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I wanted a clock that never needed setting. Things escalated
141–150 of 180 posts
Re: I wanted a clock that never needed setting. Things escalated
#142Those kinds of projects are super fun, and the writing here is good, so congrats to the author. That said, why do people need clocks? I usually know the time, day or night, within 30 minutes or so, and if I need to know the exact time (which happens rarely if ever), I look at my watch. There are zero clocks in my home. I would find it quite aggressive to have a big display that tells me exactly what time it is. Come…
A random thing I'm remembering, but can't remember where or when I read it:
- Clocks started becoming a big deal when factory/shift work started being a thing in the early days of the Industrial Revolution.
Re: I wanted a clock that never needed setting. Things escalated
#143Building this on a custom PCB with an STM32F104 type MCU wouldn't be too much of a stretch from all the work that was already done here. I've done Nuttx on these for custom PX4 flight controllers and it wasn't that hard to work out.
Re: I wanted a clock that never needed setting. Things escalated
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
I feel like if you were gonna overthink this, you could’ve done something really cute and clever. Like an AI that stares at the window and figures out which angle the sun is coming in, then makes a determination on what time it must be. Then while it’s not sunny or can’t figure it out, it has dead reckoning, but it’s constantly looking at angles of shadows that determine if the time has drifted.
It would just start counting
Perhaps you weren’t familiar with how training and AI works.
Re: I wanted a clock that never needed setting. Things escalated
#145I’ve had a Phillips “atomic” alarm clock beside my bed for 23 years that just sets based on radio signal and auto restores if the power is lost, to which it has a backup 9v battery. There’s a time zone setting offset slider and a DST slider. I basically touch it twice a year, maybe another if I move time zones. I’ve only had to touch it for DST (never switched time zones). Takes me conservatively 10 seconds to find a…
My solution to this is to not have clocks in my house at all.
This has nothing to do with the fact that I still haven't figured out how to set the time on my microwave. :D
Re: I wanted a clock that never needed setting. Things escalated
#146I don't know how practical but I always thought of extending the Wifi protocol with a clock broadcast That way all the microwaves of the world could listen in and update their clocks accordingly
Why bloat Wi-Fi with a clock signal when we already have a perfectly cromulent network time protocol?
I assume you don't need to implement a full network stack just to read a discovery packet and it would be easy to add to future wifi routers
Re: I wanted a clock that never needed setting. Things escalated
#147I don't know how practical but I always thought of extending the Wifi protocol with a clock broadcast That way all the microwaves of the world could listen in and update their clocks accordingly
But how do you make it secure? Add a signature with a fixed key?
The issue is which time signature do you trust without selecting an SSID, maybe by power? But I agree this can be an issue albeit small one in my opinion
Re: I wanted a clock that never needed setting. Things escalated
#148I’ve had a Phillips “atomic” alarm clock beside my bed for 23 years that just sets based on radio signal and auto restores if the power is lost, to which it has a backup 9v battery. There’s a time zone setting offset slider and a DST slider. I basically touch it twice a year, maybe another if I move time zones. I’ve only had to touch it for DST (never switched time zones). Takes me conservatively 10 seconds to find a…
I have 4 Seiko wall clocks that are radio wave controlled. They look beautiful and other than changing the battery need 0 intervention from me. Couldn't recommend them highly enough. Pity they don't seem to make them any more, the newer ones use GPS and don't look quite as nice (in my opinion at least). https://www.rigbyjewellers.co.uk/products/radio-controlled-r...
It'd be cool if there was a drop-in replacement for the standard cheapo clock module that allowed you to add this for existing clocks.
Edit: It exists! https://www.walmart.com/ip/Atomic-Radio-Controlled-Clock-Mov...
Might be doing some retrofitting soon!
Re: I wanted a clock that never needed setting. Things escalated
#149I’ve had a Phillips “atomic” alarm clock beside my bed for 23 years that just sets based on radio signal and auto restores if the power is lost, to which it has a backup 9v battery. There’s a time zone setting offset slider and a DST slider. I basically touch it twice a year, maybe another if I move time zones. I’ve only had to touch it for DST (never switched time zones). Takes me conservatively 10 seconds to find a…
My solution to this is to not have clocks in my house at all. This has nothing to do with the fact that I still haven't figured out how to set the time on my microwave. :D
Clocks on microwaves seems to be a curiously American custom, driven by the fact that US outlet sockets generally don't have switches.
In Europe, and the UK particularly, every socket has a switch so the microwave is turned off after each use.
Re: I wanted a clock that never needed setting. Things escalated
#150It's a clock. Does it really have to have remote updating, a command line interface, an Internet connection, and HomeKit integration? That's too IoT. I have three La Crosse clocks that run off the NIST time signal out of Boulder, CO, and need their AA battery replaced maybe once a year. The real challenge is running such a thing on a small battery for a year. I once made a small clock that displayed "A LITTLE AFTER S…
There is a charming "Literary Quote" clock: https://www.uncommongoods.com/product/literary-clock and I've often wished that it had a set of quotes for such approximate times.