I’m not an expert and just spitballing, but are you sure they all rely on crystal oscillators? I wouldn’t be the least surprised if they didn’t. I bet you save a few cents by not including the quartz in the device. Also, don’t quartz crystals change frequency based on temperature? Seems less than ideal in an appliance that gets hot. They also drift with age. Seems like relying on something as tightly controlled as AC cycles would be cheap and effective (unless you have two countries being jerks to each other).
-a > On Mar 8, 2018, at 21:16, Barry Roberts <[email protected]> wrote: > > It's not Linux-related, but I'm curious what other nerds think. I was > listening to KUER on the way home from work tonight, and they were > talking about this: > https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/8/17095440/europe-clocks-running-slow-electricity-frequency-kosovo-serbia > > I don't know if I've ever owned a clock that would act like that. > Maybe some really old clock with an AC motor. But they talk about the > clock on a microwave, and show a digital clock on a stove. Those all > have crystal oscillators that run on DC and I'm pretty sure would not > be affected at all by a .1% change in the AC frequency (that number > was from the radio --.1% or 344 seconds in about 6 months, I think). > > Am I crazy? Are there really a bunch of clocks in Europe that > actually depend on the 50hz alternating current frequency for > timekeeping? The whole thing sounds like some non-technical reporter > grossly misunderstanding electronics to me. > > Barry > > /* > PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net > Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug > Don't fear the penguin. > */ /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
