Hi
> On Nov 10, 2016, at 4:52 PM, Ruslan Nabioullin <rnabioul...@gmail.com> wrote: > > On 11/10/2016 07:18 AM, Peter Reilley wrote: >> I have a few of those "atomic" clocks that receive WWVB to set the time. >> However since I live on the east coast they may only pick up the signal >> once or twice per year. >> >> Could I implement my own personal WWVB transmitter that would >> be powerful enough to be picked up by the clocks in my house? >> The signal at 60 KHz might be able to be produced directly by some >> sound cards. With that and a ferrite rod antenna I might get >> reliable time elsewhere in my house outside of my lab. >> >> Has anyone tried this? >> >> Pete. > > To be honest, this is very impractical and backward-thinking. I would > suggest instead upgrading to the Internet-of-things paradigm, replacing these > time-of-day displays with full computers running NTP and connected to your > LAN (Android smartwatches; repurposed old smartphones, tablets, laptops, > etc.; and smartclocks Ok, I have one to two dozen clocks around here that sync to WWVB. I swap out batteries every few years and they all keep chunking along. No wires to any of them. No updates or patching on a regular basis. They each have nice useful displays that make sense for their location. The cost for the batch of them was < $400 and that was over a 10 to 20 year span. I have yet to see one of them die. If I replace all of them with computers, they all need displays on them. Not small displays, but displays that I can see from across the room. The display on a phone or an old tablet isn’t going to cut it. I will now be running / patching Linux on all those devices so none of them are exactly small machines attached to the displays. I have a number of NTP servers running around so yes, I have a pretty good idea what the hardware will look like. I need to get power and network to each clock location. Unless I really enjoy WiFI nonsense, I’ll hard wire them. I also need to work out how to mount the displays and the computers in each location. There is the minor issue of errr … money. If each display is $100 and the Beagle Bone is $50, 24 of them will run me $3600. There will be another ethernet switch in the mix as well. There will be power supplies, mounting boxes and other stuff. They each will pull at least 50 W with the monitor on. That’s 1.2 KW at 10 cents a KW plus tax plus air conditioning in the summer, call it 20 cents a KWH. That is about $2.1K a year. Over 10 years it’s another $21K. So what do I get with my investment? I get a bunch of displays that aren’t going to last five years of 24/7/365 operation (let alone 10 or 20 years). I get a bunch of night lights in places they are not useful (or wanted). I get a system that is less reliable than what I had. I get to have even more fun patching and debugging everything on a regular basis. I get a bunch of clocks that are ugly compared to what is there now. Hmmm ….. why would I do this? Bob > [I'm certain that some Silicon Valley ``genius'' has already come out with > such an ``invention'' and the Chinese are churning out cheap knockoffs]), > which will query your home metrology lab's NTP server(s), and instead using > WWVB as an additional timing signal for diversifying your timing source > portfolio (with a good antenna, of course), if you haven't done so already > (though such products appear to be extremely sparse nowadays, for > civilian-minded users have superficially reasoned that GPS is all that is > necessary). > > -Ruslan > _______________________________________________ > 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.
