will get and the more likely it is that it will burn out.

      As for the current fluctuations, computers are SO susceptible to them that they typically put capacitors ALL OVER the motherboard. Hopefully they can ride it out. The clock, to the best of my knowledge doesn't require any special input frequency. In fact the power supply is supposed to only provide DC!

      Still, I heard that power supply is a problem. If they say they will put out a stable frequency, they should tell people that they will change it in 20 years or so, and change it THEN.

      Steve
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