5 ms·

It is very true. A similar event happened in Europe a year ago (also due to problems in former Yugoslavia) and all electric clocks in my house (microwave, oven

by sltkr 6y ago

It is very true. A similar event happened in Europe a year ago (also due to problems in former Yugoslavia) and all electric clocks in my house (microwave, oven, alarm clocks) went out of sync temporarily. I was just as surprised as you. Basically, it's exactly the devices that lose track of time in case of a power outage, and that you need to manually adjust for daylight savings time, that are synchronized to the grid. Devices that use a battery (such as laptops, mobile phones, and CMOS clocks in PCs) must necessarily use some other means. It doesn't seem to be much correlated with price either: my alarm clock cost over $100 and it was still affected. Surely at that price point they could have afforded a crystal oscillator in the design, if they wanted to, but it seems this just isn't typically done.

iSnow 6y ago
At a $100 price point, I'd expected a DCF77 receiver tbh, not a crystal oscillator.
laurent92 6y ago
As an industry, it requires a special customs declaration + fire safety measures on boats and planes when you transport an oven with a battery inside. That may be the reason for not using battery-backed ovens, and relying on the power supply.
fuzzer37 6y ago
Just curious what kind of alarm clock costs $100
- ficklepickle 6y ago
  One that plays soothing sounds, like dogs barking or seagulls fighting over trash, probably. It might even project the moon phase on the ceiling.
- sltkr 6y ago
  Something like this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B008LR3KD8/ https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B008LR3KD8/ The idea is that it wakes you up gently by flooding the room with light resembling a natural sunrise. One reason that it might be expensive is that it needs a lot of high luminance hue shifting LEDs, and possibly I overpaid a bit (there do seem to be much cheaper competitors) but it was still a good investment because it does make my mornings a lot more pleasant.

by sltkr 6y ago

iSnow 6y ago

At a $100 price point, I'd expected a DCF77 receiver tbh, not a crystal oscillator.

laurent92 6y ago

As an industry, it requires a special customs declaration + fire safety measures on boats and planes when you transport an oven with a battery inside. That may be the reason for not using battery-backed ovens, and relying on the power supply.

fuzzer37 6y ago

Just curious what kind of alarm clock costs $100

ficklepickle 6y ago
One that plays soothing sounds, like dogs barking or seagulls fighting over trash, probably. It might even project the moon phase on the ceiling.
sltkr 6y ago
Something like this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B008LR3KD8/ https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B008LR3KD8/ The idea is that it wakes you up gently by flooding the room with light resembling a natural sunrise. One reason that it might be expensive is that it needs a lot of high luminance hue shifting LEDs, and possibly I overpaid a bit (there do seem to be much cheaper competitors) but it was still a good investment because it does make my mornings a lot more pleasant.