OT: A new thermometer for temperatures in the past....

[Bill Sloman]

Our climate change denial enthusiasts are still dubious about Michael Mann\'s \"hockey stick\" curve, despite the fact that that a dozen different ways of estimating past temperatures have confirmed that he got it right.

Here\'s yet another one.

https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/a-new-thermometer-for-studying-our-past-climate

As a graduate of the University of Melbourne, this kind of stuff shows up in my in-box from time to time.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney

 

[John Doe]

Here\'s why this America-bashing Australian troll doesn\'t post
original, it\'s technically inept (can\'t avoid double posting, etc)...

--
Bill Sloman <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote:

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Subject: OT: A new thermometer for temperatures in the past.
From: Bill Sloman <bill.sloman@ieee.org
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Our climate change denial enthusiasts are still dubious about Michael Mann\'s \"hockey stick\" curve, despite the fact that that a dozen different ways of estimating past temperatures have confirmed that he got it right.

Here\'s yet another one.

https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/a-new-thermometer-for-studying-our-past-climate

As a graduate of the University of Melbourne, this kind of stuff shows up in my in-box from time to time.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney

 

[Bill Sloman]

On Thursday, October 29, 2020 at 11:32:29 PM UTC+11, John Doe wrote:

Bill Sloman <bill....@ieee.org> wrote:

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Subject: OT: A new thermometer for temperatures in the past.
From: Bill Sloman <bill....@ieee.org
Injection-Date: Thu, 29 Oct 2020 04:45:07 +0000
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=\"UTF-8\"
Xref: reader02.eternal-september.org sci.electronics.design:611757

Our climate change denial enthusiasts are still dubious about Michael Mann\'s \"hockey stick\" curve, despite the fact that that a dozen different ways of estimating past temperatures have confirmed that he got it right.

Here\'s yet another one.

https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/a-new-thermometer-for-studying-our-past-climate

As a graduate of the University of Melbourne, this kind of stuff shows up in my in-box from time to time.

Here\'s why this America-bashing Australian troll doesn\'t post original, it\'s technically inept (can\'t avoid double posting, etc)...

Not exactly. There was a typo in in the subject line of the original post, so I deleted it and re-posted it with the subject line I\'d intended. All perfectly intentional (apart from the typo in the subject line)

I actually do post original content from time to time, but John Doe never sees it - he\'s not interested in electronics.

And he\'s the top-posting troll here. I do repay him in kind, but who wouldn\'t?

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney

 

[Martin Brown]

On 29/10/2020 04:45, Bill Sloman wrote:

Our climate change denial enthusiasts are still dubious about Michael Mann\'s \"hockey stick\" curve, despite the fact that that a dozen different ways of estimating past temperatures have confirmed that he got it right.

Here\'s yet another one.

https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/a-new-thermometer-for-studying-our-past-climate

As a graduate of the University of Melbourne, this kind of stuff shows up in my in-box from time to time.

It is quite cute in that it is a fairly easily detectable shift in the
proportion of magnesium in the calcite/aragonite structures. That they
grow very slowly and steadily underwater in saturated conditions means
they give nice long continuous records.

ISTR there are some very slow growing football sized deep ocean corals
that are also in vogue for this sort of thing.

https://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/feature/the-coral-climate-connection/

Oxygen stable isotope ratios on the carbonate gets you an independent
measure of the proportion of water locked up as ice at the poles.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

 

[Eli the Bearded]

In sci.electronics.design, Bill Sloman <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote:

Our climate change denial enthusiasts are still dubious about Michael
Mann\'s \"hockey stick\" curve, despite the fact that that a dozen
different ways of estimating past temperatures have confirmed that he
got it right.

I saw this subject and thought it was about a thermometer using
tempature systems of the past. Delisle, Newton, Réaumur, Rømer, things
like that.

What a disappointment.

But I have to say, as someone new to this group the sheer volume of
non-electronic design topics is oppressively off-putting. Why do people
here feel so free to go off-topic?

Elijah
------
has been franticly building a killfile

 

[Bill Sloman]

On Friday, October 30, 2020 at 11:52:28 AM UTC+11, Eli the Bearded wrote:

In sci.electronics.design, Bill Sloman <bill....@ieee.org> wrote:
Our climate change denial enthusiasts are still dubious about Michael
Mann\'s \"hockey stick\" curve, despite the fact that that a dozen
different ways of estimating past temperatures have confirmed that he
got it right.
I saw this subject and thought it was about a thermometer using
temperature systems of the past. Delisle, Newton, Réaumur, Rømer, things
like that.

What a disappointment.

But I have to say, as someone new to this group the sheer volume of
non-electronic design topics is oppressively off-putting. Why do people
here feel so free to go off-topic?

Because that\'s the way the group has worked for the past twenty-odd years. I do have an interest in electronic temperature measurement, and \"non-electronic\" techniques frequently depend on some pretty fancy electronics to work.

Sloman A.W., Buggs P., Molloy J., and Stewart D. “A microcontroller-based driver to stabilise the temperature of an optical stage to 1mK in the range 4C to 38C, using a Peltier heat pump and a thermistor sensor” Measurement Science and Technology, 7 1653-64 (1996)

The link says that the researchers rely on the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation to get their Magnesium/Calcium ratios, probably by X-ray fluorescence.

It\'s not all that off-topic.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney

 

[Phil Hobbs]

On 10/29/20 8:52 PM, Eli the Bearded wrote:

<snip reposted OT stuff>

But I have to say, as someone new to this group the sheer volume of
non-electronic design topics is oppressively off-putting. Why do people
here feel so free to go off-topic?

Elijah
------
has been franticly building a killfile

Welcome. Tell us about something cool and design-related!

Cheers

Phil Hobbs


--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal Consultant
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC / Hobbs ElectroOptics
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510

http://electrooptical.net
http://hobbs-eo.com

 

[Fred Bloggs]

On Thursday, October 29, 2020 at 12:45:12 AM UTC-4, Bill Sloman wrote:

Our climate change denial enthusiasts are still dubious about Michael Mann\'s \"hockey stick\" curve, despite the fact that that a dozen different ways of estimating past temperatures have confirmed that he got it right.

Here\'s yet another one.

https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/a-new-thermometer-for-studying-our-past-climate

As a graduate of the University of Melbourne, this kind of stuff shows up in my in-box from time to time.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney

That kind of thing is useless. Humankind dies away with as little as 10oC increase in global average., never to reappear again.

 

[John Larkin]

On Fri, 30 Oct 2020 00:52:20 +0000 (UTC), Eli the Bearded
<*@eli.users.panix.com> wrote:

In sci.electronics.design, Bill Sloman <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote:
Our climate change denial enthusiasts are still dubious about Michael
Mann\'s \"hockey stick\" curve, despite the fact that that a dozen
different ways of estimating past temperatures have confirmed that he
got it right.

I saw this subject and thought it was about a thermometer using
tempature systems of the past. Delisle, Newton, Réaumur, Rømer, things
like that.

What a disappointment.

But I have to say, as someone new to this group the sheer volume of
non-electronic design topics is oppressively off-putting. Why do people
here feel so free to go off-topic?

Probably because they have nothing to say about electronics.

Most of the good guys have been driven away.

 

[Steve Wilson]

John Larkin <jlarkin@highland_atwork_technology.com> wrote:

On Fri, 30 Oct 2020 00:52:20 +0000 (UTC), Eli the Bearded
*@eli.users.panix.com> wrote:

In sci.electronics.design, Bill Sloman <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote:
Our climate change denial enthusiasts are still dubious about Michael
Mann\'s \"hockey stick\" curve, despite the fact that that a dozen
different ways of estimating past temperatures have confirmed that he
got it right.

I saw this subject and thought it was about a thermometer using
tempature systems of the past. Delisle, Newton, Réaumur, Rømer, things
like that.

What a disappointment.

But I have to say, as someone new to this group the sheer volume of
non-electronic design topics is oppressively off-putting. Why do people
here feel so free to go off-topic?

Probably because they have nothing to say about electronics.

Most of the good guys have been driven away.

Simple solution. Get a newsreader that has a plonk file. XNEWS is a good
example:

Setup:

https://usenetreviewz.com/xnews-review/

Download:

https://fs3.softfamous.com/downloads/tname-
160920cg0f196/software/xnews.zip


--
Science teaches us to trust. - sw

 

[Eli the Bearded]

In sci.electronics.design,
Phil Hobbs <pcdhSpamMeSenseless@electrooptical.net> wrote:

On 10/29/20 8:52 PM, Eli the Bearded wrote:
But I have to say, as someone new to this group the sheer volume of
non-electronic design topics is oppressively off-putting.

Welcome. Tell us about something cool and design-related!

I\'m very much not expert in design. I know how to solder and identify
components. But I\'ve been reading about projects using arduino, etc,
and contemplating building some things for myself.

I\'m interested in creating a new USB driver for an old keyboard and I\'m
interested in making an alarm clock with some non-standard features.

The keyboard project I think I can manage without needing to ask
questions, that\'s simple enough for me. The alarm clock however does
make me want to seek advice, and maybe this is the place for it?

I know -- in a high level handwavy sense -- that I can stick a RTC on an
arduino processor and add an i2c screen, some buttons and a piezo
speaker and have myself a basic clock that requires me to set the time
every power-up and daylight savings time switch. But what if I want
more? How do I get it to set itself from some external clock, eg one of
the radios like WWVB? How do I get it to be dual powered so I can keep
it plugged in most of the time and yet handle power outages with grace?

The clock is supposed to replace a device I have now. The current one
works, but it\'s based on a platform from an out-of-business company and
I know it will fail at some point. It gives me ten different alarms
(three times that are the same across the week and one particular to
each day) that I can set on a weekly basis, and plugs into a large
tabletop button for ease in shutting it off blindly.

When looking at screens I can attach to an arduino I see a bunch of
different colorful super bright LED things, some smaller less colorful
LED things, and full color displays with hundreds by hundreds pixel
counts. The current device uses a 480x272 full color touch screen
display. It\'s more than I need. But I haven\'t decided if I should go
with replicating that (probably without touchscreen) or a smaller
display with more UI.

Some UI ideas:

2x20 or 4x20 character display
(4 alarms each need HHMM, so that\'s 16 characters alone)
rotary day of week knob
push buttons for each of the four alarms on that day
on-screen display of which alarms are set (and times of those alarms)

2x20 or 4x20 character display
two button scroll forward or backward through week control
push buttons for each of the four alarms on that day
led lights under each button to indicate which are active

\"big\" LED/LCD/something display that can show the whole
seven days by four alarm matrix at once
arrow buttons to move around display and toggle button

4x20 character display
full matrix \"displayed\" but with scrolling buttons to move window
toggle for alarm under button

Some concerns:

I\'m going to be using this half asleep at night sometimes. I don\'t
want a blindingly bright display. I don\'t want a UI that is overly
complicated to use. I do want the ability to quickly change from
the 0720 alarm to the 0750 alarm or the ability to turn off all
remaining alarms for the day.

I don\'t much care what the alarm sounds like, so long as it is loud
enough for me to hear and not so loud as to bother my wife. I do want
to be able to shut the alarm off fast. I do not want \"snooze\".

What advice would someone with experience with designing small
electronics give me, particularly about the UI?

What off-the-shelf components can I mix in for my radio clock setting
and UPS concerns?

Elijah
------
more of a software guy

 

[Eli the Bearded]

In sci.electronics.design, Steve Wilson <spam@me.com> wrote:

John Larkin <jlarkin@highland_atwork_technology.com> wrote:
Eli the Bearded <*@eli.users.panix.com> wrote:
What a disappointment.
Most of the good guys have been driven away.
Simple solution. Get a newsreader that has a plonk file. XNEWS is a good
example:

\"Muggers driving people away from the neighborhood? Simple solution. Get
some body armor.\"

I have a killfile, now. Being forced to create one is not a welcoming
experience.

Elijah
------
the unsubscribe button is a lot less work

 

[Jasen Betts]

On 2020-10-30, Eli the Bearded <*@eli.users.panix.com> wrote:

In sci.electronics.design,
Phil Hobbs <pcdhSpamMeSenseless@electrooptical.net> wrote:
On 10/29/20 8:52 PM, Eli the Bearded wrote:
But I have to say, as someone new to this group the sheer volume of
non-electronic design topics is oppressively off-putting.

Welcome. Tell us about something cool and design-related!

I\'m very much not expert in design. I know how to solder and identify
components. But I\'ve been reading about projects using arduino, etc,
and contemplating building some things for myself.

I\'m interested in creating a new USB driver for an old keyboard and I\'m
interested in making an alarm clock with some non-standard features.

The keyboard project I think I can manage without needing to ask
questions, that\'s simple enough for me. The alarm clock however does
make me want to seek advice, and maybe this is the place for it?

I know -- in a high level handwavy sense -- that I can stick a RTC on an
arduino processor and add an i2c screen, some buttons and a piezo
speaker and have myself a basic clock that requires me to set the time
every power-up and daylight savings time switch. But what if I want
more? How do I get it to set itself from some external clock, eg one of
the radios like WWVB? How do I get it to be dual powered so I can keep
it plugged in most of the time and yet handle power outages with grace?

WWVB if you\'re within range. I think there are off-the shelf receiver
modules, but you\'ll possibly be learning state machines to write a decoder.

GPS is possibly an easier option.

an RTC module will have a battery to track time during power outages.

Some UI ideas:

2x20 or 4x20 character display
(4 alarms each need HHMM, so that\'s 16 characters alone)
rotary day of week knob
push buttons for each of the four alarms on that day
on-screen display of which alarms are set (and times of those alarms)

What advice would someone with experience with designing small
electronics give me, particularly about the UI?

Many of these displays can also display enlarged text, some can
display pixel graphics too, whe not using the UI display the time in
big and the time of the next alarm (or a count-down) in small.

Perhaps use a light sensor to cue a low brightness mode, if you choose
an LCD display get on with white writing on a black field as that will
leak less light.

What off-the-shelf components can I mix in for my radio clock setting
and UPS concerns?

One of those lithium charging and cell protection modules, and a lithium cell.
Add a boost converter if you need more voltage to run your clock, but
arduino should be operable from lithium voltages.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32649780468.html

--
Jasen.

 

[Martin Brown]

On 30/10/2020 19:54, Eli the Bearded wrote:

In sci.electronics.design,
Phil Hobbs <pcdhSpamMeSenseless@electrooptical.net> wrote:
On 10/29/20 8:52 PM, Eli the Bearded wrote:
But I have to say, as someone new to this group the sheer volume of
non-electronic design topics is oppressively off-putting.

Welcome. Tell us about something cool and design-related!

I\'m very much not expert in design. I know how to solder and identify
components. But I\'ve been reading about projects using arduino, etc,
and contemplating building some things for myself.

I\'m interested in creating a new USB driver for an old keyboard and I\'m
interested in making an alarm clock with some non-standard features.

The keyboard project I think I can manage without needing to ask
questions, that\'s simple enough for me. The alarm clock however does
make me want to seek advice, and maybe this is the place for it?

I know -- in a high level handwavy sense -- that I can stick a RTC on an
arduino processor and add an i2c screen, some buttons and a piezo
speaker and have myself a basic clock that requires me to set the time
every power-up and daylight savings time switch. But what if I want
more? How do I get it to set itself from some external clock, eg one of
the radios like WWVB? How do I get it to be dual powered so I can keep
it plugged in most of the time and yet handle power outages with grace?

The clock is supposed to replace a device I have now. The current one
works, but it\'s based on a platform from an out-of-business company and
I know it will fail at some point. It gives me ten different alarms
(three times that are the same across the week and one particular to
each day) that I can set on a weekly basis, and plugs into a large
tabletop button for ease in shutting it off blindly.

When looking at screens I can attach to an arduino I see a bunch of
different colorful super bright LED things, some smaller less colorful
LED things, and full color displays with hundreds by hundreds pixel
counts. The current device uses a 480x272 full color touch screen
display. It\'s more than I need. But I haven\'t decided if I should go
with replicating that (probably without touchscreen) or a smaller
display with more UI.

Some UI ideas:

2x20 or 4x20 character display
(4 alarms each need HHMM, so that\'s 16 characters alone)
rotary day of week knob
push buttons for each of the four alarms on that day
on-screen display of which alarms are set (and times of those alarms)

2x20 or 4x20 character display
two button scroll forward or backward through week control
push buttons for each of the four alarms on that day
led lights under each button to indicate which are active

\"big\" LED/LCD/something display that can show the whole
seven days by four alarm matrix at once
arrow buttons to move around display and toggle button

4x20 character display
full matrix \"displayed\" but with scrolling buttons to move window
toggle for alarm under button

Some concerns:

I\'m going to be using this half asleep at night sometimes. I don\'t
want a blindingly bright display. I don\'t want a UI that is overly
complicated to use. I do want the ability to quickly change from
the 0720 alarm to the 0750 alarm or the ability to turn off all
remaining alarms for the day.

I don\'t much care what the alarm sounds like, so long as it is loud
enough for me to hear and not so loud as to bother my wife. I do want
to be able to shut the alarm off fast. I do not want \"snooze\".

What advice would someone with experience with designing small
electronics give me, particularly about the UI?

If you can live with one that has a back light then something like a PIC
16F877 with a 32kHz watch crystal has just about enough pins to direct
drive a 4 digit 7 segment display and run for a couple of years on a
pair of AA batteries. The alarm and any backlight will shorten battery
life. You can trim the thing to a couple of ppm accuracy in software.

Mechanical design of the alarm off switch may require some thought!

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

 

[Michael Terrell]

On Friday, October 30, 2020 at 3:54:42 PM UTC-4, Eli the Bearded wrote:

In sci.electronics.design,
Phil Hobbs <pcdhSpamM...@electrooptical.net> wrote:
On 10/29/20 8:52 PM, Eli the Bearded wrote:
But I have to say, as someone new to this group the sheer volume of
non-electronic design topics is oppressively off-putting.

Welcome. Tell us about something cool and design-related!
I\'m very much not expert in design. I know how to solder and identify
components. But I\'ve been reading about projects using arduino, etc,
and contemplating building some things for myself.

I\'m interested in creating a new USB driver for an old keyboard and I\'m
interested in making an alarm clock with some non-standard features.

The keyboard project I think I can manage without needing to ask
questions, that\'s simple enough for me. The alarm clock however does
make me want to seek advice, and maybe this is the place for it?

I know -- in a high level handwavy sense -- that I can stick a RTC on an
arduino processor and add an i2c screen, some buttons and a piezo
speaker and have myself a basic clock that requires me to set the time
every power-up and daylight savings time switch. But what if I want
more? How do I get it to set itself from some external clock, eg one of
the radios like WWVB? How do I get it to be dual powered so I can keep
it plugged in most of the time and yet handle power outages with grace?

The clock is supposed to replace a device I have now. The current one
works, but it\'s based on a platform from an out-of-business company and
I know it will fail at some point. It gives me ten different alarms
(three times that are the same across the week and one particular to
each day) that I can set on a weekly basis, and plugs into a large
tabletop button for ease in shutting it off blindly.

When looking at screens I can attach to an arduino I see a bunch of
different colorful super bright LED things, some smaller less colorful
LED things, and full color displays with hundreds by hundreds pixel
counts. The current device uses a 480x272 full color touch screen
display. It\'s more than I need. But I haven\'t decided if I should go
with replicating that (probably without touchscreen) or a smaller
display with more UI.

Some UI ideas:

2x20 or 4x20 character display
(4 alarms each need HHMM, so that\'s 16 characters alone)
rotary day of week knob
push buttons for each of the four alarms on that day
on-screen display of which alarms are set (and times of those alarms)

2x20 or 4x20 character display
two button scroll forward or backward through week control
push buttons for each of the four alarms on that day
led lights under each button to indicate which are active

\"big\" LED/LCD/something display that can show the whole
seven days by four alarm matrix at once
arrow buttons to move around display and toggle button

4x20 character display
full matrix \"displayed\" but with scrolling buttons to move window
toggle for alarm under button

Some concerns:

I\'m going to be using this half asleep at night sometimes. I don\'t
want a blindingly bright display. I don\'t want a UI that is overly
complicated to use. I do want the ability to quickly change from
the 0720 alarm to the 0750 alarm or the ability to turn off all
remaining alarms for the day.

I don\'t much care what the alarm sounds like, so long as it is loud
enough for me to hear and not so loud as to bother my wife. I do want
to be able to shut the alarm off fast. I do not want \"snooze\".

What advice would someone with experience with designing small
electronics give me, particularly about the UI?

What off-the-shelf components can I mix in for my radio clock setting
and UPS concerns?

WWVB changed its modulation type a few years ago, but there should be IC decoders for the new system.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWVB

Ublox, and others make GPS modules that output a one pulse per second, along with NMEA timecode.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/254378554258 is one example.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Ublox-Neo-6M-Gps-Module-Board-With-Antenna-For-Arduino-Raspberry-Pi-611/
The datasheet:
https://www.u-blox.com/sites/default/files/products/documents/NEO-6_DataSheet_%28GPS.G6-HW-09005%29.pdf

 

[Martin Brown]

On 30/10/2020 18:12, Steve Wilson wrote:

John Larkin <jlarkin@highland_atwork_technology.com> wrote:

On Fri, 30 Oct 2020 00:52:20 +0000 (UTC), Eli the Bearded
*@eli.users.panix.com> wrote:

In sci.electronics.design, Bill Sloman <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote:
Our climate change denial enthusiasts are still dubious about Michael
Mann\'s \"hockey stick\" curve, despite the fact that that a dozen
different ways of estimating past temperatures have confirmed that he
got it right.

I saw this subject and thought it was about a thermometer using
tempature systems of the past. Delisle, Newton, Réaumur, Rømer, things
like that.

What a disappointment.

But I have to say, as someone new to this group the sheer volume of
non-electronic design topics is oppressively off-putting. Why do people
here feel so free to go off-topic?

Probably because they have nothing to say about electronics.

Most of the good guys have been driven away.


Simple solution. Get a newsreader that has a plonk file. XNEWS is a good
example:

Setup:

https://usenetreviewz.com/xnews-review/

Download:

https://fs3.softfamous.com/downloads/tname-
160920cg0f196/software/xnews.zip

Doesn\'t Forte Agent have a kill file? Its online help pages are FUBAR!

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

 

[Steve Wilson]

Martin Brown <\'\'\'newspam\'\'\'@nonad.co.uk> wrote:

On 30/10/2020 18:12, Steve Wilson wrote:
Simple solution. Get a newsreader that has a plonk file. XNEWS is a
good example:

Setup:

https://usenetreviewz.com/xnews-review/

Download:

https://fs3.softfamous.com/downloads/tname-
160920cg0f196/software/xnews.zip

Doesn\'t Forte Agent have a kill file? Its online help pages are FUBAR!

Yes, I believe so. I looked at it several times over the years and decided
I could never figure it out so I kept searching. I am extremely happy with
XNEWS.



--
Science teaches us to trust. - sw

 

[Jim MacArthur]

On Friday, October 30, 2020 at 3:54:42 PM UTC-4, Eli the Bearded wrote:

I know -- in a high level handwavy sense -- that I can stick a RTC on an
arduino processor and add an i2c screen, some buttons and a piezo
speaker and have myself a basic clock that requires me to set the time
every power-up and daylight savings time switch. But what if I want
more? How do I get it to set itself from some external clock, eg one of
the radios like WWVB? How do I get it to be dual powered so I can keep
it plugged in most of the time and yet handle power outages with grace?


I\'ve had horrible luck getting reliable WWVB, but your mileage may vary. Seems like the maker space is gravitating to a WiFi solution -- Google WiFi RTC Arduino. GPS was mentioned, and the Arduino GPS modules aren\'t too expensive, but you should check your reception first. The battery-backed RTCs like the DS3234, 3235 boast accuracies of better than 5PPM, and can run through a blackout, but typically can\'t deal with daylight saving time. And I should mention the humble AC line -- the long-term frequency is guaranteed to be 60.000 Hz, but again, no daylight saving, and obviously it can\'t cleanly ride through a blackout.

To me WiFi seems the obvious solution, esp. since it gives you the option of programming the clock with your smartphone. And for that matter, Bluetooth + smartphone works too. Smartphone is the UI and the time reference. But we\'ve designed around in a circle, because you could just use your Smartphone as an alarm clock. There\'s an app for that....

 

[Steve Wilson]

Jim MacArthur <jimbmacarthur@gmail.com> wrote:

On Friday, October 30, 2020 at 3:54:42 PM UTC-4, Eli the Bearded
wrote:


the radios like WWVB? How do I get it to be dual powered so I can
keep it plugged in most of the time and yet handle power outages with
grace?



I\'ve had horrible luck getting reliable WWVB, but your mileage may
vary.

Just out of curiosity, where are you located?

I\'m near Toronto, in a building swarming with noise from flourescent
lights. All the radio bands up to 20 meters are completely blanked out
due to the noise. If I go about 100 meters away from the building, I can
receive the broadcase band and shortwave bands with no problem.

Despite being in a metal covered building, in a fringe area for WWVB, and
swamped with noise, I have no problems receiving WWVB on two Casio
Waveceptor watches, and a La Crosse wall clock.

The signals are strong enough for synchronization from midnight to 6am.
That\'s about 0400 to 1000 UTC. You can see from the signal strength plots
that about covers North America:

https://tf.nist.gov/stations/wwvbcoverage.htm

As long as you are not in the Atlantic provinces, you should have no
problems receiving WWVB.

--
Science teaches us to trust. - sw

 

[Jim MacArthur]

Just out of curiosity, where are you located?


As long as you are not in the Atlantic provinces, you should have no
problems receiving WWVB.
--

Boston, so yeah, the Atlantic provinces. And I\'ve seen the coverage maps too, but I\'m not the only Bostonian who\'s had rotten luck getting WWVB.