Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch

2014-04-19 Thread Robert Darlington
Industry doesn't use microphones.  It's piezo pickups or inductive pickups
(coils) for things like tuning fork movements in accutrons.   For quartz
they use probes.

http://forums.watchuseek.com/f6/watch-timing-microphone-646148.html


On Sat, Apr 19, 2014 at 11:12 AM, Chris Albertson  wrote:

> On Fri, Apr 18, 2014 at 10:37 PM, DaveH 
> wrote:
>
> > Hi Chris
> >
> > My concern was not the magnetization of the watch movement but the
> > induction
> > of eddy currents into the balance wheel which will cause drag.
> >
> > The act of moving the watch into the field of the pickup could cause the
> > watch to start running more slowly. You will be getting a strong signal
> but
> > it will be the wrong signal.
> >
>
> What is the magnitude of this effect?  Would anyone know the relationship
> between field strength and watch speed.   For example the strength of the
> Earth's  magnetic field changes over at least a factor of four in different
> parts of the world.  Is this a seconds per day or seconds per decade kind
> of problem?
>
> But yes I agree forsaking serious measurements I'm make a purpose built
> coil.  Or actually like I said two of them wires in anti-phase.
>
> But even then, it can't measure a mechanical watch.   I think a microphone
> would be best.
>
>
>
>
>
> > Dave
> >
> > > -Original Message-
> > > From: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com
> > > [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] On Behalf Of Chris Albertson
> > > Sent: Friday, April 18, 2014 08:44
> > > To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
> > > Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch
> > >
> > > On Thu, Apr 17, 2014 at 11:12 PM, Hal Murray
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Steel makes very good springs.  Are there any non-magnetic
> > > materials that
> > > > are
> > > > close?
> > > >
> > >
> > > I think they can use some kind of non-magnetic stainless steel
> > >
> > > Also this might be a moot point because I got a good strong signal by
> > > placing the watch on top of the guitar strings.  I did not
> > > have to restring
> > > the guitar.   The wall clock works even some inches away.
> > > You don't have
> > > to get really close to the magnets.   If you were building a
> > > sensor, just
> > > use a plain iron core and 1/4 pound of #40 wire
> > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > --
> > >
> > > Chris Albertson
> > > Redondo Beach, California
> > > ___
> > > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com
> > > To unsubscribe, go to
> > > https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
> > > and follow the instructions there.
> >
> > ___
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> > and follow the instructions there.
> >
>
>
>
> --
>
> Chris Albertson
> Redondo Beach, California
> ___
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Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch

2014-04-19 Thread Chris Albertson
On Fri, Apr 18, 2014 at 10:37 PM, DaveH  wrote:

> Hi Chris
>
> My concern was not the magnetization of the watch movement but the
> induction
> of eddy currents into the balance wheel which will cause drag.
>
> The act of moving the watch into the field of the pickup could cause the
> watch to start running more slowly. You will be getting a strong signal but
> it will be the wrong signal.
>

What is the magnitude of this effect?  Would anyone know the relationship
between field strength and watch speed.   For example the strength of the
Earth's  magnetic field changes over at least a factor of four in different
parts of the world.  Is this a seconds per day or seconds per decade kind
of problem?

But yes I agree forsaking serious measurements I'm make a purpose built
coil.  Or actually like I said two of them wires in anti-phase.

But even then, it can't measure a mechanical watch.   I think a microphone
would be best.





> Dave
>
> > -Original Message-
> > From: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com
> > [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] On Behalf Of Chris Albertson
> > Sent: Friday, April 18, 2014 08:44
> > To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
> > Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch
> >
> > On Thu, Apr 17, 2014 at 11:12 PM, Hal Murray
> > wrote:
> >
> > >
> > >
> > > Steel makes very good springs.  Are there any non-magnetic
> > materials that
> > > are
> > > close?
> > >
> >
> > I think they can use some kind of non-magnetic stainless steel
> >
> > Also this might be a moot point because I got a good strong signal by
> > placing the watch on top of the guitar strings.  I did not
> > have to restring
> > the guitar.   The wall clock works even some inches away.
> > You don't have
> > to get really close to the magnets.   If you were building a
> > sensor, just
> > use a plain iron core and 1/4 pound of #40 wire
> >
> > >
> > >
> > --
> >
> > Chris Albertson
> > Redondo Beach, California
> > ___
> > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com
> > To unsubscribe, go to
> > https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
> > and follow the instructions there.
>
> ___
> time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com
> To unsubscribe, go to
> https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
> and follow the instructions there.
>



-- 

Chris Albertson
Redondo Beach, California
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Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch

2014-04-19 Thread David C. Partridge
I too tried that and equally failed even with 52dB gain.  I suspect that
part of the trick is how the piezo is mounted: Quite possibly if mounted in
a circular form held only at the edges, with the watch crown touching the
centre it might be more sensitive than if the centre is clamped to the watch
with the edges free?

Regards,
David Partridge 
-Original Message-
From: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] On
Behalf Of Robert Darlington
Sent: 18 April 2014 19:49
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch

Commercially they use piezo transducers ("bender disks") in direct contact
with the watch to hear them tick.  I did my best to build one up several
weeks ago.  I could hear ants walking but my cheap swiss movement was just
too quiet.  It was amazingly quiet, even going through a preamp and dialing
the vertical amp to 11 on the scope.  They must have them sized for
resonance a little closer to the spectrum given off by the movement.

-Bob

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Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch

2014-04-19 Thread DaveH
Hi Chris

My concern was not the magnetization of the watch movement but the induction
of eddy currents into the balance wheel which will cause drag.

The act of moving the watch into the field of the pickup could cause the
watch to start running more slowly. You will be getting a strong signal but
it will be the wrong signal.

Dave

> -Original Message-
> From: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com 
> [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] On Behalf Of Chris Albertson
> Sent: Friday, April 18, 2014 08:44
> To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
> Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch
> 
> On Thu, Apr 17, 2014 at 11:12 PM, Hal Murray 
> wrote:
> 
> >
> >
> > Steel makes very good springs.  Are there any non-magnetic 
> materials that
> > are
> > close?
> >
> 
> I think they can use some kind of non-magnetic stainless steel
> 
> Also this might be a moot point because I got a good strong signal by
> placing the watch on top of the guitar strings.  I did not 
> have to restring
> the guitar.   The wall clock works even some inches away.  
> You don't have
> to get really close to the magnets.   If you were building a 
> sensor, just
> use a plain iron core and 1/4 pound of #40 wire
> 
> >
> >
> -- 
> 
> Chris Albertson
> Redondo Beach, California
> ___
> time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com
> To unsubscribe, go to 
> https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
> and follow the instructions there.

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Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch

2014-04-18 Thread Robert Darlington
Commercially they use piezo transducers ("bender disks") in direct contact
with the watch to hear them tick.  I did my best to build one up several
weeks ago.  I could hear ants walking but my cheap swiss movement was just
too quiet.  It was amazingly quiet, even going through a preamp and dialing
the vertical amp to 11 on the scope.  They must have them sized for
resonance a little closer to the spectrum given off by the movement.

-Bob


On Fri, Apr 18, 2014 at 9:43 AM, Chris Albertson
wrote:

> On Thu, Apr 17, 2014 at 11:12 PM, Hal Murray  >wrote:
>
> >
> >
> > Steel makes very good springs.  Are there any non-magnetic materials that
> > are
> > close?
> >
>
> I think they can use some kind of non-magnetic stainless steel
>
> Also this might be a moot point because I got a good strong signal by
> placing the watch on top of the guitar strings.  I did not have to restring
> the guitar.   The wall clock works even some inches away.  You don't have
> to get really close to the magnets.   If you were building a sensor, just
> use a plain iron core and 1/4 pound of #40 wire
>
> >
> >
> --
>
> Chris Albertson
> Redondo Beach, California
> ___
> time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com
> To unsubscribe, go to
> https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
> and follow the instructions there.
>
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Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch

2014-04-18 Thread Tim Shoppa
At least for low-end quartz+mechanical watch movements, magnetic fields can
cause the watch to stop mechanically ticking or even produce false ticks to
cause dial to spin at a furious rate.

e.g. By holding my watches at a certain angle in the field of an AC tape
degausser, I can make them run many times faster than normal, and I had one
mechanical watch where if I held it at the funny angle it would actually
run backwards! (Must've been something other than a one-way escapement
inside I guess.)

This is not the quartz crystal and electronic divider being affected by a
magnetic field, this is the stepper motor and mechanics turning in response
to magnetic fields.

It does not take a magnetized guitar pickup to catch the magnetic field
coming from the stepper coil in the watch. Any nearby unshielded coil or
AF-range inductor will pick up easy.

Tim N3QE


On Fri, Apr 18, 2014 at 2:04 AM, Chuck Harris  wrote:

> Early watches were more susceptible to magnetic influence than
> were later... this is primarily because the early watches used
> high carbon steel hairsprings for the balance wheel, and when
> they got magnetized, the spring coils would stick together...
>
> Later watches used elinvar for the hairspring coils because its
> spring constants were less affected by temperature variations...
> a nice side benefit is it is not easily magnetized.
>
> However, when an elinvar hairspring gets magnetized, it is very
> difficult to demagnetize it using conventional means.
>
> Demagnetizers work by rapidly alternating the polarity of the
> magnetic field, and slowly decreasing the strength of the field.
> This causes the magnetic poles of the ferrous atoms to get randomly
> aligned, which is the demagnetized state... But if the item that
> is magnetized is so light weight and flexible that it can move
> with the field, it won't get demagnetized... which is what happens
> with the hairspring.  The only way I know to demagnetize a hairspring
> of this sort is to immobilize the spring with wax, and then run it
> through the demagnetizer... then melt the wax, and clean the spring
> with naptha.
>
> Fun times!
>
> -Chuck Harris
>
>
> DaveH wrote:
>
>> I remember growing up (50 years ago) that the good watches were marked as
>> being non-magnetic.  I would guess that this is standard now.
>>
>> My concern is that the moving balance wheel could have an eddy current
>> induced into it and the resulting magnetic field might cause it to slow
>> down.
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balance_wheel
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddy_current
>>
>> The act of measurement should not cause a change in what you are
>> measuring.
>>
>> Dave
>>
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Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch

2014-04-18 Thread Chris Albertson
On Thu, Apr 17, 2014 at 11:12 PM, Hal Murray wrote:

>
>
> Steel makes very good springs.  Are there any non-magnetic materials that
> are
> close?
>

I think they can use some kind of non-magnetic stainless steel

Also this might be a moot point because I got a good strong signal by
placing the watch on top of the guitar strings.  I did not have to restring
the guitar.   The wall clock works even some inches away.  You don't have
to get really close to the magnets.   If you were building a sensor, just
use a plain iron core and 1/4 pound of #40 wire

>
>
-- 

Chris Albertson
Redondo Beach, California
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Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch

2014-04-17 Thread Hal Murray

i...@blackmountainforge.com said:
> My concern is that the moving balance wheel could have an eddy current
> induced into it and the resulting magnetic field might cause it to slow
> down. 

If that's a problem, it should be possible to measure it.  That assumes the 
pickup works when near but not in contact.  So measure with it near enough to 
get a clean signal, then nearer.



bob91...@yahoo.com said:
> Yes, magnetic fields mess up mechanical watches.  My dad was a watchmaker
> and found the need to demagnetize all the watches he worked on.  The
> hairspring was the  most sensitive part, and the coils would stick together
> if magnetized, and the watch would run very fast. 

Steel makes very good springs.  Are there any non-magnetic materials that are 
close?


-- 
These are my opinions.  I hate spam.



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Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch

2014-04-17 Thread Chuck Harris

Early watches were more susceptible to magnetic influence than
were later... this is primarily because the early watches used
high carbon steel hairsprings for the balance wheel, and when
they got magnetized, the spring coils would stick together...

Later watches used elinvar for the hairspring coils because its
spring constants were less affected by temperature variations...
a nice side benefit is it is not easily magnetized.

However, when an elinvar hairspring gets magnetized, it is very
difficult to demagnetize it using conventional means.

Demagnetizers work by rapidly alternating the polarity of the
magnetic field, and slowly decreasing the strength of the field.
This causes the magnetic poles of the ferrous atoms to get randomly
aligned, which is the demagnetized state... But if the item that
is magnetized is so light weight and flexible that it can move
with the field, it won't get demagnetized... which is what happens
with the hairspring.  The only way I know to demagnetize a hairspring
of this sort is to immobilize the spring with wax, and then run it
through the demagnetizer... then melt the wax, and clean the spring
with naptha.

Fun times!

-Chuck Harris

DaveH wrote:

I remember growing up (50 years ago) that the good watches were marked as
being non-magnetic.  I would guess that this is standard now.

My concern is that the moving balance wheel could have an eddy current
induced into it and the resulting magnetic field might cause it to slow
down.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balance_wheel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddy_current

The act of measurement should not cause a change in what you are measuring.

Dave

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Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch

2014-04-17 Thread Bob Albert
Yes, magnetic fields mess up mechanical watches.  My dad was a watchmaker and 
found the need to demagnetize all the watches he worked on.  The hairspring was 
the  most sensitive part, and the coils would stick together if magnetized, and 
the watch would run very fast.


Bob

On Thursday, April 17, 2014 9:06 PM, DaveH  wrote:
 
I remember growing up (50 years ago) that the good watches were marked as
being non-magnetic.  I would guess that this is standard now.

My concern is that the moving balance wheel could have an eddy current
induced into it and the resulting magnetic field might cause it to slow
down.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balance_wheel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddy_current

The act of measurement should not cause a change in what you are measuring.

Dave

> -Original Message-
> From: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com 
> [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] On Behalf Of Chris Albertson
> Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2014 17:12
> To: Claude Fender; Discussion of precise time and frequency 
> measurement
> Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch
> 
> Are watches damaged by magnets?  I hope not because magnets 
> are common.
> Yes a guitar does have some powerful Alnico magnets in the coil.
> 
> If this were a problem I think we would have heard about it.  
> My guess is
> that watch parts are non-magnets brass and stainless and 
> glass and so on.
>  Not plain steel or iron.  But maybe there are cheap watches made with
> stamped steel part?   I don't know.
> 
> In any case my experiment of placing the watch nest to the 
> pickup caused no
> damage.  Next time I get a chance I'll haul the guitar over to the HP
> counter and see if I can't measure the watch tick period.
> 
> 
> Something to consider is that most pickups are biased with a 
> fairly strong
> > magnetic field.
> >
> > Don't know if this would cause any damage or changes in 
> operation of a
> > mechanical watch but something to consider...
> >
> 
> -- 
> 
> Chris Albertson
> Redondo Beach, California
> ___
> time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com
> To unsubscribe, go to 
> https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
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Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch

2014-04-17 Thread DaveH
I remember growing up (50 years ago) that the good watches were marked as
being non-magnetic.  I would guess that this is standard now.

My concern is that the moving balance wheel could have an eddy current
induced into it and the resulting magnetic field might cause it to slow
down.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balance_wheel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddy_current

The act of measurement should not cause a change in what you are measuring.

Dave

> -Original Message-
> From: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com 
> [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] On Behalf Of Chris Albertson
> Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2014 17:12
> To: Claude Fender; Discussion of precise time and frequency 
> measurement
> Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch
> 
> Are watches damaged by magnets?  I hope not because magnets 
> are common.
> Yes a guitar does have some powerful Alnico magnets in the coil.
> 
> If this were a problem I think we would have heard about it.  
> My guess is
> that watch parts are non-magnets brass and stainless and 
> glass and so on.
>  Not plain steel or iron.  But maybe there are cheap watches made with
> stamped steel part?   I don't know.
> 
> In any case my experiment of placing the watch nest to the 
> pickup caused no
> damage.  Next time I get a chance I'll haul the guitar over to the HP
> counter and see if I can't measure the watch tick period.
> 
> 
> Something to consider is that most pickups are biased with a 
> fairly strong
> > magnetic field.
> >
> > Don't know if this would cause any damage or changes in 
> operation of a
> > mechanical watch but something to consider...
> >
> 
> -- 
> 
> Chris Albertson
> Redondo Beach, California
> ___
> time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com
> To unsubscribe, go to 
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Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch

2014-04-17 Thread Chris Albertson
Are watches damaged by magnets?  I hope not because magnets are common.
Yes a guitar does have some powerful Alnico magnets in the coil.

If this were a problem I think we would have heard about it.  My guess is
that watch parts are non-magnets brass and stainless and glass and so on.
 Not plain steel or iron.  But maybe there are cheap watches made with
stamped steel part?   I don't know.

In any case my experiment of placing the watch nest to the pickup caused no
damage.  Next time I get a chance I'll haul the guitar over to the HP
counter and see if I can't measure the watch tick period.


Something to consider is that most pickups are biased with a fairly strong
> magnetic field.
>
> Don't know if this would cause any damage or changes in operation of a
> mechanical watch but something to consider...
>

-- 

Chris Albertson
Redondo Beach, California
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Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch

2014-04-17 Thread Brooke Clarke

Hi:

Somewhere here I have a page from a magazine showing a resonant tank circuit at 32768 Hz where the coil is maybe a few 
inches in diameter.

You set any watch running at that frequency and it can count the oscillations.
Rather than adjusting the rate to be spot on, the suggestion is to know the rate of the watch in normal use over a week 
and then make a proportional adjustment in the rate.


I can see the crystals used in various electronics boxes by attaching their BNC connector to the HP 4395A used as a 
spectrum analyzer.
For example in the drop zone assembly aid system receiver you can see the local oscillator frequency by connecting the 
receive antenna terminal to the SA.

http://www.prc68.com/I/DZAAS_Rx.shtml
http://www.prc68.com/I/4395A.shtml

This works because the 4395A uses a DSP based IF system including true Resolution Band Width filters down to 1 Hz which 
makes for a very low noise floor.


Have Fun,

Brooke Clarke
http://www.PRC68.com
http://www.end2partygovernment.com/2012Issues.html


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Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch

2014-04-17 Thread Claude Fender
Hello,

I've seen that on a forum (in french sorry) :
http://www.forum-mdp.com/t16731-un-chronocomparateur-pour-petit-budget

It's an application for iPhone called "Kello", look at the picture and you will 
understand. The most difficult part seems to find the right position of the 
microphone. 

Claude


On Thursday, 17 April 2014, 19:55, DaveH  wrote:
 
Something to consider is that most pickups are biased with a fairly strong
magnetic field.

Don't know if this would cause any damage or changes in operation of a
mechanical watch but something to consider...

http://www.guitarnuts.com/wiring/pickups.php


Dave


> -Original Message-
> From: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com 
> [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] On Behalf Of Ulrich Bangert
> Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2014 01:15
> To: 'Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement'
> Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch
> 
> Chris,
> 
> I do not own a guitar with single coil pickups but I will 
> surely give it a
> try to find out whether the humbuckers of my Gibson Firebird 
> & SG Standard
> will also do the trick!
> 
> Best regards
> 
> Ulrich
> 
> > -Ursprungliche Nachricht-
> > Von: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com 
> > [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] Im Auftrag von Chris Albertson
> > Gesendet: Mittwoch, 16. April 2014 20:56
> > An: Tom Van Baak; Discussion of precise time and frequency 
> measurement
> > Betreff: Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch
> > 
> > 
> > I just did an experiment.  Place a simple quartz movement 
> > wrist watch on top of a Fender Stratocaster guitar.  I get a 
> > very strong and easy to detect signal.  A loud and sharpt 
> > "ping" once per second.  More then 1 volt
> > peak to peak.   I can cancel almost all the background hum 
> > and hiss in the
> > normal way by using the selector switch on the guitar.
> > 
> > The guitar has a pickup coil with many thousands of turns of 
> > #40 wire.  With the selector with at #2 position there is a 
> > second coil some inches away that is wound in the opposite 
> > direction and the two are added canceling any field that is 
> > filing the room.
> > 
> > I tried the same with a wall clock and all I had to do was 
> > hold the clock an inch away.  The wrist watch was placed on 
> > top of the strings a few mm above the bridge PU.
> > 
> > These is likely about 3 oz of #40 magnet wire on a guitar PU. 
> >  If I were building a sensor I'd do it just like the guitar.  
> > one coil to pick up the signal and another identical coil 
> > some inches away to to pick up ambient "noise" and then wire 
> > the two in parallel but in anti-phase.
> > 
> > If yu happen to have a guitar around, you have a watch sensor.
> > 
> > 
> > On Wed, Apr 16, 2014 at 10:43 AM, Tom Van Baak 
> >  wrote:
> > 
> > > > Tom,
> > > >
> > > > can you explain what exactly you understand by "a large coil of 
> > > > wire"?
> > >
> > > Sorry, by large I meant a large number of turns; the coil 
> itself is 
> > > quite small. Rather the winding one myself I just used the 
> > pickup coil 
> > > from an old cheap plastic self-impulsed pendulum clock. 
> The wire is 
> > > extremely fine and there must be thousands of turns since 
> the spool 
> > > diameter is only 15-20mm and the net resistance is 3.5k. 
> > Here are some 
> > > iPhone photos I just
> > > took:
> > >
> > > http://leapsecond.com/pages/Junghans/coil.htm
> > >
> > > > Did you make the easurements on the Junghans with a DIY 
> sensor or 
> > > > with
> > > one
> > > > of the commercially available?
> > >
> > > Both. The commercial ones sold by Bryan Mumford are 
> excellent; his 
> > > instrument includes signal conditioning, adjustable high 
> gain, and 
> > > other useful features. It's meant for watchmaker types with no 
> > > electronics background. It works perfectly out of the box.
> > >
> > > The Junghans wristwatch is extremely well engineered for 
> > long-life and 
> > > the leaked magnetic signal is the weakest of any watch I've 
> > measured. 
> > > Still, it can be measured. The placement of the pickup 
> coil on the 
> > > watch face needs to be optimized for best "reception", or any 
> > > reception at all for that matter.
> > >
> > > By contrast, a typical A

Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch

2014-04-17 Thread Al Wolfe

Tom,
   Thank you for your response. I don't think I could improve on the 
accuracy of this old watch much by trying to "regulate" it. I was more 
curious to see if there was any way to determine what was going on in side 
it with out actually opening it.


   The buttons on the side have long ceased to function their being clogged 
with sweat and other detritus. Now even with it opened up the little switch 
contacts inside seem to do nothing. It is set to DST so is useful most of 
the year here. I tried to set it to standard time last Fall but gave up. It 
was thirteen seconds fast then and now down to eleven seconds fast. I think 
I will not mess with it any more till the battery dies. I have several other 
toys to play with if I really need to know what time it is.


Al


   I have a Timex watch that's probably seven or eight years old. It has 
an
LCD readout. The buttons haven't worked in years. It looses about one 
second
every three or four months. I have to take out the four microscopic 
screws
in the back to get into it to set it. The only reason I hang onto it is 
that

is the most accurate watch I've ever owned.

   Is there some way to detect its internal frequency inductively? In the
past I have used old relay coils as inductive pickups with success, but
never with a watch.

Al


Hang on to that one; that's an unusually accurate watch.

I have been unsuccessful at picking up timing signals from a LCD watch. I 
did try a webcam once but the timing resolution of an LCD display is 
rather poor, in the 10 to 100 ms millisecond range. If you look a LCD 
closely you'll notice how slowly the contrast transitions occur. The 
acoustic, mechanical, electrical, and magnetic methods offer greater 
resolution, but none of those work on LCD watches.


I wonder if a fine (sub-mm) optical sensor that tracks contrast changes in 
a single segment would work. On a 7-segment display, the 'd' segment is 
the best one to aim for since it changes 8 times every 10 seconds.


If you open it you may see a number of traces from the IC to the LCD with 
pulse rates tied to the main oscillator. The problem here is that by 
opening the case and measuring these extremely low current signals you 
likely introduce a frequency offset.


When you say "set it" do you mean adjust the time or adjust the rate? One 
idea to reset the time by a few seconds without opening it: raise or lower 
the temperature by many tens of degrees for some number of hours or days.


/tvb


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Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch

2014-04-17 Thread DaveH
Something to consider is that most pickups are biased with a fairly strong
magnetic field.

Don't know if this would cause any damage or changes in operation of a
mechanical watch but something to consider...

http://www.guitarnuts.com/wiring/pickups.php


Dave


> -Original Message-
> From: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com 
> [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] On Behalf Of Ulrich Bangert
> Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2014 01:15
> To: 'Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement'
> Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch
> 
> Chris,
> 
> I do not own a guitar with single coil pickups but I will 
> surely give it a
> try to find out whether the humbuckers of my Gibson Firebird 
> & SG Standard
> will also do the trick!
> 
> Best regards
> 
> Ulrich
> 
> > -Ursprungliche Nachricht-
> > Von: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com 
> > [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] Im Auftrag von Chris Albertson
> > Gesendet: Mittwoch, 16. April 2014 20:56
> > An: Tom Van Baak; Discussion of precise time and frequency 
> measurement
> > Betreff: Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch
> > 
> > 
> > I just did an experiment.  Place a simple quartz movement 
> > wrist watch on top of a Fender Stratocaster guitar.  I get a 
> > very strong and easy to detect signal.  A loud and sharpt 
> > "ping" once per second.  More then 1 volt
> > peak to peak.   I can cancel almost all the background hum 
> > and hiss in the
> > normal way by using the selector switch on the guitar.
> > 
> > The guitar has a pickup coil with many thousands of turns of 
> > #40 wire.  With the selector with at #2 position there is a 
> > second coil some inches away that is wound in the opposite 
> > direction and the two are added canceling any field that is 
> > filing the room.
> > 
> > I tried the same with a wall clock and all I had to do was 
> > hold the clock an inch away.  The wrist watch was placed on 
> > top of the strings a few mm above the bridge PU.
> > 
> > These is likely about 3 oz of #40 magnet wire on a guitar PU. 
> >  If I were building a sensor I'd do it just like the guitar.  
> > one coil to pick up the signal and another identical coil 
> > some inches away to to pick up ambient "noise" and then wire 
> > the two in parallel but in anti-phase.
> > 
> > If yu happen to have a guitar around, you have a watch sensor.
> > 
> > 
> > On Wed, Apr 16, 2014 at 10:43 AM, Tom Van Baak 
> >  wrote:
> > 
> > > > Tom,
> > > >
> > > > can you explain what exactly you understand by "a large coil of 
> > > > wire"?
> > >
> > > Sorry, by large I meant a large number of turns; the coil 
> itself is 
> > > quite small. Rather the winding one myself I just used the 
> > pickup coil 
> > > from an old cheap plastic self-impulsed pendulum clock. 
> The wire is 
> > > extremely fine and there must be thousands of turns since 
> the spool 
> > > diameter is only 15-20mm and the net resistance is 3.5k. 
> > Here are some 
> > > iPhone photos I just
> > > took:
> > >
> > > http://leapsecond.com/pages/Junghans/coil.htm
> > >
> > > > Did you make the easurements on the Junghans with a DIY 
> sensor or 
> > > > with
> > > one
> > > > of the commercially available?
> > >
> > > Both. The commercial ones sold by Bryan Mumford are 
> excellent; his 
> > > instrument includes signal conditioning, adjustable high 
> gain, and 
> > > other useful features. It's meant for watchmaker types with no 
> > > electronics background. It works perfectly out of the box.
> > >
> > > The Junghans wristwatch is extremely well engineered for 
> > long-life and 
> > > the leaked magnetic signal is the weakest of any watch I've 
> > measured. 
> > > Still, it can be measured. The placement of the pickup 
> coil on the 
> > > watch face needs to be optimized for best "reception", or any 
> > > reception at all for that matter.
> > >
> > > By contrast, a typical AAA-battery desk/wall quartz clock 
> movement 
> > > generates a huge magnetic signal. It is so clean that you 
> > can clearly 
> > > see both the start (+) of the impulse and the end (-) of 
> > the impulse 
> > > about 30 ms later. In fact I suspect it's actually 31.25 
> > ms, or 1/32 
> > > s, since that&#x

Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch

2014-04-17 Thread Ulrich Bangert
Tom,

many thanks for your help. Will give it a new try over Eastern!

Best regards

> -Ursprüngliche Nachricht-
> Von: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com 
> [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] Im Auftrag von Tom Van Baak
> Gesendet: Mittwoch, 16. April 2014 19:44
> An: 'Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement'
> Betreff: Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch
> 
> 
> > Tom,
> > 
> > can you explain what exactly you understand by "a large 
> coil of wire"?
> 
> Sorry, by large I meant a large number of turns; the coil 
> itself is quite small. Rather the winding one myself I just 
> used the pickup coil from an old cheap plastic self-impulsed 
> pendulum clock. The wire is extremely fine and there must be 
> thousands of turns since the spool diameter is only 15-20mm 
> and the net resistance is 3.5k. Here are some iPhone photos I 
> just took:
> 
> http://leapsecond.com/pages/Junghans/coil.htm
> 
> > Did you make the easurements on the Junghans with a DIY 
> sensor or with 
> > one of the commercially available?
> 
> Both. The commercial ones sold by Bryan Mumford are 
> excellent; his instrument includes signal conditioning, 
> adjustable high gain, and other useful features. It's meant 
> for watchmaker types with no electronics background. It works 
> perfectly out of the box.
> 
> The Junghans wristwatch is extremely well engineered for 
> long-life and the leaked magnetic signal is the weakest of 
> any watch I've measured. Still, it can be measured. The 
> placement of the pickup coil on the watch face needs to be 
> optimized for best "reception", or any reception at all for 
> that matter.
> 
> By contrast, a typical AAA-battery desk/wall quartz clock 
> movement generates a huge magnetic signal. It is so clean 
> that you can clearly see both the start (+) of the impulse 
> and the end (-) of the impulse about 30 ms later. In fact I 
> suspect it's actually 31.25 ms, or 1/32 s, since that's 1024 
> cycles of a 32.768 kHz oscillator. See:
> 
> sensor placement: 
> http://leapsecond.com/pages/Junghans/quartz-clock.jpg
> output to scope: http://leapsecond.com/pages/Junghans/coil-aa.gif
> 
> > I have made some basic tests with a coil coming from a 
> loudspeaker's 
> > cross over network. It has a few hundred windings, R=1.3 
> Ohms, 2.3 mH, 
> > but the only thing i receive with this coil is a strong 10 Mhz 
> > signal...perhaps no real surprise in a time nuts laboratory.
> 
> I suspect your 1.3 ohms means the number of turns is far too 
> low. I don't see any RF here, nor even very much 50/60 Hz.
> 
> /tvb

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Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch

2014-04-17 Thread Ulrich Bangert
Mark,

is wrist watch not the common English word for a clock that you wear at your
wrist?

In my case it is a BREITLING Aerospace chronometer.

Best regards

Ulrich

> -Ursprungliche Nachricht-
> Von: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com 
> [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] Im Auftrag von Mark Sims
> Gesendet: Donnerstag, 17. April 2014 00:06
> An: time-nuts@febo.com
> Betreff: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch
> 
> 
> What are these "wrist watches" of which you speak?   I saw 
> some old geezer wearing some sort of clock bracelet a few 
> years ago.  Are they similar?  ;-)
> 
> ___
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Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch

2014-04-17 Thread Ulrich Bangert
Chris,

I do not own a guitar with single coil pickups but I will surely give it a
try to find out whether the humbuckers of my Gibson Firebird & SG Standard
will also do the trick!

Best regards

Ulrich

> -Ursprungliche Nachricht-
> Von: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com 
> [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] Im Auftrag von Chris Albertson
> Gesendet: Mittwoch, 16. April 2014 20:56
> An: Tom Van Baak; Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
> Betreff: Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch
> 
> 
> I just did an experiment.  Place a simple quartz movement 
> wrist watch on top of a Fender Stratocaster guitar.  I get a 
> very strong and easy to detect signal.  A loud and sharpt 
> "ping" once per second.  More then 1 volt
> peak to peak.   I can cancel almost all the background hum 
> and hiss in the
> normal way by using the selector switch on the guitar.
> 
> The guitar has a pickup coil with many thousands of turns of 
> #40 wire.  With the selector with at #2 position there is a 
> second coil some inches away that is wound in the opposite 
> direction and the two are added canceling any field that is 
> filing the room.
> 
> I tried the same with a wall clock and all I had to do was 
> hold the clock an inch away.  The wrist watch was placed on 
> top of the strings a few mm above the bridge PU.
> 
> These is likely about 3 oz of #40 magnet wire on a guitar PU. 
>  If I were building a sensor I'd do it just like the guitar.  
> one coil to pick up the signal and another identical coil 
> some inches away to to pick up ambient "noise" and then wire 
> the two in parallel but in anti-phase.
> 
> If yu happen to have a guitar around, you have a watch sensor.
> 
> 
> On Wed, Apr 16, 2014 at 10:43 AM, Tom Van Baak 
>  wrote:
> 
> > > Tom,
> > >
> > > can you explain what exactly you understand by "a large coil of 
> > > wire"?
> >
> > Sorry, by large I meant a large number of turns; the coil itself is 
> > quite small. Rather the winding one myself I just used the 
> pickup coil 
> > from an old cheap plastic self-impulsed pendulum clock. The wire is 
> > extremely fine and there must be thousands of turns since the spool 
> > diameter is only 15-20mm and the net resistance is 3.5k. 
> Here are some 
> > iPhone photos I just
> > took:
> >
> > http://leapsecond.com/pages/Junghans/coil.htm
> >
> > > Did you make the easurements on the Junghans with a DIY sensor or 
> > > with
> > one
> > > of the commercially available?
> >
> > Both. The commercial ones sold by Bryan Mumford are excellent; his 
> > instrument includes signal conditioning, adjustable high gain, and 
> > other useful features. It's meant for watchmaker types with no 
> > electronics background. It works perfectly out of the box.
> >
> > The Junghans wristwatch is extremely well engineered for 
> long-life and 
> > the leaked magnetic signal is the weakest of any watch I've 
> measured. 
> > Still, it can be measured. The placement of the pickup coil on the 
> > watch face needs to be optimized for best "reception", or any 
> > reception at all for that matter.
> >
> > By contrast, a typical AAA-battery desk/wall quartz clock movement 
> > generates a huge magnetic signal. It is so clean that you 
> can clearly 
> > see both the start (+) of the impulse and the end (-) of 
> the impulse 
> > about 30 ms later. In fact I suspect it's actually 31.25 
> ms, or 1/32 
> > s, since that's 1024 cycles of a 32.768 kHz oscillator. See:
> >
> > sensor placement: 
> > http://leapsecond.com/pages/Junghans/quartz-clock.jpg
> > output to scope: http://leapsecond.com/pages/Junghans/coil-aa.gif
> >
> > > I have made some basic tests with a coil coming from a 
> loudspeaker's
> > cross
> > > over network. It has a few hundred windings, R=1.3 Ohms, 
> 2.3 mH, but 
> > > the only thing i receive with this coil is a strong 10 Mhz 
> > > signal...perhaps
> > no
> > > real surprise in a time nuts laboratory.
> >
> > I suspect your 1.3 ohms means the number of turns is far too low. I 
> > don't see any RF here, nor even very much 50/60 Hz.
> >
> > /tvb
> > ___
> > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com
> > To unsubscribe, go to 
> > https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
> > and follow the instructions there.
> >
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> 
> Chris Albertson
> Redondo Beach, California 
> ___
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Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch

2014-04-17 Thread Tom Van Baak
>I have a Timex watch that's probably seven or eight years old. It has an 
> LCD readout. The buttons haven't worked in years. It looses about one second 
> every three or four months. I have to take out the four microscopic screws 
> in the back to get into it to set it. The only reason I hang onto it is that 
> is the most accurate watch I've ever owned.
> 
>Is there some way to detect its internal frequency inductively? In the 
> past I have used old relay coils as inductive pickups with success, but 
> never with a watch.
> 
> Al

Hang on to that one; that's an unusually accurate watch.

I have been unsuccessful at picking up timing signals from a LCD watch. I did 
try a webcam once but the timing resolution of an LCD display is rather poor, 
in the 10 to 100 ms millisecond range. If you look a LCD closely you'll notice 
how slowly the contrast transitions occur. The acoustic, mechanical, 
electrical, and magnetic methods offer greater resolution, but none of those 
work on LCD watches.

I wonder if a fine (sub-mm) optical sensor that tracks contrast changes in a 
single segment would work. On a 7-segment display, the 'd' segment is the best 
one to aim for since it changes 8 times every 10 seconds.

If you open it you may see a number of traces from the IC to the LCD with pulse 
rates tied to the main oscillator. The problem here is that by opening the case 
and measuring these extremely low current signals you likely introduce a 
frequency offset.

When you say "set it" do you mean adjust the time or adjust the rate? One idea 
to reset the time by a few seconds without opening it: raise or lower the 
temperature by many tens of degrees for some number of hours or days.

/tvb

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Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch

2014-04-16 Thread Al Wolfe
   I have a Timex watch that's probably seven or eight years old. It has an 
LCD readout. The buttons haven't worked in years. It looses about one second 
every three or four months. I have to take out the four microscopic screws 
in the back to get into it to set it. The only reason I hang onto it is that 
is the most accurate watch I've ever owned.


   Is there some way to detect its internal frequency inductively? In the 
past I have used old relay coils as inductive pickups with success, but 
never with a watch.


Al


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Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch

2014-04-16 Thread Tim Shoppa
It does not take a large pickup coil to pick up the magnetic field of a
quartz watch movement tick.

Radio Shack used to sell suction cup "telephone pick up coils" but I doubt
they have them anymore. These piggybacked on a phone receiver. They are
still out there,
http://www.elliottelectronicsupply.com/camera-security-equipment/listening/telephone-pickup-coil-suction-cup.html

Just as effective is any unshielded mH-range inductor. e.g.
http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Murata-Power-Solutions/13R336C/?qs=gLyyx31KZaCXYrPIar3DqA==

I work with e.g. Rick Campbell's R2 series receivers, which do AF filtering
using inductors and these pick up the tick, tick, tick from my watch clear
as day from over a foot away. Back when I had a CRT computer monitor on my
desk, they picked up the flyback and deflection frequencies real well.

Tim.


On Wed, Apr 16, 2014 at 1:51 PM, Chris Albertson
wrote:

> The first sensor I'd think of if I wanted to measure a wrist watch would be
> a microphone.  Listen for the tick.  You'd need a good quality
> preamplifier.  Place the watch directly on top of the microphone then the
> mic in a closet with a blanket  on it.
>
> Good quality studio microphones are very, very sensitive.  At home with two
> doors shut my condenser mic picks of the motor in the fridge, wall clock
> ticks and the nearly silent fan motor in computer 20 feet away.Then in
> post processing software I can find and identify the frequency components
> of each of those the remove most of the signal.   I'm not by any means an
> audio pro and I'm using entry level recording gear.   I'm making digital
> recording but for precision timing you'd need to use the analog signal
> after a pre-amplifier and apply a sharp bandpass analog filter.
>
> About using a coil, I'd assume they use one with many thousands of turns,
> maybe 100x more then a crossover coil.  and place the watch, coil and
> signal conditioning amplifier all in a faraday shield and apply a powerful
> analog filter.   But even if this works it needs a battery powered watch,
> it couldn't pick up a purely mechanical movement.
>
>
>
>
>
> I was all set to
>
>
> On Wed, Apr 16, 2014 at 6:21 AM, Ulrich Bangert  >wrote:
>
> > Tom,
> >
> > can you explain what exactly you understand by "a large coil of wire"?
> >
> > Did you make the easurements on the Junghans with a DIY sensor or with
> one
> > of the commercially available?
> >
> > I have made some basic tests with a coil coming from a loudspeaker's
> cross
> > over network. It has a few hundred windings, R=1.3 Ohms, 2.3 mH, but the
> > only thing i receive with this coil is a strong 10 Mhz signal...perhaps
> no
> > real surprise in a time nuts laboratory.
> >
> > Best regards
> >
> > Ulrich
> >
> > > -----Ursprungliche Nachricht-----
> > > Von: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com
> > > [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] Im Auftrag von Tom Van Baak
> > > Gesendet: Dienstag, 15. April 2014 15:53
> > > An: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
> > > Betreff: Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch
> > >
> > >
> > > > Some research has shown that there is an comparable instrument for
> > > > ANALOG quarz watches. As far as I understand it does not
> > > try to detect
> > > > the quarz frequency but detects magnetic pulses from the
> > > step motors
> > > > that move the hands of the watch.
> > > >
> > > > Has anyone of you ever tried to do this in a time nuts laboratory?
> > >
> > > Ulrich,
> > >
> > > Yes, this works well, for both those with seconds hands (one
> > > magnetic pulse per second) and those with only minute/hour
> > > hands (one or two steps per minute). A large coil of wire is
> > > all you need. Have a look at the watch timing tools and
> > > sensors at http://www.bmumford.com/microset.html or
> > > http://www.bmumford.com/mset/modelwatch1.html
> > >
> > > Here's an example using a magnetic sensor:
> > > http://leapsecond.com/pages/Junghans/
> > >
> > > /tvb
> > >
> > > ___
> > > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com
> > > To unsubscribe, go to
> > > https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
> > > and follow the instructions there.
> >
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> > and follow the instructions there.
> >
>
>
>
> --
>
> Chris Albertson
> Redondo Beach, California
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[time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch

2014-04-16 Thread Mark Sims
What are these "wrist watches" of which you speak?   I saw some old geezer 
wearing some sort of clock bracelet a few years ago.  Are they similar?  ;-)
   
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Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch

2014-04-16 Thread Chris Albertson
I just did an experiment.  Place a simple quartz movement wrist watch on
top of a Fender Stratocaster guitar.  I get a very strong and easy to
detect signal.  A loud and sharpt "ping" once per second.  More then 1 volt
peak to peak.   I can cancel almost all the background hum and hiss in the
normal way by using the selector switch on the guitar.

The guitar has a pickup coil with many thousands of turns of #40 wire.
 With the selector with at #2 position there is a second coil some inches
away that is wound in the opposite direction and the two are added
canceling any field that is filing the room.

I tried the same with a wall clock and all I had to do was hold the clock
an inch away.  The wrist watch was placed on top of the strings a few mm
above the bridge PU.

These is likely about 3 oz of #40 magnet wire on a guitar PU.  If I were
building a sensor I'd do it just like the guitar.  one coil to pick up the
signal and another identical coil some inches away to to pick up ambient
"noise" and then wire the two in parallel but in anti-phase.

If yu happen to have a guitar around, you have a watch sensor.


On Wed, Apr 16, 2014 at 10:43 AM, Tom Van Baak  wrote:

> > Tom,
> >
> > can you explain what exactly you understand by "a large coil of wire"?
>
> Sorry, by large I meant a large number of turns; the coil itself is quite
> small. Rather the winding one myself I just used the pickup coil from an
> old cheap plastic self-impulsed pendulum clock. The wire is extremely fine
> and there must be thousands of turns since the spool diameter is only
> 15-20mm and the net resistance is 3.5k. Here are some iPhone photos I just
> took:
>
> http://leapsecond.com/pages/Junghans/coil.htm
>
> > Did you make the easurements on the Junghans with a DIY sensor or with
> one
> > of the commercially available?
>
> Both. The commercial ones sold by Bryan Mumford are excellent; his
> instrument includes signal conditioning, adjustable high gain, and other
> useful features. It's meant for watchmaker types with no electronics
> background. It works perfectly out of the box.
>
> The Junghans wristwatch is extremely well engineered for long-life and the
> leaked magnetic signal is the weakest of any watch I've measured. Still, it
> can be measured. The placement of the pickup coil on the watch face needs
> to be optimized for best "reception", or any reception at all for that
> matter.
>
> By contrast, a typical AAA-battery desk/wall quartz clock movement
> generates a huge magnetic signal. It is so clean that you can clearly see
> both the start (+) of the impulse and the end (-) of the impulse about 30
> ms later. In fact I suspect it's actually 31.25 ms, or 1/32 s, since that's
> 1024 cycles of a 32.768 kHz oscillator. See:
>
> sensor placement:
> http://leapsecond.com/pages/Junghans/quartz-clock.jpg
> output to scope:
> http://leapsecond.com/pages/Junghans/coil-aa.gif
>
> > I have made some basic tests with a coil coming from a loudspeaker's
> cross
> > over network. It has a few hundred windings, R=1.3 Ohms, 2.3 mH, but the
> > only thing i receive with this coil is a strong 10 Mhz signal...perhaps
> no
> > real surprise in a time nuts laboratory.
>
> I suspect your 1.3 ohms means the number of turns is far too low.
> I don't see any RF here, nor even very much 50/60 Hz.
>
> /tvb
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-- 

Chris Albertson
Redondo Beach, California
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Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch

2014-04-16 Thread Chris Albertson
The first sensor I'd think of if I wanted to measure a wrist watch would be
a microphone.  Listen for the tick.  You'd need a good quality
preamplifier.  Place the watch directly on top of the microphone then the
mic in a closet with a blanket  on it.

Good quality studio microphones are very, very sensitive.  At home with two
doors shut my condenser mic picks of the motor in the fridge, wall clock
ticks and the nearly silent fan motor in computer 20 feet away.Then in
post processing software I can find and identify the frequency components
of each of those the remove most of the signal.   I'm not by any means an
audio pro and I'm using entry level recording gear.   I'm making digital
recording but for precision timing you'd need to use the analog signal
after a pre-amplifier and apply a sharp bandpass analog filter.

About using a coil, I'd assume they use one with many thousands of turns,
maybe 100x more then a crossover coil.  and place the watch, coil and
signal conditioning amplifier all in a faraday shield and apply a powerful
analog filter.   But even if this works it needs a battery powered watch,
it couldn't pick up a purely mechanical movement.





I was all set to


On Wed, Apr 16, 2014 at 6:21 AM, Ulrich Bangert wrote:

> Tom,
>
> can you explain what exactly you understand by "a large coil of wire"?
>
> Did you make the easurements on the Junghans with a DIY sensor or with one
> of the commercially available?
>
> I have made some basic tests with a coil coming from a loudspeaker's cross
> over network. It has a few hundred windings, R=1.3 Ohms, 2.3 mH, but the
> only thing i receive with this coil is a strong 10 Mhz signal...perhaps no
> real surprise in a time nuts laboratory.
>
> Best regards
>
> Ulrich
>
> > -Ursprungliche Nachricht-
> > Von: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com
> > [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] Im Auftrag von Tom Van Baak
> > Gesendet: Dienstag, 15. April 2014 15:53
> > An: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
> > Betreff: Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch
> >
> >
> > > Some research has shown that there is an comparable instrument for
> > > ANALOG quarz watches. As far as I understand it does not
> > try to detect
> > > the quarz frequency but detects magnetic pulses from the
> > step motors
> > > that move the hands of the watch.
> > >
> > > Has anyone of you ever tried to do this in a time nuts laboratory?
> >
> > Ulrich,
> >
> > Yes, this works well, for both those with seconds hands (one
> > magnetic pulse per second) and those with only minute/hour
> > hands (one or two steps per minute). A large coil of wire is
> > all you need. Have a look at the watch timing tools and
> > sensors at http://www.bmumford.com/microset.html or
> > http://www.bmumford.com/mset/modelwatch1.html
> >
> > Here's an example using a magnetic sensor:
> > http://leapsecond.com/pages/Junghans/
> >
> > /tvb
> >
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-- 

Chris Albertson
Redondo Beach, California
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Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch

2014-04-16 Thread Ulrich Bangert
Tom,

can you explain what exactly you understand by "a large coil of wire"?

Did you make the easurements on the Junghans with a DIY sensor or with one
of the commercially available?

I have made some basic tests with a coil coming from a loudspeaker's cross
over network. It has a few hundred windings, R=1.3 Ohms, 2.3 mH, but the
only thing i receive with this coil is a strong 10 Mhz signal...perhaps no
real surprise in a time nuts laboratory.

Best regards

Ulrich

> -Ursprungliche Nachricht-
> Von: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com 
> [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] Im Auftrag von Tom Van Baak
> Gesendet: Dienstag, 15. April 2014 15:53
> An: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
> Betreff: Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch
> 
> 
> > Some research has shown that there is an comparable instrument for 
> > ANALOG quarz watches. As far as I understand it does not 
> try to detect 
> > the quarz frequency but detects magnetic pulses from the 
> step motors 
> > that move the hands of the watch.
> > 
> > Has anyone of you ever tried to do this in a time nuts laboratory?
> 
> Ulrich,
> 
> Yes, this works well, for both those with seconds hands (one 
> magnetic pulse per second) and those with only minute/hour 
> hands (one or two steps per minute). A large coil of wire is 
> all you need. Have a look at the watch timing tools and 
> sensors at http://www.bmumford.com/microset.html or 
> http://www.bmumford.com/mset/modelwatch1.html
> 
> Here's an example using a magnetic sensor: 
> http://leapsecond.com/pages/Junghans/
> 
> /tvb
> 
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Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch

2014-04-15 Thread Chuck Harris

You don't count the pulses, you measure the separation between the pulses.
Just like with the 1PPS output on your C-Beam.

-Chuck Harris



Max Robinson wrote:

In the United States we can buy analog quarts watches from Wal-Mart for under 15
dollars.  When the battery dies you don't even bother to replace it you just 
buy a
new watch, unless...the one you have is very good.  There is a lot of variation 
and
buying one is the luck of the draw.  They can be as bad as 1 minute a month and 
they
always seem to be gaining.  Right now I have one that gains about 2 seconds a 
month.
I fully intend to see if it is possible to replace the battery when it runs 
down.
Counting motor pulses seems to be a little impractical because it would take 12 
days
to get to 1e6 accuracy.

Regards.

Max.  K 4 O DS.

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Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch

2014-04-15 Thread Dave Martindale
Here is a discussion forum page that shows a commercial quartz watch 
timing machine in use:

http://omegaforums.net/threads/quartz-watches-some-information-some-may-find-interesting.5475/

The machine obviously measures the time of each second "tick", either 
electrically or acoustically, because it can tell you the instantaneous 
rate over one second based on the time between ticks. In the example 
shown, the crystal is fast by 4.18 seconds/day (48 PPM) based on the 
period between most ticks, but every 60th tick has a longer period due 
to inhibition (oscillator pulse dropping), and the net rate measured 
over 60 seconds is 0.32 seconds/day (3.7 PPM).


There is a bunch of additional information about the motor drive pulses 
too.  The article explains what it means in some detail.


It seems to me that calculating the rate information should require 
nothing more than capturing the leading edge of each motor pulse and 
time stamping it, at a rate of 1 data point per second.  The motor 
information requires capturing several pulses (at a rate of a few kHz 
max.) every second.


- Dave

On 15/04/2014 09:52, Tom Van Baak wrote:

Some research has shown that there is an comparable instrument for ANALOG
quarz watches. As far as I understand it does not try to detect the quarz
frequency but detects magnetic pulses from the step motors that move the
hands of the watch.

Has anyone of you ever tried to do this in a time nuts laboratory?

Ulrich,

Yes, this works well, for both those with seconds hands (one magnetic pulse per 
second) and those with only minute/hour hands (one or two steps per minute). A 
large coil of wire is all you need. Have a look at the watch timing tools and 
sensors at http://www.bmumford.com/microset.html or 
http://www.bmumford.com/mset/modelwatch1.html

Here's an example using a magnetic sensor: http://leapsecond.com/pages/Junghans/

/tvb

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Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch

2014-04-15 Thread Max Robinson
In the United States we can buy analog quarts watches from Wal-Mart for 
under 15 dollars.  When the battery dies you don't even bother to replace it 
you just buy a new watch, unless...the one you have is very good.  There is 
a lot of variation and buying one is the luck of the draw.  They can be as 
bad as 1 minute a month and they always seem to be gaining.  Right now I 
have one that gains about 2 seconds a month.  I fully intend to see if it is 
possible to replace the battery when it runs down.  Counting motor pulses 
seems to be a little impractical because it would take 12 days to get to 1e6 
accuracy.


Regards.

Max.  K 4 O DS.

Email: m...@maxsmusicplace.com

Transistor site http://www.funwithtransistors.net
Vacuum tube site: http://www.funwithtubes.net
Woodworking site 
http://www.angelfire.com/electronic/funwithtubes/Woodworking/wwindex.html

Music site: http://www.maxsmusicplace.com

To subscribe to the fun with transistors group send an email to.
funwithtransistors-subscr...@yahoogroups.com

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- Original Message - 
From: "Tom Van Baak" 
To: "Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement" 


Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2014 8:52 AM
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch



Some research has shown that there is an comparable instrument for ANALOG
quarz watches. As far as I understand it does not try to detect the quarz
frequency but detects magnetic pulses from the step motors that move the
hands of the watch.

Has anyone of you ever tried to do this in a time nuts laboratory?


Ulrich,

Yes, this works well, for both those with seconds hands (one magnetic 
pulse per second) and those with only minute/hour hands (one or two steps 
per minute). A large coil of wire is all you need. Have a look at the 
watch timing tools and sensors at http://www.bmumford.com/microset.html or 
http://www.bmumford.com/mset/modelwatch1.html


Here's an example using a magnetic sensor: 
http://leapsecond.com/pages/Junghans/


/tvb

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Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch

2014-04-15 Thread Tom Van Baak
> Some research has shown that there is an comparable instrument for ANALOG
> quarz watches. As far as I understand it does not try to detect the quarz
> frequency but detects magnetic pulses from the step motors that move the
> hands of the watch. 
> 
> Has anyone of you ever tried to do this in a time nuts laboratory?

Ulrich,

Yes, this works well, for both those with seconds hands (one magnetic pulse per 
second) and those with only minute/hour hands (one or two steps per minute). A 
large coil of wire is all you need. Have a look at the watch timing tools and 
sensors at http://www.bmumford.com/microset.html or 
http://www.bmumford.com/mset/modelwatch1.html

Here's an example using a magnetic sensor: http://leapsecond.com/pages/Junghans/

/tvb

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Re: [time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch

2014-04-15 Thread Poul-Henning Kamp
In message <94A06362A4E942EE9EC49A685C099C32@athlon>, "Ulrich Bangert" writes:

>Has anyone of you ever tried to do this in a time nuts laboratory?

Yes.

And then I threw my wrist watch away, having documented how shit it was :-)

If your smartphone has a magnetometer, you can measure it that way, but you
have to get pretty close to the chip in the smartphone.

-- 
Poul-Henning Kamp   | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20
p...@freebsd.org | TCP/IP since RFC 956
FreeBSD committer   | BSD since 4.3-tahoe
Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.
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[time-nuts] Measuring the accurcy of a wrist watch

2014-04-15 Thread Ulrich Bangert
Gentlemen,

today I would like to propose a question that may be a bit OOT for the group
but I became interested in it:

Watchbuilders and juwellers use an instrument to measure the accuracy of
mechanical watches. I am not aware of the correct name for this instrument
in English but in German it is called a "Zeitwaage" and my internet
translator calls it a "timing maschine". For mechanical watches the timing
maschine uses a microphone to detect the acustical impulses of the balance
spring (correct word?) and compares it to a xtal. 

Some research has shown that there is an comparable instrument for ANALOG
quarz watches. As far as I understand it does not try to detect the quarz
frequency but detects magnetic pulses from the step motors that move the
hands of the watch. 

Has anyone of you ever tried to do this in a time nuts laboratory?

Best regards and TIA 

Ulrich Bangert
www.ulrich-bangert.de
Ortholzer Weg 1
27243 Gross Ippener 

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